The Destruction of the Books

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Mel Odom's award winning quest fantasy The Rover was hailed as a successor to the legacy of Tolkien and Terry Brooks. The tale of "Wick" the lowly librarian who rises to the occasion and becomes a great adventurer struck a chord with adventure lovers and fantasy fans alike. After his adventures on the mainland Wick returned to his duties at the Vault of All Known Knowledge and quickly worked his way up the hierarchy , continuing his quest for the preservation of books and the knowledge contained therein. And now that quest is threatened. The Destruction of the Books It is many years later and lowly Wick is now Grandmagister Lamplighter of the Great Library. His trips to the mainland are fewer due to his advanced age, and lately he has enlisted an assistant by the name of Jugh to undertake those roving duties he used to relish. An encounter with a goblin ship on the high seas leads to Jugh's discovery of a book in goblin hands, a most matter that must be investigated. This single event leads to startling revelations that forewarns of a great evil that exists that is every bit as powerful as the Vault of All Known Knowledge, and whose presence in the Great Library may indeed result in The Destruction of the Books And perhaps far worse. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.From Publishers WeeklyJust as aged Bilbo Baggins gives way to a new hero, Frodo, at the start of The Lord of the Rings, so does elderly Edgewick "Wick" Lamplighter, now a Grandmagister at Great Library, leave center stage to a youthful protégé, the pint-sized Juhg, in this Tolkienesque sequel, set nearly a century later, to Odom's The Rover (2001). In the tradition of Fritz Leiber's immortal Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Juhg and his burly human friend, Raisho, set out on a series of fantastic adventures, centered on a search for a rare volume that Wick wants for the Vault of All Known Knowledge. The narrative moves along at a snappy pace, with much good humor, zest and color, but around halfway through, the action becomes repetitive and the fantasy effects heavy-handed. Nevertheless, the magic lies in the details, where books and wizards, both good and evil, glimmer. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistAlmost 100 years after the events of The Rover (2002), Edgewick Lamplighter is grandmagister at the Vault of All Known Knowledge, a secret repository of books rescued from destruction by the dreaded goblinkin. This time the protagonist is Jugh, another halfling, whom Wick rescued from goblin slavers and made his apprentice. Feeling an outsider on the island, Jugh ships out as a crew member on one of the ships that service and help protect the island. But when he discovers that a book is aboard a goblin ship, he manages with great difficulty and danger to retrieve it and take it back to the island. The book turns out to be designed to open a path for dark forces to invade the island and destroy the library. The battles are ferocious; the dark forces deliver a crushing blow and many deaths before being driven off, temporarily at least; and way is opened for further violence in the saga's next episode. As before, plenty of humor tempers the wild action. Sally EstesCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved