 | |
| Author | Scott Hawkins |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, horror |
| Publisher | Crown Books |
Publication date | 2015 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 390 |
| ISBN | 9780553418606 |
The Library at Mount Char is a contemporary fantasy/horror novel written by Scott Hawkins. [1] It is his first novel.
Carolyn had lived with eleven "siblings" under the care of a millennia-old and godlike man known to them as Father (also known as Ablakha or Adam Black), prone to acts of sadistic cruelty. All have strange powers, learned from books held in Father's library. Carolyn employs Steve Hodgson, a goodhearted former minor league housebreaker to break into a house for her. Unknown to him, she wanted to conceal evidence of a murder committed by her. Hodgson dies, betrayed by Carolyn.
A metaphysical security device from Earth's future prevents them from entering the library. We learn more about the "siblings." David has inhuman martial skills. Jennifer has healing skills and can resurrect the dead. Michael speaks with animals and Carolyn herself knows many languages, many of them supernatural. Father has vanished, perhaps killed by one of his enemies.
Erwin Leffington, a former war hero employed by the US government, has come to prison to interview Steve Hodgson (now alive once more). Steve had gone to jail for the murder Carolyn committed. David frees Steve, with many casualties. Carolyn phones the US President in order to drop all charges against Steve and sends the man himself to retrieve the mystical barrier. He'll have assistance of the lions Dresden and his female cub Naga, now allies of the family.
After many misadventures, and the death of Dresden, Steve retrieves the artifacts. The US government, on the President's orders, attack the family and kill most of them. The sun goes out. Other apocalyptic events occur. Carolyn, who had killed Father, fights David. Thanks in part to the intervention of Erwin (which Carolyn had planned), she bests him.
Carolyn and Steve, it transpires, had known each other as children. Father had also planned for Carolyn to depose him. David, in between life and death, and in agony, serves as Earth's new, dark sun, but Steve voluntarily replaces him. Carolyn, with the assistance of Michael and Erwin, will protect the Earth from Father's inhuman foes.
Reviews of the novel were generally positive by major media sources and critics. The Wall Street Journal described it as "wholly original…the work of the newest major talent in fantasy". [2] The Boston Globe called it "an engrossing fantasy world full of supernatural beings and gruesome consequences". [3] The Dallas Morning News praised Hawkins' writing, particularly the dialogue, but criticized the book's ending, concluding that the book was "a thrill ride that ends with a chore". [4] In a retrospective review of "strange books", Victoria Schwab of NPR called the book an "ambitious and perplexing debut" that "sits somewhere on the border of thriller and speculative fiction, morbid and action-packed and existential and utterly resistant to categorization". [5]
William Hope Hodgson was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction, and science fiction. Hodgson used his experiences at sea to lend authentic detail to his short horror stories, many of which are set on the ocean, including his series of linked tales forming the "Sargasso Sea Stories". His novels, such as The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912), feature more cosmic themes, but several of his novels also focus on horrors associated with the sea. Early in his writing career Hodgson dedicated effort to poetry, although few of his poems were published during his lifetime. He also attracted some notice as a photographer and achieved renown as a bodybuilder. He died in World War I at age 40.
Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century".
Desperation is a horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was published in 1996 at the same time as its "mirror" novel, The Regulators, itself published under King's Richard Bachman pseudonym. It was also made into a TV film starring Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt and Steven Weber in 2006. The two novels represent parallel universes relative to one another, and most of the characters present in one novel's world also exist in the other novel's reality, albeit in different circumstances.
The Last Battle is a portal fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by The Bodley Head in 1956. It was the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956). Like the other novels in the series, it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes and her work has been retained in many later editions.
The Inhumans are a superhuman race of super beings appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The comic book series has usually focused more specifically on the adventures of the Inhuman Royal Family, and many people associate the name "Inhumans" with this particular team of superpowered characters.
Everville is a 1994 fantasy novel by British author Clive Barker. The second in the Books of the Art series, it follows the 1989 novel The Great and Secret Show.
Black Bolt is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #45. Black Bolt is the ruler of Attilan, and a member of the Inhumans, a reclusive race of genetically altered superhumans. Black Bolt's signature power is his voice, as his electron-harnessing ability is linked to the speech center of his brain. Speaking triggers a massive disturbance in the form of a highly destructive shockwave capable of leveling a city. Due to the extreme danger posed by this power, the character has undergone rigorous mental training to prevent himself from uttering a sound, even in his sleep, and he usually remains completely silent and speaks through sign language or via a spokesperson.
Nightmare is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Strange Tales #110 and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The character is depicted most commonly as a major enemy of Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider. Nightmare is the ruler of a Dream Dimension and he is one of the Fear Lords. He is also part of the group called The Six Fingered Hand. He can drain the psychic energies from the subconscious minds of dreaming beings.
Ysabel is a fantasy novel by Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay. It was first published in January 2007 by Viking Canada. It is Kay's first urban fantasy and his first book set outside his fantasied Europe milieux since the publication of his first three novels in the 1980s. Kay lived in the countryside near Aix-en-Provence, the setting of Ysabel, while he wrote it. The story tells of 15-year-old Ned Marriner who discovers his magical heritage while staying with his photographer father in Provence. He meets an American exchange student, the two become involved in an ancient "story" of love, sacrifice, and magic unfolding in the present day, which draws in Ned's family and friends.
Occult detective fiction is a subgenre of detective fiction that combines the tropes of the main genre with those of supernatural, fantasy and/or horror fiction. Unlike the traditional detective who investigates murder and other common crimes, the occult detective is employed in cases involving ghosts, demons, curses, magic, vampires, undead, monsters and other supernatural elements. Some occult detectives are portrayed as being psychic or in possession of other paranormal or magical powers.
The Dresden Files is a dark fantasy television series based on the fantasy book series of the same name by Jim Butcher. The series follows private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden as portrayed by Paul Blackthorne, and recounts investigations into supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. It premiered on January 21, 2007, on Sci Fi Channel in the United States and on Space in Canada. It was picked up by Sky One in the UK and began airing on February 14 the same year.
The House on the Borderland (1908) is a supernatural horror novel by British fantasist William Hope Hodgson. The novel is a hallucinatory account of a recluse's stay at a remote house, and his experiences of supernatural creatures and otherworldly dimensions.
Furies of Calderon is the first novel in the high fantasy series Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. The novel was first released by Ace Books in the United States as a Hardcover edition on October 5, 2004, followed by a Paperback edition on June 26, 2005. Orbit Books released a paperback edition in the United Kingdom in December 2009. It tells the story of a young boy named Tavi who is the only one without any fury-crafting abilities.
City at the End of Time is a 2008 science fiction novel by American writer Greg Bear. It was published in August 2008 by Del Rey in the United States, and Gollancz in the United Kingdom. The story follows three drifters in present-day Seattle who are tormented by strange dreams of the Kalpa, a city one hundred trillion years in the future. The Kalpa is attempting to ward off the Typhon, an inexplicable entity that has consumed the rest of the ancient universe and broken down the laws of physics.
John Dies at the End is a 2012 American comedy horror film written and directed by Don Coscarelli and based on David Wong's novel of the same name. It stars Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes, with Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman, Daniel Roebuck, and Doug Jones.
The Dresden Files is a series of contemporary fantasy/mystery novels written by American author Jim Butcher. The first novel, Storm Front—which was also Butcher's writing debut—was published in 2000 by Roc Books.
Ashtown Burials is a young adult fantasy series by N. D. Wilson. It consists of three published novels: The Dragon's Tooth (2011), The Drowned Vault (2012), and Empire of Bones (2013), as well as a fourth book, The Silent Bells, which as of 2021 is being published in serial format.
Victoria Elizabeth Schwab is an American writer. She is known for the 2013 novel Vicious, the Shades of Magic series, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which was nominated for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. She publishes children's and young adult fiction books under the name Victoria Schwab. She is the creator of the supernatural teen drama series First Kill, based on her short story of the same name originally published in the 2020 anthology Vampires Never Get Old: Tales With Fresh Bite.
The Fifth Season is a 2015 science fantasy novel by American writer N. K. Jemisin. It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016. It is the first volume in the Broken Earth series and is followed by The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky.
Ruthanna Emrys is an American science fiction and fantasy writer best known for The Innsmouth Legacy series: The Litany of Earth, Winter Tide, and Deep Roots.