Name: The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
Rating: 4.041666666666667 (24 reviews)
ISBN: 9780008456757

Mark  Lawrence

The greatest story can reach the stars...
Evar has lives his whole life trapped within a vast library, older than empires and larger than cities. 
Livira has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.
The world has never noticed them.
That's about to change.

As their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time, each will unlock vast secrets about the world and themselves. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another.

Book one of the Library Trilogy

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

Mark Lawrence

The Book That Wouldn't Burn

In my mind, Livira as a character inherits from Lyra (His Dark Materials) and Liesel (The Book Thief) and I'll admit that might be part of why Mark Lawrence's The Book That Wouldn't Burn really engaged me from the start. Another reason - and the one that made this book jump on my TBR (overcoming other Mark Lawrence books I have listed) - is the fact that I am a sucker for books about books or reading.

Those points made and eventual biases admitted, what actually is this book? We follow two separate stories, one of Levira - which gives the world most of its structure and the reader a proper theme and center to focus on - and the other of Evar - who provides a more mysterious and thrilling plot that we know will eventually make sense in conjunction with the first. Livira is a child, born on a deserted landscape referred to as the dust, orphaned, and known to be inquisitive and stubborn. Evar is a young adult male living with his "siblings" in a closed chamber of the Library.

The Library is the third character and, for me, at once the most interesting and mysterious and also the most developed. Through the people we follow, the Library itself, its myths, its history, its rules and purpose, its meaning are hinted at, revealed and questioned.

The Library and time itself serve the author well, allowing Lawrence to explore the nature of knowledge, perspective, belief, showing how truth and bias can blend, how purpose and result can clash, how no one has devised a way to live in united peace and progress.

If you read speculative fiction and want a story that sets up such themes, that will have you think on the value of knowledge, its supposed neutrality or benefit, its control, its inherent bias or that of the ones with such access, the different ways it can influence individuals, peoples, ages, the way it travels through time and space, the way it molds people's beliefs, the way it can separate as much as bring together, the way it can empower as much as it can lead to disaster, this is a book for you.

This is not a perfect book, the writing is really good and some details had me mentally cheering Mark Lawrence, but it is a bit slow and meandering at certain points and some characters deserved more visible depth. I gave it 4.5 stars here (for whatever star ratings are worth) because it was a great read for me, I loved Livira and the Library and all they made me ponder. The relevance of these themes for human civilizations, personal lives and choices is always clear, but maybe even more so during such times we are living through.

André Nóbrega

In my mind, Livira as a character inherits from Lyra (His Dark Materials) and Liesel (The Book Thief) and I'll admit that might be part of why Mark Lawrence's The Book That Wouldn't Burn really engaged me from the start. Another reason - and the one that made this book jump on my TBR (overcoming other Mark Lawrence books I have listed) - is the fact that I am a sucker for books about books or reading.

Those points made and eventual biases admitted, what actually is this book? We follow two separate stories, one of Levira - which gives the world most of its structure and the reader a proper theme and center to focus on - and the other of Evar - who provides a more mysterious and thrilling plot that we know will eventually make sense in conjunction with the first. Livira is a child, born on a deserted landscape referred to as the dust, orphaned, and known to be inquisitive and stubborn. Evar is a young adult male living with his "siblings" in a closed chamber of the Library.

The Library is the third character and, for me, at once the most interesting and mysterious and also the most developed. Through the people we follow, the Library itself, its myths, its history, its rules and purpose, its meaning are hinted at, revealed and questioned.

The Library and time itself serve the author well, allowing Lawrence to explore the nature of knowledge, perspective, belief, showing how truth and bias can blend, how purpose and result can clash, how no one has devised a way to live in united peace and progress.

If you read speculative fiction and want a story that sets up such themes, that will have you think on the value of knowledge, its supposed neutrality or benefit, its control, its inherent bias or that of the ones with such access, the different ways it can influence individuals, peoples, ages, the way it travels through time and space, the way it molds people's beliefs, the way it can separate as much as bring together, the way it can empower as much as it can lead to disaster, this is a book for you.

This is not a perfect book, the writing is really good and some details had me mentally cheering Mark Lawrence, but it is a bit slow and meandering at certain points and some characters deserved more visible depth. I gave it 4.5 stars here (for whatever star ratings are worth) because it was a great read for me, I loved Livira and the Library and all they made me ponder. The relevance of these themes for human civilizations, personal lives and choices is always clear, but maybe even more so during such times we are living through.

I really liked the idea of this. The world felt complex and layered and like it existed beyond the pages of the novel, beyond the themes and particular challenges the characters faced or with which they dealt. The writing also flowed wonderfully.

There are some cliches in there but I feel like the work around them makes up for it. There is also some excellent work with laying the ground of the twists and reveals, giving the readers enough clues to guess what is coming up, without making the P.O.V. characters seem stupid for missing the obvious. The narration also utilises the plot points well to ensure that they work with the themes, rather than as empty beats to be hit; it manages to tackle questions of power and how that ties in with knowledge, of what makes a villain, of what separates us and what brings us to understand each other.

All of this is to say that I appreciate both the ambition and the intricacy that Lawrence introduces to his plot and to the structure of his novel. However, I feel like the novel also ended up suffering for it, in terms of pacing. Sometimes, the novel would halt to either overexplain or to indulge in the fact that it is about books and creation and literature. I would often find myself becoming invested in the story, only for it to take one of those detours and destroy almost all desire to pick it back up. I am not sure whether the format contributed to those sections really sticking out to me but it is also a common problem with established fantasy authors nowadays so I would not entirely rely on that.

Regardless, the issue was significant enough for me to have to lower the rating.

Also, I found the romance weird and inconvincing. [SPOILER]It is just strange for Evar to meet Livira when she is so young but then develop romantic feelings for her, with the help of time travel. Likewise, a little strange to later realise she has been his mother figure all along, too. [END SPOILER] I have found that male fantasy authors tend to shoehorn romance a lot more than female authors (romantasy not included, of course), and always in ways that make me feel like it is taking away from the actual focus of the novel.

Great concept, overly long execution.

I really liked the idea of this. The world felt complex and layered and like it existed beyond the pages of the novel, beyond the themes and particular challenges the characters faced or with which they dealt. The writing also flowed wonderfully.

There are some cliches in there but I feel like the work around them makes up for it. There is also some excellent work with laying the ground of the twists and reveals, giving the readers enough clues to guess what is coming up, without making the P.O.V. characters seem stupid for missing the obvious. The narration also utilises the plot points well to ensure that they work with the themes, rather than as empty beats to be hit; it manages to tackle questions of power and how that ties in with knowledge, of what makes a villain, of what separates us and what brings us to understand each other.

All of this is to say that I appreciate both the ambition and the intricacy that Lawrence introduces to his plot and to the structure of his novel. However, I feel like the novel also ended up suffering for it, in terms of pacing. Sometimes, the novel would halt to either overexplain or to indulge in the fact that it is about books and creation and literature. I would often find myself becoming invested in the story, only for it to take one of those detours and destroy almost all desire to pick it back up. I am not sure whether the format contributed to those sections really sticking out to me but it is also a common problem with established fantasy authors nowadays so I would not entirely rely on that.

Regardless, the issue was significant enough for me to have to lower the rating.

Also, I found the romance weird and inconvincing. [SPOILER]It is just strange for Evar to meet Livira when she is so young but then develop romantic feelings for her, with the help of time travel. Likewise, a little strange to later realise she has been his mother figure all along, too. [END SPOILER] I have found that male fantasy authors tend to shoehorn romance a lot more than female authors (romantasy not included, of course), and always in ways that make me feel like it is taking away from the actual focus of the novel.

The Book That Wouldn't Burn is the first book in a new sci-fi/fantasy trilogy by Mark Lawrence, and it is amazing! It is also my first read by this author, and I'm definitely intrigued to read more by him.

It's a dual POV story following Evar, who has lived his entire life stuck within the confines of a huge library, and Livira, who lived out in a tiny settlement within the Dust. Both of their lives are about to be irrevocably altered.

It's a book that causes you to question things, forces you to change your beliefs, and alters all your perspectives. Its an ode to stories and how they provide the power of escape, can influence our dreams and teach us the impossible to understand. It's a book that needs to be experienced to appreciate why words fail me.

If you love a book about books, with libraries vast enough to get lost within, protectors of books and the power contained within a story, then this is definitely the book for you.

But maybe wait for the sequel because that ending is brutal, and I need the next book immediately!

Victoria Justice

The Book That Wouldn't Burn is the first book in a new sci-fi/fantasy trilogy by Mark Lawrence, and it is amazing! It is also my first read by this author, and I'm definitely intrigued to read more by him.

It's a dual POV story following Evar, who has lived his entire life stuck within the confines of a huge library, and Livira, who lived out in a tiny settlement within the Dust. Both of their lives are about to be irrevocably altered.

It's a book that causes you to question things, forces you to change your beliefs, and alters all your perspectives. Its an ode to stories and how they provide the power of escape, can influence our dreams and teach us the impossible to understand. It's a book that needs to be experienced to appreciate why words fail me.

If you love a book about books, with libraries vast enough to get lost within, protectors of books and the power contained within a story, then this is definitely the book for you.

But maybe wait for the sequel because that ending is brutal, and I need the next book immediately!

Bethany

Aditi Dankar

Two strangers find themselves connected by a vast and mysterious library containing many wonders and still more secrets, in this powerfully moving first book in a new series from the international bestselling author of Red Sister and Prince of Thorns.

The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities.

The girl has been plucked from the outskirts of civilization to be trained as a librarian, studying the mysteries of the great library at the heart of her kingdom.

They were never supposed to meet. But in the library, they did.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn Book one of the Library Trilogy

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