A book of wonder

Mark Lawrence's The Book that Wouldn't Burn, the first in his The Library Trilogy and narrated by the inestimable Jessica Whittaker, is a book of fabulous world building and fantastic time travelling.

The story follows Livira and Evar as they discover the library, each other and the world(s) they inhabit. Finding out their history is one of the themes which runs throughout the book, as is Livira's growing knowledge of the Library and its inhabitants.

Jessica Whittaker narrates very well, and you can imagine the places in your minds eye, due to her narration as well as Mark's fine prose.

If you're looking for a new book to listen to, look no further than this, you won't be disappointed.

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2 people found this helpful

Gripped from the start

So good, I listened again as soon as I had finished. As the author says

One of the earliest philosophers told us you can’t step into the same river twice. The library taught me you can’t read the same book twice either. You’re the river.

I loved the characters and the flow of the story. There were unexpected twists that I didn’t see coming, Mark Lawrence’s wry sense of humour is clear in the ‘quotes’ from books at the start of each chapter-tipping his hat to other authors, fantastically insulting at times. I don’t often pay full price for books, but will be purchasing the next instalment straight away.
Excellent narration throughout from Jessica Whittaker. She made the characters come alive .

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Disjointed

Neither the uninteresting characters nor the rather disjointed storyline works for me. Really struggling to finish this one and I really like most of his other books.

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ohh my godddd!

I was absolutely captivated by this book! I found myself staying up later to listen to more of it. the story is so cleverly written. I think this may just be my new favourite book. my mind is left reeling at the concepts and ideas in the story.

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Excellent

That was the best book I’ve listened to in a long time, and I’ve listened to/read a lot of books. What book lover doesn’t want to be drawn into a magical library crossing time, dimensions and space?
The book flicks between the narrative of the two main characters who’s tales draw together over the space of the book, intersecting at times before being torn apart again. There are more twists and turns in this book than I can count, some of which turn the plot entirely on its head. It keeps you guessing at the impossible nature of the library until the last page. The performance suits the story perfectly. Can’t wait for the next one.

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Took me a while to get into it, but was enjoyable

The blurb doesn't give a great deal away with this one, so I had only a basic idea of what to expect. The story itself took me a fair while to get into, more so with Evar's chapters (I found Livira's far easier to keep up with and enjoy). I couldn't quite decide whether the difficulty in keeping up was because of the lack of info in the blurb or whether it was just me struggling with this one in general.

Fast forward through the book and everything I struggled with before seemed to drop into place and mean so much more with revelations that happen later on. I went from thinking it would turn out to be a slow, average read, to enjoying it immensely and thinking how clever a tale Mark Lawrence had managed to weave.

With that being said, I still, even with those revelations, found Livira's parts far more interesting and in-depth than Evar's, but that could be due to what we find out later. So perhaps it was intentional to a degree. 

I love the idea of a library that is infinite to the point where if you can think of it, it's probably in there somewhere (pretty much like a fantasy version of the internet). Even more so when you factor in there are an infinite number of libraries across and infinite number of timelines. The library itself is so big that 'it's always burning somewhere within the library' but you never really see it because of how vast a network it is.

Overall, I enjoyed the concept and the story as a whole. I'll force myself to pay more attention when I get around to book two but look forward to it nonetheless.

The narration was wonderful :)

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Devastated it's finished

Mark Lawrence has outdone himself. I always feel like he truly understands exactly what I need to read to be uplifted and brought down to earth. So inspiring. I've had a long term illness for 18 years and I feel he lives in my world. He finds adventure and meaning for me. I've properly got a lump in my throat on it ending. He reframes the heartache of living in this divided world. And makes me howl with laughter too. Cannot wait for the rest of this series. Thank you so much Mark Lawrence. Love how he gets quantum theory in here too. 👏 😍 ❤️

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Fantastic, can't wait for next one.

I loved this book from the start. the quotes from the books at the start of each page and their fiction authors made me chuckle.

The story is so rich, and the twists are unexpected. It hooks you and won't let go, even at the end.

I would recommend this book to everyone!

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Top Tier Fantasy. Highly recommended

I have read quite a few series from Mark Lawrence and mostly enjoyed them and in my opinion this is the best opening book from any of them by a considerable margin.

It has a slow start, spending time getting to know the main character Livira, a young girl from a dusty wasteland dreaming about escaping to experience the wider world.

She gets her wish but at a harsh price and ends up at the series' titular Library.

I will spoil nothing but I will say that from the moment she arrives at the library a multi-layered and emotionally powerful story begins.

The amount of mystery and world-building packed in has left me wanting to immediately start the second book to see what delights Mr Lawrence has in store.

The narration was very good although some of the strange accents when reading excerpts from various books at the start of chapters seemed a little unnecessary.

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Mind bending, but not as compelling as other Mark Lawrence stuff

It's an excellent bit of mind f*ck, as any Mark Lawrence book always is, but I didn't find myself drawn to it as I would normally expect to be.

I think I'll need to read the second book to make up my mind about the series.

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