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The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith
This book absolutely charmed the pants off me. Am I a sucker for a bunch of prickly weirdos with extremely valid reasons for not trusting each other (starting with about half of them being demons of one sort or another) who are forced into reluctant sympathy for each other via repeated incidents of saving each other's lives? Yes, yes I am.
We first meet our protagonist, Claire, head librarian at the Library of Unwritten Books in Hell, returning a wandering character to a book by sliding a knife between its ribs. (Books that have not yet been written by their authors, therefore not having their plots and characters locked into place yet, have a tendency to get restless and go wandering.) So Library of the Unwritten had me at hello because who doesn't want to read more about a damned soul librarian-assassin who wanders around stabbing escaped book characters, but I also had two other reactions to the first couple of chapters:
#1: Oh god, not another book about magical libraries.
#2: I really did not expect this book to focus quite so heavily on Christian Heaven/Hell/fallen-angel worldbuilding (I mean, the protagonist is Hell's librarian so it's not a stretch, but it really revolves around it, even though there's a lot of other magical stuff going on - it's kind of like Good Omens that way).
But it wasn't long before I didn't care; the book swept me along and caught me up in the characters to the point where I was wildly over-invested in their fates by about the 1/3 mark.
The book starts out in Hell (where else would unwritten books be?), but we also see a number of other afterlives, from the familiar (Valhalla) to the forgotten (what happens to an afterlife when its worshippers are gone?). I don't want to say too much because being caught up in the twists and turns, the unpredictable magical weirdness (ghostlights for the dead, duels of quotes with afterlife guardians, swords that disguise themselves as guns, non-Euclidian gargoyles who are impossible to look at straight on), and the various reveals about the characters was a big part of the fun for me. Claire and two assistants (a failed muse and a junior demon) travel to Earth to retrieve a wandering book character who has gone looking for its writer, and run headlong into a pair of angels looking for a book that might be able to rewrite the nature of reality itself, which they think Claire has. (She doesn't. Yet.) This is one of those wonderful books where every time I found myself hung up on wanting to know more about a seemingly throwaway character or bit of magical lore, the book obligingly took me there. I love that the characters are all profoundly flawed and slightly inhuman (Claire no less than the rest), but also capable of being their best selves when it really counts. There is also a lot of casual diversity and queerness that never felt forced or tokenistic, and some delightful hurt/comfort. I will eat my hat if the author is not in fandom, and I mean that in the best possible way.
I loved this book so much that when I got to the end I went straight back to the beginning to reread a bunch of scenes to pick up on all the character stuff I didn't catch the first time around. I would happily read a 15-book series about these people. Fortunately there is a second book in the series and a third coming out this fall. Expect a post about the second book when I read that one (I've already started it) and possibly an all-spoilers post about this book because I absolutely have to talk about some of the character reveals but I don't want to get that mixed into the rec post.
The Library of the Unwritten on Amazon - the ebook is currently on sale (at least for me; I can't tell if it's for all customers or if it's a Prime deal or what, though.)
We first meet our protagonist, Claire, head librarian at the Library of Unwritten Books in Hell, returning a wandering character to a book by sliding a knife between its ribs. (Books that have not yet been written by their authors, therefore not having their plots and characters locked into place yet, have a tendency to get restless and go wandering.) So Library of the Unwritten had me at hello because who doesn't want to read more about a damned soul librarian-assassin who wanders around stabbing escaped book characters, but I also had two other reactions to the first couple of chapters:
#1: Oh god, not another book about magical libraries.
#2: I really did not expect this book to focus quite so heavily on Christian Heaven/Hell/fallen-angel worldbuilding (I mean, the protagonist is Hell's librarian so it's not a stretch, but it really revolves around it, even though there's a lot of other magical stuff going on - it's kind of like Good Omens that way).
But it wasn't long before I didn't care; the book swept me along and caught me up in the characters to the point where I was wildly over-invested in their fates by about the 1/3 mark.
The book starts out in Hell (where else would unwritten books be?), but we also see a number of other afterlives, from the familiar (Valhalla) to the forgotten (what happens to an afterlife when its worshippers are gone?). I don't want to say too much because being caught up in the twists and turns, the unpredictable magical weirdness (ghostlights for the dead, duels of quotes with afterlife guardians, swords that disguise themselves as guns, non-Euclidian gargoyles who are impossible to look at straight on), and the various reveals about the characters was a big part of the fun for me. Claire and two assistants (a failed muse and a junior demon) travel to Earth to retrieve a wandering book character who has gone looking for its writer, and run headlong into a pair of angels looking for a book that might be able to rewrite the nature of reality itself, which they think Claire has. (She doesn't. Yet.) This is one of those wonderful books where every time I found myself hung up on wanting to know more about a seemingly throwaway character or bit of magical lore, the book obligingly took me there. I love that the characters are all profoundly flawed and slightly inhuman (Claire no less than the rest), but also capable of being their best selves when it really counts. There is also a lot of casual diversity and queerness that never felt forced or tokenistic, and some delightful hurt/comfort. I will eat my hat if the author is not in fandom, and I mean that in the best possible way.
I loved this book so much that when I got to the end I went straight back to the beginning to reread a bunch of scenes to pick up on all the character stuff I didn't catch the first time around. I would happily read a 15-book series about these people. Fortunately there is a second book in the series and a third coming out this fall. Expect a post about the second book when I read that one (I've already started it) and possibly an all-spoilers post about this book because I absolutely have to talk about some of the character reveals but I don't want to get that mixed into the rec post.
The Library of the Unwritten on Amazon - the ebook is currently on sale (at least for me; I can't tell if it's for all customers or if it's a Prime deal or what, though.)
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this is the best icon I have for the situation
Re: this is the best icon I have for the situation
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Heee, sounds awesome. I'm glad my library has a copy.
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I have a real allergy to default Christian metaphysics; on the other hand my favorite character in the Greta Helsing novels is the demon who works as an accountant; I will keep this recommendation in mind.
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I only have about 20 other books in the physical pile first and a few hundred in metaphorical piles in my head. . . .