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The Destruction Of The Books by Mel Odom
02/02/2008 . Source: Joules Taylor 
pub: TOR. 381 page hardback. Price: $25.95 (US), $35.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-30723-5. Buy The Destruction Of The Books in the USA - or Buy The Destruction Of The Books in the UK  check out website: www.tor-forge.com
Many, many years ago, gathered together under the leadership of Lord Kharrion, the goblinkin ravaged the world in what became known as the Cataclysm. The world was left in ruins, the peoples sundered and enslaved, their cultures shattered and slowly forgotten in the struggle to survive. Here and there, however, forward-thinking beings fought to recover what they could of their lost world. A group of them. members of the four races of elves, dwarfs, humans and dweller, banded together to create a haven of learning, the Vault of All Known Knowledge in the Great Library on the island of Greydawn Moors, protected by mists, the monsters in the blood-soaked sea and pirates. From here, Librarians search the world for the remaining books, rescuing them from destruction.
This work follows the dweller Librarian Juhg on his mission to retrieve a mysterious book from the clutches of an evil wizard and take it safely to the library for deciphering. Unfortunately, in the process, the work's violent and malicious magical protection is breached, leading to disaster...
I really, really wanted to like this book. The author, speaking through Juhg, has a reverence for the power of books and hence lasting communication and the continuance of knowledge that all true readers will find powerfully affecting:-
'With the destruction of those books, of those libraries and collections, the past for the dwarves, humans and elves died... Much of the history. Much of the way those races did things. The voices of those who had gone before and who had learned so many valuable truths were stilled forever. They could no longer look to each other's culture and find similarities. Without books, without a proper accounting of history, their lives became small and selfish... Lord Kharrion took their histories from them and left them only the uncertainty of today and the hatred of the hardships of all the yesterdays before. They forgot how to look forward to the future...' (p 305)
Unfortunately, the actual story reads like a cross between an inferior version of the 'Lord Of The Rings' and 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' films, as though trying to appeal to people who liked both. Which I do, I confess, but NOT mashed together! For goblinkin read orcs, for dwellers read hobbits, the wizards are tall, spare and unpredictable and sport pointed hats and long staffs, the elves are beautiful androgynous archers who ward the forests and live in trees. The pirates are, in the main, good-hearted fellows and only part-time pirates. The rest of the time they act as traders between the mainland and the island or simply frighten potential invaders away from the blood-soaked sea with their fearsome reputation. The book even includes dark riders running errands for the villains...
As I ploughed through it I began to wonder if it's a book for children but some of the descriptions are a little dark for kids I'd have thought but then again, so is a fair bit of Harry Potter. There is a lot of action, including one interminable battle, it lasts for about fifty pages, I think, that I ended up just skimming over as it went on and on and on with the author stopping in places to explain what was happening and how the protagonists were feeling. I found what little humour there was clumsy, although that might just have been me. Except for very rare examples, I don't find American humour at all funny. The magic is rather pedestrian. There are some cringe-worthy inaccuracies. The novel apparently doesn't know the rather significant difference between a greenstick fracture and an open compound fracture. On the plus side, the geography is interesting and the descriptions of people and places evocative.
Now, if the book is designed to appeal to children, it's not bad. Not great, but certainly enjoyable in it's own way. Anyone over fifteen, however, in my estimation is likely to find it a little uninspired, drawing so heavily on other works as it does. It's been done before and done better. I would have enjoyed it more if the races and characters had been originals rather than clones.
Joules Taylor
http://heartsown.biz/
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