First off, here's the standard disclaimer. This is the second book in this trilogy and a lot happened in The Book That Wouldn't Burn. When talking about The Book That Broke The World: The Library Trilogy - Book 2, I am going to be going into the events that occurred in the previous book and there will be spoilers. If you haven't read the first book, read our review of it and if it strikes your fancy, pick it up before reading past this point.
When the events of the previous book came to an end, readers not only got a strong idea of the wonders and magic behind The Library (not to mention its strange bridge between times and locations known as The Exchange), but they also had the revelation that Livira and Evar, the story's star-crossed lovers, were not only separated by hundreds of years, but also race. Evar and his siblings are members of a race known as the canith, the very race of people that destroyed human Livira's village when she was young. We also learn that it was humans that destroyed the settlement of Evar's adopted sister, Clovis, and the war she has been training for all her life has been to kill humans.
On top of that, an attack on Crath City, the capital that surrounds The Library, by an army of canith, has forced Livira and her friends deep into The Library and a fire set within its chambers have caused the humans to scatter. Livira and her militaristic friend Malar actually ended up inhabiting the bodies of two Assistants (strange beings that patrol The Library) and while they helped the rest of the humans escape into The Exchange, they are trapped in these new bodies.
As it turns out, Livira and Malar happen to be the two Assistants who raise Evar and his siblings several hundred years in the future, but just when Evar has the realization that the woman he has come to love is the same as the being that raised him, Livira's Assistant body is destroyed and, as far as Evar knows, Livira is dead once again.
The Book That Broke The World more or less follows three groups as they all work to collide once again. In one group, Evar and his siblings work their way through the chambers of The Library. Now that they can finally open doors, they are determined to see the outside world in person for the first time ever. While working their way to the outer edges of The Library, the canith know their primary enemy is the race of insectoids called skeer. Apparently, these creatures have been hunting the canith in The Library since Evar's ancestors first locked themselves away hundreds of years before. Unfortunately, that isn't the only threat they will face as Evar soon encounters a strange massive automaton that seems focused on attacking Evar specifically.
The second group in this book is Livira and Malar. The pair, once again disembodied ghosts, start by following Evar, but are quickly frustrated by their incorporeal status. They are approached by an Assistant and told that the only way they can be solid again is to find Livira's own book, the one Evar took into The Mechanism when he was young. This is the book that served as the catalyst for Evar and Livira's love and also the one that seems to be in a strange time loop. Somehow Livira must reclaim her book and bring it back to her new present. But exactly how that will bring her back into a solid state is beyond her. Hopefully, the strange Assistant will be more forthcoming with information when they figure out how to actually hold onto the book, assuming they can even find it, of course.
As for the third group, these are new characters. Actually, a new race. Celcha and her brother Hellet are ganar. Their story takes place about a thousand years before Livira's own time, and, as strange as it might seem, Crath City appears to be a place where both humans and canith rule and work together. Of course, there is still the need for slave labor and that's where the diminutive ganar come into play. Celcha and her brother both work at a digsite excavating an even older settlement, but when Hellet guides the group to a large cache of books, the entire team is needed to bring the haul to The Library. Hellet shows himself to be clever to the right people and he and Celcha are relieved of their heavy labor and put to work in The Library.
While this last story seems disconnected from the main events playing out in Evar's time, it is quickly apparent that there is something connecting Celcha to those in her far future. But, much like the final revelations at the end of The Book That Wouldn't Burn, all of the pieces won't quite fit together until everything is laid out in the last few pages.
Based on where its predecessor left off, The Book That Broke The World: The Library Trilogy - Book 2 had a lot of promises it had to keep and I'm happy to say that it continues the tradition started by the first book. I was happy to be hit with even more unexpected revelations and twists that I simply didn't see working until they were presented to me. In short, I am immensely impressed by Lawrence's ability to juggle the various threads of The Library Trilogy. He has managed to tell a complex story involving time travel and skewed perspectives in a way that is manageable and digestible. The fact that there are revelations in this book that harken back to events in the first just helps to illustrate how well Lawrence must have planned out this series and I can't wait to see what he has in store for the final book in this trilogy.
