Silent No More

Anything Mark Lawrence writes, I will read. If you know me, you know this to be so. When I heard he was putting out a new series based around a library, I couldn’t wait. Couldn’t. Wait. And he did not disappoint. 

The worldbuilding is superb, as per usual. But what really shines is the character arcs. 

It follows the story of Evar and Livira. Both are young, both are misunderstood, and both have had a challenging life. 

Evar is stuck in a library – stacks and stacks and stacks of hundreds of thousands of tomes, warehouse after warehouse, spanning for nearly eternity. He and his “siblings” don’t remember a time where they weren’t in the library. Evar is loyal, inquisitive, yet doesn’t have a special “ability” like his other so-called siblings. He feels like an outcast and, well, really is an outcast. He and his siblings have only themselves for company and two “assistants” who are robot-like, with no emotion and no particular function save to show up when they want, do what they want, and leave. 

Livira lives in a wasteland of dust. She faces the dangers of dust storms and drought, and the ever present “sabbers” who are human-like, yet not, and hate Livira and anyone like her. She is taken by them to Crath, where she becomes an acolyte of sorts at the library there. 

What commences is a story like no other – it will satisfy diehard fans of Mark Lawrence while bringing in a new swath of readers. Livira and Evar, throughout their adventures, bring out the most-loved themes that make Mark Lawrence one of the best fantasy writers out there – love, loss, curiosity, and most strongly of all, friendship. 

The theme of friendship is so strong, in fact, that I would argue it’s the author’s best work yet on this topic. I thought the Book of the Ancestor would be hard to beat, but I think he just might have done it. Maybe. I still love Nona and her crew, though. 

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up, especially if you love books, and stories about books… and books that don’t burn. 

5/5 stars