Commentary/review

Finally, Mark Lawrence rested his passion for combat and wrote a story about a library! It has everything this amazing author is great at – a complicated storyline, amazing characters, time travel, twisted universes – but leaves out his eternally long depictions of bloodshed. This story reminds of Japanese anime as his other books, this time due to the enormity and the algorithmic character of space. It also features picturesque types of movement, such as flying and running on rooftops. Yet the book would also be almost impossible to render in any kind of visual art (why so, I cannot explain without spoiling). It is all very original and wonderful to encounter. It even contains a compelling love story, something not usually found in Mark Lawrence’s creations.

The book’s lector is so well-versed in Mark Lawrence’s fiction and so professional in voice acting that one hardly notices what a great job she does. The book is read perfectly.

I am very happy that my favorite living author of speculative fiction has still got that much to tell. Awaiting more books in this series (a trilogy?), would recommend any day. Not only 5/5 but 11/10.

So this cover is a work of art by Tom Roberts (see https://tomrobertsillustration.com/) but probably not the Tom Roberts (1856-1931). It is a very good – and rather mysterious – standalone work of art.

Cover Photo by Pelayo Arbués on Unsplash