Title: The Library at Mount Char
Author: Scott Hawkins
Series: N/A
Audience: Adult
Rating: 4
TL;DR: What are twelve adopted godlings to do when their “Father” goes missing, leaving the power of his famous library up for grabs?
Longer review: On
Labor Day, 1977, a Pershing missile was dropped on the Garrison Oaks
subdivision in a futile attempt to kill a god. Twelve of the children
who survived the devastation thanks to the powers of “Father,” became
his apprentices.
Years
later, we meet Carolyn and her damaged and deranged “siblings”, as they
gather together to learn the fate of their Father, who has disappeared.
Who
will succeed him? The savage and brutal David, who has studied the arts
of war? Mad Margaret, who has been murdered and resurrected thousands
of times? Or will it be the quiet and crafty Carolyn, underestimated by
all her siblings? Which sibling will be the first to gain access to
Father’s vast and powerful library? And can these men and women manage
to rediscover the shreds of humanity that remain to them after the years
of physical, psychological and emotional abuse they underwent in order
to become gods?
Author’s Website: http://www.shawkins.
Read alikes
American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Chronicles of Amber by
Roger Zelazny. If you enjoy the cut-throat sibling rivalry of The
Library at Mount Char, you might also enjoy the intrafamilial intrigue
of Zelazny’s series.
The Lost Swords series by Fred Saberhagen.
Review by Teresa Dahlgren, Waterloo Public Library