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The Book That Broke the World

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The Book That Broke the World

By: Mark Lawrence
Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
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About this listen

The second volume in the ground-breaking Library Trilogy, following THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN.

We fight for the people we love. We fight for the ideas we want to be true.

Evar and Livira stand side by side and yet far beyond each other's reach. Evar is forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover her book if she's to return to her life. While Evar's journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he's never seen, Livira's destination lies deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

And all the while, the library quietly weaves thread to thread, bringing the scattered elements of Livira's old life – friends and foe alike – back together beneath new skies.

Long ago, a lie was told, and with the passing years it has grown and spread, a small push leading to a chain of desperate consequences. Now, as one edifice topples into the next with ever-growing violence, it threatens to break the world. The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.

The Library Trilogy is about many things: adventure, discovery, and romance, but it's also a love letter to books and the places where they live. The focus is on one vast and timeless library, but the love expands to encompass smaller more personal collections, and bookshops of all shades too.

©2024 Mark Lawrence (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers
Action & Adventure Epic Fantasy Historical Science Fiction Space Opera War
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I liked the first book better but this was still great. Truly unique story that keeps you guessing!

Unique tale

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I didn’t like how milar died (he was my Favorit character). I liked how we found out what starvle and malend were up to.

How Eva could not stay away from levera and levera could not stay away from Eva.

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This series starts off fun and delightful and then goes into dark existentialism. A bit like Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. I love it and I’m so scared for book 3.

Pullman-esque

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The Book That Broke the World was a bit of a letdown for me compared to the first book in the trilogy. The tone felt very different and often quite fragmented, which made it harder to stay fully engaged, especially with the continued introduction of additional species. While I appreciated the broader “big picture” narrative involving Jaspeth and Irad, it was sometimes difficult to follow, as the author is clearly holding back details for later reveals.

I also wasn’t a fan of the romance subplot with Arpix; it didn’t feel necessary and could have worked better as a purely platonic relationship. Overall, this one didn’t quite click for me. I’m on the fence about finishing the trilogy, though I’ll probably read the final book more for closure than because I’m fully hooked on the story.
my rating: 3/5

The book that is overhyped

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The cliff hanger of an ending and now how long until I can read the next book! It’s you going to haunt my dreams until I can finish this story !
Still excellent
Still beautiful
Still love the message and the character growth

Also shout out to the author for the direct reminder of the story at the beginning of this instead of making the characters have a long winded “remember when this happened and then you did this?” Conversation
Every book should just do that
Give me a swift and to the point recap! Loved that!!

Still loving this tale

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