That might sound a little harsh, but after enjoying the first book so much I found myself genuinely disappointed by the sequel – at first I thought perhaps it was just that I needed a bit of time to get back into the swing of the characters and the world, but in truth it simply fell flat in comparison with what had gone before. A less kind assessment would be that it’s a poorly-plotted mess of a book which fails to meet its ambitious goals, and just about manages to entertain by virtue of continuing to explore a world which is still fundamentally smart, interesting and engaging. Sadly, while the world in which it’s set continues to be engaging, the story itself doesn’t live up to expectations.Ī generous assessment might be that while it tackles some interesting ideas and takes the characters to different places, in doing so it loses the focus of its predecessor, tries to do too much and as a result misses most of its marks.
It’s a smaller-scale story in which the safety of both the Library and the Archive is at risk even as Brevity and Claire are at odds with each other, their friendship strained to breaking point. Its sequel, The Archive of the Forgotten, tries hard to dig into the relationships between the key characters, picking up the story as they’re still adjusting to the changes forced upon them, with Brevity now the new Librarian and Claire relegated to stewardship of the titular Archive.
Hackwith’s The Library of the Unwritten was a pacy, darkly funny and deeply satisfying take on the interdimensional/time travelling librarian trope, and I loved it to bits.
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