Prior to this finale, the scope of the Library Trilogy has been continually increasing, consistently adding new characters and races, then spanning worlds, and even spanning multiple timelines. All part of a rather brutal and bloody conflict, the latest chapter of an eternal war over the right to share knowledge. The time spanning library at the center of this battle has made for a unique backdrop, and three different factions have been built up all striving for different outcomes. There are those who want to preserve the library and ensure that the knowledge within it remains freely accessible to all, there are those that want to destroy it and force the knowledge to be properly earned rather than given, and there is the middle ground that want to preserve the library and make the knowledge available in a more controlled way. So did all this set up from the first two books adequately set the stage for this grand finale where we ultimately learn the outcome of this eternal battle?

The first book of this series focused on the relationship between the two main PoV characters, Livira and Evar, and the conflict between their respective races. Eventually that became intermingled with the eternal conflict taking place within the library itself and things got complicated. The trend of continually expanding the scope continues here and this book starts by introducing two new characters at an unknown point in the timeline of the characters from the first book. These new characters are Ganar, a new race that gets woven into the same eternal conflict, and one that will forever change the nature of the battle. With even more PoV characters in this book you would expect it be just as character driven, but the opposite is actually true. Mark Lawrence instead leans into the brain-burning, timeline twisting eternal library battle and the characters take a bit more a back seat. Is this a change for the better or is this another case of an author letting the big picture story getting in the way of the characters?

This is a very unique concept coming from author Mark Lawrence, and I gave it a shot even though I've bounced off some of his stuff in the past, like Prince of Thorns. This time around he was able to grab me though, with a story that builds up in a very interesting way. The world is exposed to you through the eyes of two children, Livira and Evar, and their very different lives. Livira is a duster, who winds up being captured as a child when sabbers invade her meager desert settlement and kill all the adults. She is rescued from that situation and brought to Crath city, which is a wondrous place to a juvenile duster, and home of the Athenaeum, the great library. It is this library that is the centerpiece of the series, and it is a place so large it is impossible to ever explore it all. Evar is a 20 year old who was also orphaned as a child, and he has grown up within the library itself, trapped there with his siblings. As Livira and Evar explore the world around them, we learn about the library from two very different angles, and a multi-layered story begins to unfold.