The Destruction of the Books

I picked up The Destruction of the Books because I really enjoyed The Rover. While Rover was very Hobbit-esque, this one attempts to be LOTR-esque. Mainly in that it is long and overwritten. This book has some of the worst pacing I have ever read. A conversation will take an entire chapter because the narrator stops after every few lines to explain a comment with one to three paragraphs. Even the exciting battle scenes take forever because of all the extra narration and quotations. Plus, there are several facts that you will be reminded of on a regular basis. Juhg was a slave in goblin mines. Craugh likes to turn people into frogs when he's angry. The Vault of All Known Knowledge must be kept secret. Lord Kharrion tried to wipe everyone show more out. You can now skip about eighty pages throughout the book. (Without being too spoiler-y, the important elements like the climax and character motivations weren't placed right either.) I wish it was more about Wick again.... show less

The Destruction of the Books, by Mel Odom is the sequel to The Rover and continues many years later, when Wick is now the Grandmagister of the Library.

This novel focuses mainly on First Librarian Juhg, also a hobbit-like dweller. But unlike Wick, Juhg spent many years of his young life as a slave in the goblin mines. Rescued by the Grandmagister on one of his adventures, Juhg now spends most of his time divided between his duties in the Library and adventures of his own, tracking down rogue books.

After rescuing a book from the hands of a dangerous wizard aboard a goblin ship, Juhg returns to Wick and the Vault of All Known Knowledge. But unbeknownst to them, the book is a trap.

And I actually enjoyed the character of Juhg even more than show more Wick from the first novel. Juhg has a dark past and isn't as naive as the young Wick was in The Rover. While the story unfolds a little slower at the beginning of the book, danger and excitement soon envelop Juhg. I'm looking forward to the next in the series, Lord of the Libraries. show less

This was a fun little hobbit-y knockoff, but the writing was pretty terrible. I overlooked it enough to pick up the second, but if there's a third I won't be reading it.