The Book That Wouldn't Burn

Mark Lawrence

May 2023 · The Library Trilogy Book 1 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Two strangers find themselves connected by a vast and mysterious library containing many wonders and still more secrets, in this powerfully moving first book in a new series from the international bestselling author of Red Sister and Prince of Thorns.

The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities.

The girl has been plucked from the outskirts of civilization to be trained as a librarian, studying the mysteries of the great library at the heart of her kingdom.

They were never supposed to meet. But in the library, they did.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.

Ratings and reviews

In this real gem from the pen of master storyteller Mark Lawrence he combines carefully complex plot design with seamless characterization of intriguing, compelling characters. From the main character whose talents include a near-flawless memory and a distain for convention and formality, to the talented foul-mouthed warrior who becomes her protector, and the star-crossed lover who falls into the main character's orbit. These are a meagre sampling of a rich world of people held within the pages. Lawrence has set this story in a possibly infinite post-post-post-post-apocalyptic library in a story with echoes of other stories as varied as _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ and _The Chronicles of Narnia_. He also gives himself license for some playfulness, starting each chapter with a quotation from a book, many of which are clearly from made up books by made up authors, as when a quote about destruction is from a book by Rose L. Axe, while others are from characters in his earlier books.

Just amazing...

HUMMM I LIKE IT I THINK.

About the author

Mark Lawrence was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to British parents but moved to the UK at the age of one. After earning a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College London, he went back to the US to work on a variety of research projects, including the “Star Wars” missile-defense program. Since returning to the UK, he has worked mainly on image processing and decision/reasoning theory. He never had any ambition to be a writer, so he was very surprised when a half-hearted attempt to find an agent turned into a global publishing deal overnight. His first trilogy, The Broken Empire, has been universally acclaimed as a groundbreaking work of fantasy, and both Emperor of Thorns and The Liar’s Key have won the David Gemmell Legend Award for best fantasy novel. Mark is married, with four children, and lives in Bristol.