The Book That Broke the World

The Library Trilogy, Book 2

By: Mark Lawrence

Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker

Two people living in a world connected by an immense and mysterious library must fight for those they love in the second book in a new trilogy from the international bestselling author of The Book That Wouldn’t Burn.

The Library spans worlds and times. It touches and joins distant places. It is memory and future. And amid its vastness Evar Eventari both found, and lost, Livira Page.

Evar has been forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover the book she wrote—one which is the only true threat to the library’s existence—if she's to return to her life.

While Evar's journey leads him outside into a world he's never seen, Livira's path will taker her deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

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.

©2024 Mark Lawrence (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Mark Lawrence strikes the perfect balance between intellect and heart in this second volume of his Library Trilogy."—Grimdark Magazine

Good but not as good as the first

I enjoyed the story greatly but again like the first it dragged a bit toward the end and the finish was satisfying except for a major mistake no found by the editors

A Great Listen

I'll start with the bad: this wasn't as good as the first book. This felt like a middle book to me; some necessary expansion of the world and characters leading into the final book. But it didn't get its hooks as deep into me as the first, and was just "good" until bringing it together in the end. Of course, I still really enjoyed it, needed to know what happened, and can't wait for the next step. It's a testament to how much I liked the first book that this book fell short and was still a 5-star book. So if the author could just use the exchange to influence the first book and make it worse, this one might look better? In all seriousness, definitely my favorite world and concept from Mr. Lawrence so far.

Love Mark Lawrence

It’s a great seres. Narrator in general is great, but her continuos mispronunciation of “automaton” drove me crazy.

Mind opening

This really makes you think how important history and knowledge is. We can’t live in ignorance and repeat the same mistakes that have been made. And knowledge about other cultures and people are important too. Stereotypes are like a cancer.

Really a 3.75 of Five star Rating

This book was challenging due to timeline shifts in the plot that weren't always easy to follow. The characters also didn't really seem evolve a lot in this second book int the Library Series. Once the Lawrence (author) gives you a brief recap of where book 1 left off, he throws you into the chaos of book 2.
I'm not sure abut those that read this book before me, but it took me a beat to get my bearings on what was going on. It took me a minute but once I did, I found my enjoyment of the book again. The characters especially secondary ones almost overtake the main two protagonists (Evar & LIvira) development.
While the plot was adventurous and romance between the Evar & Livira end up being the main drivers, I found I actually liked development of Celcha and her POV the most.
The ending was a bit abrupt and I'm not sure how I'll feel about the conclusion of this trilogy based on the end of this second book.

not as good as the first

Maybe I have read too many fantasy novels but this one started to become predictable and I didn't care as much whether the protagonists lived or dies. part of it was the narration, as the narrator made the male lead a simpering, love besotted wimp. the tough female lead also became a jellyfish. the bad guy seemed two-dimensional, and they were way too many convenient solutions. I won't be reading the third part of the trilogy. sort of reminds me of Dune. great first one, so so second one, disappointing third one.

Not as good as the first but enthralling just the same

I found it a little bit harder to follow the twists and turns of the story (the Ganar?) but it was enjoyable and captivating. The narration was excellent, probably the best

Intrigued by the first book…now in love with the second.

Apparently, I live under a rock, Books, one and two of this series are my first foray into any of Mr. Lawrence’s writing…. I hope I haven’t set myself up for disappointment, due to the excellent world building and complexity (not to mention the action sequences, occasionally snarky and wonderfully quirky sense of humor) of this series so far.
I’m sure there are more of this authors works in my very near future.
My only complaint is totally because I am an American who thinks everybody sounds like me… I believe the author uses European/UK pronunciation and sometimes it just threw me off. But really, that’s probably more on me than it is the narrator! I did enjoy her overall performance.
Overall 11/10… I am already looking forward to re-listening to the first two books just prior to book 3 coming out.

Loved it

I loved the first book and the second one i gave it 4 stars just because it was a bit slow and I really didnt like the new characters

Interesting world - must enjoy time travel and displacement

I really enjoyed the first book, so I was excited to listen to this one, and I will definitely listen to the third. I enjoy this narrator. As someone else pointed out, her pronunciation of automaton is truly weird. I’ve heard this word pronounced with a British accent, and this was absolutely not the way it was said.

That aside, I feel like I should have maybe not left so much time in between listening to the first and second books. I spent a large amount of time trying to get back into the story and to understand all of the back-and-forth between time periods and world traveling.

I don’t usually listen to a book or read a book more than once, but I might have to in this case, as I think the sparse details at the beginning are filled in somewhat by the end. A Cliff notes-style summary would not be unappreciated.

I wonder if by the end of the third installment, I will understand what the actual significance of Livira’s book is. I want to be able to say, oh yeah - it finally makes sense. It doesn’t quite yet after this one.