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A review by yak_attak
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
3.5
The Library at Mount Char is mainly strange, and in such a way that it's fairly difficult to discuss it without really grappling with whatever the fuck is going on her, in many ways to its credit. There's not a lot of 'let's slow down and make everything obvious now' (even if the characters constantly say that there will be) and a lot of the side details, world building whatchamacallems are all kept at a distance, letting you fill in the blanks to your heart's content.
But we can take a stab at it. A love story, revenge story, somewhat about the dangers of hubris, and somewhat about the inhumanity and dispassion that knowledge and power bring, told through a modern lens of... greek gods? Or something like them at any rate. There's infinite cosmos, and there's a murderer war machine guy who wears a tutu. It never quite falls into modern hyuck hyuck jokey fiction, but it's on the line, and the straightforward prose doesn't enhance much (an early complaint? The character who knows every language ever for all time doesn't speak any differently than any other character. it's... a missed opportunity.)
It's just a... strange book, one that I did enjoy reading and appreciate, but I'm not sure it's particular blend of nonsense is quite my thing. And though I expect that's more likely than not, it's also one that it does seem like people should try.
But we can take a stab at it. A love story, revenge story, somewhat about the dangers of hubris, and somewhat about the inhumanity and dispassion that knowledge and power bring, told through a modern lens of... greek gods? Or something like them at any rate. There's infinite cosmos, and there's a murderer war machine guy who wears a tutu. It never quite falls into modern hyuck hyuck jokey fiction, but it's on the line, and the straightforward prose doesn't enhance much (an early complaint? The character who knows every language ever for all time doesn't speak any differently than any other character. it's... a missed opportunity.)
It's just a... strange book, one that I did enjoy reading and appreciate, but I'm not sure it's particular blend of nonsense is quite my thing. And though I expect that's more likely than not, it's also one that it does seem like people should try.