A Stranger in the Citadel

By: Tobias S. Buckell

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

A tale of family bonds, royal power, and the truth that threatens it all, from World Fantasy Award-winner Tobias S. Buckell.

“You shall not suffer a librarian to live.”

Growing up in Ninetha, Lilith has known this law all her life. The city’s every need is provided for by a god-machine called the cornucopia, which can produce food, clothing, anything in response to a thought. The gods provided this bounty on one condition: that humanity give up reading and writing.

Then, a librarian, an actual seeker of forbidden written knowledge, walks through the gates of the citadel, his very presence unraveling the life Lilith has known. She learns her father, the Lord Musketeer himself, has been harboring a secret - one that turns Ninetha against Lilith’s family.

Forced to flee, forced to throw in her lot with the librarian, Lilith uncovers even greater secrets - about the lie her life has been, and about the very nature of their world.

©2021 Tobias S. Buckell (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.

Interesting Concept

I struggled with the notion of why librarians would be a threat to anything. After all, a librarian without books is just an underemployed nerd. But the author made them both a threat. The world was interesting and was not what you (or the librarian) expect.

The performance was top notch. You could hear the emotions to the extent that it was duplicated in the words.

It is worth a listen.

Creative

I liked this story, it was unique. I only wish it was a little more expansive. Like full novel sized and not baby novel.

I liked this book

It was a good story and kept me engaged. I liked the narrator and even appreciated the story which I think had the freedom to be itself !

in my list of great stories

it's a mixture of old world and future shoved together with lots of adventure. glad I listened and it would make for a good movie.

Wow

I really enjoyed this book! looking forward to More like this brought out emotions

Good, but could have been better

The story had the potential for being really interesting because the world the author created was fantastic, but the book falls a little flat 1/3 of the way through, only to pick up again for a mediocre ending. The narrator was only OK as well.

Unusual concept but good plot

I thought a few of the story lines came out of no where & kind of hung around like a bad aftertaste I don’t know if I missed a prologue in another book this Author is new to me but it definitely needed more of an intro or set up I kept finding myself trying to imagine the working of the cornucopia and without giving anything away still found It didn’t work even in my extensive imagination The narration of the main character was whiny and childish for 3/4 of the book while most of the other characters rang true I have to admit I stop & started 3 -4 times and probably wouldn’t have finished if it wasn’t included & I’m out of credits This is as honest of a review as I can submit but I will say I’m happy I finished it & happy to be finished Before I had to see stop reading books & start listening I read thousands of books & can count on 1 hand ones I didn’t finish It takes so much to write & be published I feel I owe it to Author’s to do so I find the recording may sometimes harm the enjoyment but it’s better than the alternative at least to me, a lifelong voracious reader

interesting

kind of a slow start but once it got going it was really interesting. I don't know what genre to really put it in.

Worthy of a listen

I enjoyed the story once I connected with it. It took a couple of trys, but the story drew me in and overall it was a good tale. I shouted at the main charecter at times because she was so naive, so I was able to become invested in the storyline, I would like to hear a part two of this tale;1) to see the charecter development and 2) get a few answers to things we learned about in this story.

Excellent

This was a good weaving of religion with an alien touch. It showed how humans will always be humans in the end. I would love there to be a sequel.