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.

I really like the way the story builds, and while I like both of the main characters, it is the library itself that is the real protagonist here. The scope of the library grows and grows over the course of the book, until it is shown to span across space and time, and we learn that not everything is as it appears to be. The library itself is the root of an ancient struggle centered around the conflict between storing knowledge and sharing it freely, versus holding it back because of the dangers of freely giving knowledge to those without the wisdom to use it properly. It is inevitable that the main characters will become embroiled in this bigger conflict, and as the start of a trilogy, this book does not provide closure of any kind. There is also an undercurrent of romance here for fans of young love, but it is more aspirational than anything of true substance. It's a great start to a series, but I do fear that the scope expanded so much that it will become too complicated for its own good.

Jessica Whittaker narrates the audiobook version and she does a pretty good job of bringing this one to life. I think it was a good call to go with a female narrator on the one as she does a great job of voicing Livira.