The Book That Wouldn’t Burn cover art

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, Book 1

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The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

By: Mark Lawrence
Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
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About this listen

All books, no matter their binding, will fall to dust. The stories they carry may last longer. They might outlive the paper, the library, even the language in which they were first written.

The greatest story can reach the stars . . .

This is the start of an incredible new journey from the internationally bestselling author of Prince of Thorns, in which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned…

Evar has lived his whole life trapped within a vast library, older than empires and larger than cities.

Livira has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.

The world has never noticed them.

That’s about to change.

As their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time, each will unlock vast secrets about the world and themselves. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another.

©2023 Mark Lawrence (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Historical Fiction Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

Praise for Mark Lawrence

‘An excellent writer’
George R.R. Martin, #1 SUNDAY and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of GAME OF THRONES

‘Dark and relentless…A two in the morning page turner. Jaw-dropping’
Robin Hobb, the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of THE ASSASSIN’S APPRENTICE

‘Excellent – on par with George R.R. Martin’
Conn Iggulden, author of GENGHIS

‘Mark Lawrence gets better with every book. It has a drive to it, a pulse, a gearshift that kicks higher and higher.’
Fantasy Book Review

‘This tale of knowledge and its cost flies by thanks to the gripping mystery and beautiful worldbuilding…readers will be desperate for more.’
Publishers Weekly

‘Lawrence works with many threads here, but none feels misused or insufficiently explored. Rather, the author unspools them masterfully, leaving behind a tightly woven tapestry that readers will ache to see finished even if they can predict one or two of the tale’s myriad twists and turns. Gripping, earnest, and impeccably plotted.’
Kirkus
All stars
Most relevant
I find it hard to put into words just how much I fell in love with this book, it's characters, and the fascinating and intriguing worldbuilding. To think I picked this up completely at random and it's genuinely one of the best fantasy books I've ever read.

The core elements are classic: plucky, precocious, outsider young girl is taken from all she knows through tragedy and does the incredibly talented inquisitive and cheeky fish out of water thing. There's a lovable, foul-mouthed soldier bodyguard, well-written romance, a split narrative with that comes together, and the futility and pointlessness of war and hatred of one people for another. But what Lawrence does with those elements, the world they create, and the way concepts are explored and extrapolated through a fantastic, wondrous, and terrifying library that straddles all dimensions, is a work of utter brilliance.

The ideas and message are great, combining mind-bending speculative sci-fi concepts and epic fantasy fun with humour, intrigue and human emotion.

I really need to go back and listen to the last handful of chapters, as some of the reveals and elements genuinely had me sobbing my heart out, while pleasantly baffled. This definitely took my brain on a long walk and made my emotions work out.

I'm absolutely gutted this came out this year and absolutely need the next book as soon as humanly possible!

The performance by Jessica Whittaker is out of this world and absolutely top tier. The range of accents, age, and emotion they embody are mind blowing! An absolutely breathtaking performance that makes me genuinely want to listen to anything and everything they narrate.

I loved this book so very much, but I do have two issues that, while absolutely weren't deal breakers, did impact my enjoyment and make me question how much I can trust the author and their views. The first is a fictional quote heading up one of the chapters that discusses very stereotypical and not gender-inclusive depictions of mothers, fathers, and pregnancy. The other is this quote:
"If a civilization is not capable of keeping a book from burning then perhaps it wasn't ready for whatever knowledge was held within"
The point is a good an interesting one in the context of the book with it referring to knowledge, particularly that of weapons of mass destruction. However, we live in a world where fascist and bigoted book burnings have taken place, and we are currently seeing truly wild and dangerous censorship and removal of books from schools and other places due to ignorance, bigotry, and rightwing propaganda. There has to be a better say to phrase this. All I could think of were the Nazi book burnings, which the famous photos come from the destruction of the research and writing of the Hirschfeld Institute, particularly those on sexuality and gender identity. We have always been ready for Queer/ trans folx because we have always existed.

I don't think either of the above points was done maliciously, but it does come across as some cisnormative ignorance that was a small blemish on an otherwise utterly brilliant book.

Truly Phenemonal. Near Perfection.

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One of the best audiobooks, I’ve heard in a very long time. Incredible world building and characters.

Incredible

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I have read quite a few series from Mark Lawrence and mostly enjoyed them and in my opinion this is the best opening book from any of them by a considerable margin.

It has a slow start, spending time getting to know the main character Livira, a young girl from a dusty wasteland dreaming about escaping to experience the wider world.

She gets her wish but at a harsh price and ends up at the series' titular Library.

I will spoil nothing but I will say that from the moment she arrives at the library a multi-layered and emotionally powerful story begins.

The amount of mystery and world-building packed in has left me wanting to immediately start the second book to see what delights Mr Lawrence has in store.

The narration was very good although some of the strange accents when reading excerpts from various books at the start of chapters seemed a little unnecessary.

Top Tier Fantasy. Highly recommended

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Having read almost all of ML’s other books and loved many (I have re-read the Prince of Thorns trilogy 4x) I was thoroughly excited for a new book.

Unfortunately, I felt this was very different from his usual style and personally not up to the level of his other works. Maybe it’s just not for me, but I found the world of the library pretty static and unexciting and the characters limited and difficult to invest in.

All in all, a far way away from the Prince of Thorns and Book of the Ancestor trilogys and I’m not sure I’ll bother with the next instalment.

Quite different from ML’s other works and not for me

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From start to finish... What an imagination! This book is addictive & hard to put down. It's imersive, detailed & brilliantly written & the narrator was perfect for the book. Look forward to book 2.

Captivating

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