The Great Library Premise

Jess is a book smuggler, his family as a whole are book smugglers, but that’s not what he loves. He loves to read books and learn. But due to the Library at Alexandria controlling all of the books, he doesn’t get read everything he wants and all knowledge is tightly controlled by the library. He ventures to the library to become a scholar so that he can help the family business. There he meets and interesting cast of characters as he studies and finds out that the library is not that good an organization. How can he and his fellow classmates and library counterparts work to take down this institution?

Initial Thoughts

The premise is not that unique, but it is unique at the same time. The idea that one area controls all knowledge is how some parts of the actual world work. But this takes it even further. It’s not just that all knowledge is controlled, it’s that your story, and your life, that information of it belongs to the library as well. And the library doesn’t want anyone else to know about certain things. And there is magic, but in an interesting and smaller way than something like Harry Potter.

Now, just because the library piece is interesting, this falls into that category of Divergent and The Hunger Games, where it is a small group against the big evil rulers. The plot is a bit simplistic that way. Caine does try and create two groups, the Library and the Burners who the protagonist has to deal with. Even the main character’s family being smugglers are another group that he bumps up again. But it is a tried and true, generally, plan for the plot.

What Doesn’t Work

Honestly, I don’t have too many complaints about the books. I think that compared to a lot of YA (young adult) fiction, that it works well. But that doesn’t mean that it is flawless. I think there are two things that have stood out to me, the biggest issue being the third book.

The second book ends on a cliffhanger. I won’t say what it is because that’ll give away part of the story and I don’t want to do that, I think it is a good series. But book three makes a key mistake in it, at least for me. When there is a cliffhanger, I want it resolved and then have the story progress. I don’t think the third book does that, it spends a long time working through the fallout of the cliffhanger, and the story just kind of stagnates. I get why that might be the case in how Caine writes it. We are getting our main introduction to a group of characters, but it’s too long and while stuff happens, it could have happened much faster.

The second part of book three is much stronger because the story progresses and progresses in a way that I really like. But that’s the last half or less of the book when it feels like the story progresses again. I think that book three just needed another pass by an editor to really tighten up the story, which would have probably made the book shorter, but it’d have felt like less of a slog to get through.

The other thing that bugged me and it isn’t a big deal, is she sets the time frame when this happens. That shouldn’t be a big deal, but it’s kind of dumb. There is zero reason for this to be set at any time, and with the bits of text we get from “real” people who are writing against the library, we can generally place when this story must be happening. I think the issue for me is how she added it into the story, it was dropped at the end of a paragraph like it was a big reveal ,it most certainly wasn’t. That just felt wrong with how it was handled.

What Works

The characters in the series are good. I think that Jess is an interesting protagonist which is nice. Too many YA series give you a really flat main character. Or that main character who is too good at everything. Jess is good but he’s not always the best at anything. The cast of characters around him are good as well. Not more interesting than him, but as interesting, because often YA books have the side characters be more interesting. It’s also a diverse cast of characters in terms of gender, race, religion, and sexuality, but it’s done very naturally. So the story flows and feel real world like.

I also like books about books, so the library controlling everything is an interesting premise. It shows the twisting of the ideas of the library and how they have turned something that isn’t good. And it is done in a logical way, some books, Divergent, for example, creates a premise that doesn’t make any sense, it isn’t the logical end to any situation. But in The Great Library series, it makes sense, like I said, there are real world parallels with some areas of the world controlling knowledge.

And I like, generally the story progression, like I said, the third book loses me by spending too much time on generally the wrong things. It takes that cliffhanger and drags it out without feeling like we progress the story. But generally, Caine doesn’t do that. She also doesn’t information dump the history of everything or how the world and magic works in the world. You find that out as you need to find it out. In fact, you find out some of it as the characters find out about it. So it feels natural in how she is writing to how it works in the real world.

Final Thoughts On The Great Library

Obviously, I am not done with the series. There are five books in it, and that feels right for the series. Any longer and the story would drag out, and any shorter, say going the trilogy route, and the story would feel rushed. Maybe four books would have been ideal, because of my issues with book three. I own all the books, which says something about the series though. It means that it’s one that I might come back to.

I will say, that is my strong recommendation for this series. It’s well written, interesting enough premise, though not that unique, and compared to some others, such as Divergent which I would actively recommend people not read, I’d come back to this one gladly. If you want to read a well written YA series, this is going to be a solid one. It won’t likely blow you away, but it won’t likely disappoint either. If you’re not interested in reading YA, I wouldn’t recommend this series because it is what it is.

Have you read The Great Library Series by Rachel Caine? What are your thoughts on it?

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This is building off of my articles on where to start in comics and the article on zombies in pop culture. The format is going to continue to be a little bit different every time, mainly because it can be, but I want to talk about some things that have worked well and some that don’t work as well.

I think that we can all think of a lot of apocalyptic or post apocalyptic stories out there. About 5 years ago we had a lot of them being taken on in the Young Adult style with books series like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Maze Runner. Some of these worked better and some were disappointments, at least for myself. Since then, the genre hasn’t really died off, we have Netflix putting out shows like Daybreak and The Rain where things are going horribly wrong or have gone horribly wrong in the world. The genre as a whole has kind of been all over the map though with a lot of goofy stories as well as many very serious takes on the genre as well.

Now, I’m not sure that any particular take is going to be always the right one. Some that take themselves too seriously become overwrought and melodramatic, while others can try and do a humorous take on it that just ends up being hit or miss. And there’s also an element where some authors are trying too hard to be profound on a topic that is going to lend itself to a lot of speculation.

Just to talk about speculation, I feel like there are two that I can kind of compare as to how one does it decently and the other does it poorly. In The Hunger Games, we have this idea of spectacle, and that humans, even when things are going poorly are going to want spectacle and probably even want more and greater spectacle, especially if they are at the top of the food chain. This is something that we can see already in our society where people love things like Survivor, or even before our time with the shows in the Roman Colosseum, so The Hunger Games has a feeling of something that is grounded and truthful to it. Compare that to Divergent. The issue with Divergent, besides that the story just takes a left turn that everyone saw coming is that they split up humanity and society in a way that doesn’t make any sense. At no point in time before has society split itself along those lines in such a way or tested people so that they would be split that way. It feels like an illogical jump for a society to make and one that doesn’t really aid the society in the long run. So even though, I would say, there is some overlap, the speculation and the ability for a post apocalyptic story to have a ring of truth to it makes a big difference.

Now, I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about how it’s moved into other mediums. It’s easy to think of books, films and TV shows, but in many ways it’s just as easy to think of video games. The Last of Us is a prime example of a post-apocalyptic game, and the Resident Evil games take place during or after the apocalypse. But probably less known to some, though obviously something I like, is how it’s made it’s way into board games. Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and Season 2 are basically board games about the apocalypse and the fallout from that. And it gives you an interestingly written story. Even a game like Dead of Winter, which I’ve mentioned in the zombie article, is definitely about survival after the apocalypse. While I don’t have a ton of post-apocalyptic games on my shelf, I have a lot that are about thwarting that great disaster from happening, basically all of the Lovecraft Mythos investigative games from Fantasy Flight fall into that category. In those games, Arkham Horror, Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition, Eldritch Horror, Elder Signs, you’re always trying to stop a great old one from coming through, or something along those lines. Even fantasy games like Gloomhaven, Sword & Sorcery, and Aeon’s End: War Eternal, while maybe not as heavily apocalyptic as some, have bits and pieces of that thrown in, especially if you fail the campaign.

Finally, there are RPG’s, and I think when it comes to a medium that is built for the apocalypse, RPG’s are that medium. Even if it hasn’t happened, the fact that you’re going on an adventure to do something, it’s going to be to stop something bad, and generally that’s some form the of the apocalypse for at least part of the world. And if you make it up to level 20, it’s probably for the whole world. In fact, one of the campaign books for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition is Princes of the Apocalypse. There’s just something about the story of an malevolent god trying to destroy humanity and the player characters becoming humanities champions that just works well for a story. It’s one of those things where you can joke that it’s a story as old as time, but it works for so many reasons as it gives you that heroes journey and that final thing for them to overcome.

Well, that was kind of rambling, I had a lot that I wanted to talk about what I like from apocalyptic stories and why some of them don’t work as well if they ring a little hollow. Plus, I couldn’t go an article without talking about how it has flowed into the RPG and Board Game mediums. What are some of your favorite apocalyptic stories from whatever medium it might be?

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1 The Dresden Files
I don’t think that this will be a surprise for anyone, but I really love this series. Jim Butcher does a really good job creating an interesting urban fantasy world that has some of that classic pulp feel to it while having very interesting villains and characters. The series starts a little slow, but as there is more focus to it, Harry Dresden’s world really takes off.

2 IT
I really like Stephen King and by far his standout work for me is It. I think that I’ve probably read the book a handful of times or more now. The story is just compelling and the interweaving of the past with the present to fill in the readers knowledge of what is going on works very well. I also like the fact that this book doesn’t fall flat at the end like some of his other books can do. The horror aspect is strong with this book, and Pennywise is a great villain and a valid reason for people to hate clowns.

3 The Reckoners
A series that I’ve talked about some and a game that I’m really excited to play, the Reckoners is a nice different twist on those with super powers. The Epics as the super powered are known in this series are all evil. And the Reckoners are a group of normal people who are trying to to bring some normalcy back to the world and take down the Epics who rule it. It’s a YA series and there’s a bit of it that’s not amazing at a few points in time, but overall, the series is really well done, and it’s just a good super power twist series by Brandon Sanderson.

4 Harry Potter
I’m done with JK Rowling in a lot of ways, she just needs to take her hands off  the stranglehold she has on this world, but I really like the series still. There’s something nostalgic about them for me, though I am older than the average who has those feelings about them, seeing as I read them in college. There is just something so magical about the world that allows you to overlook some pretty obvious flaws with it. The story just stands up well, and while the movies might not, the first movie is rough, I will always enjoy going back to the books.

5 Stormlight Archive
More Brandon Sanderson for the list. This series is epic fantasy at it’s best. The leader who didn’t want to be the leader now has to save the people. The slave rising up to save the day, and so many more classic tropes put together, but it feels new and unique and so huge. I mean, the books literally are massive, and the audio books are great because they are 45+ hours long, so you have a good amount of listening time to them. This is the epic fantasy that I’m always hoping to find.

Of course, I’m going to do some honorable mentions as well. My goal will be to the finish off a top 10 with them, like I did with the board games. In no particular order, my honorable mentions:

Lord of the Rings
The Hunger Games
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Good Omens
Swallows and Amazons

What are your favorite book series?

Making my choices for this list was no easier than for the first two, and at the same time it was different — for instance, it was a little easier to identify my all-time faves (most of which I’ve watched upwards of 20 times apiece…no wonder there’s still so much on my to-be-watched list). However, as I was thinking through my list, I felt that there are a lot of titles that hold kind of an equal ranking in terms of how much I like them, so there are a ton of films on my honorable mentions list, most of which it was really painful to keep out of the top 5. In other words, get ready for an honorable mention list at the end of this post that will no doubt be far too long…at least you’ll get lots of recs that way, am I right?

So with that caveat in place, here are my top 5 favorite films of all time!

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

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I’ll never forget seeing the trailer for this movie in theaters when I was about 14 and thinking, “Wow, that movie looks super creepy! I’m never watching that one…” Little did I know that I’d work up the courage to do so soon after the movie came out, or that I would instantly become obsessed with it! That obsession has never really let up in the intervening 14 years (yes, you read that right; I’ve been watching this movie for fully half my life. Does that make me feel old? Yes…yes it does). I’m still not tired of the amazing soundtrack, Will and Elizabeth’s adorable awkwardness, the sweeping scenery, or the gloriousness that is Captain Jack Sparrow.

I will say that I think the first POTC film is by far the strongest — while I enjoy all the others to varying degrees, sometimes I find myself wishing they’d just left well enough alone after the first one. However, this film and its descendants remain some of my favorites to watch when I want the perfect kicking-back movie in the summertime, or just when I want a little adventure.

4. Beauty and the Beast

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This one had to make it on to the list even if for no other reason than the fact that I’ve loved it since I was literally 3 years old (which was right about the time it was first released — yes, I am old; we’ve established this). This is one of the first movies I have clear memories seeing (along with Dumbo, 2-year-old me’s favorite), and though my feelings toward it and the things I get out of watching it have changed as I’ve grown up, it always has been and always will be among my all-time favorites.

I don’t know for sure what 3-year-old Kristen loved about it, other than the smart and pretty princess and the beautiful castle she roamed, but I do know that, then and afterward, this movie has always resonated with me. Whether it’s the beauty of two total outcasts finding safety and love with each other, the wonderful fantasy elements, the amazing music that is among the best of the best to this day, or just that awesome library that I wished Beast had given to me instead of Belle, there’s been something great to take away with every one of my dozens of re-watchings.

3. Star Wars (original trilogy)

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These films, in all their campy, goofy, haphazard glory, were my first real introduction to the world of sci-fi, and there was no turning back from that point on. I first saw the original Star Wars films when I was about 10, and let me tell you, they blew my tiny little mind. I quickly became obsessed with them, and learned all I could about the films themselves, the characters, and the extended universe. I checked out all the Star Wars-related books I could get my hands on from the library (which, granted, was not many given the fact that I grew up in a small town, but I did the best with what I had). While I may have forgotten a lot of the SW trivia I once knew, the memories of how the movies first made me feel have stayed, and I get to revisit them at least in some small measure every time I re-watch these movies. I love them for their sense of adventure, their unforgettable characters, the way the special effects still manage to mostly hold up after all these years, and for the never-stale message that even someone insignificant can become something great.

2. Pride and Prejudice (2005 version)

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Quite simply, this movie swept me off my feet like a cheesy romance hero. But cheesy this film is not — to this day, I still consider it to be one of the most beautiful pieces of art (cinematic or otherwise) I’ve had the good fortune to run across, and it doesn’t feel over-the-top to say that it changed something about my mental aesthetic, and about the way I interpret romantic (and Romantic) media.

There are those purists out there who will deem that ranking the 2005 version of P&P over the 1995 version is nothing short of blasphemy. They’re welcome to think that, but I have to respectfully disagree. I’ll grant that the ’95 version is far closer to the book both in terms of tone and content, and that it’s a better look at the follies of high society as represented in Austen’s work. Nonetheless, the ’05 version is just beyond gorgeous, both in terms of the loving (yet still often scathing) way it paints its characters, to the pitch-perfect settings, to the way it gets to the real heart of the varied, fraught, and somehow beautiful relationships between the characters that inhabit the stories. Call me a hopelessly romantic teenager if you want, but to quote dearest Darcy, it bewitched me body and soul, you guys. There’s no topping that.

1. Lord of the Rings trilogy

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Let’s face it — there was no way this one wasn’t going at the top of the list. These films are still the best book-to-film adaptations I’ve ever seen, before or since, and I don’t anticipate they’ll get bumped from that position anytime soon.

These movies brought the books to life for me in the best way — though they may not be perfect adaptations (and I know all about the schools of thought on this; believe me), to me they capture the true heart of the stories themselves. They communicate the same truth, the same love, the same moments of clarity and conviction. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all that’s needed for a truly great adaptation, regardless of the surrounding details. Just like with the books, I can call up images and quotes and feelings from the films to find peace when I’m troubled — I couldn’t ask for anything greater from a film than that.

Honorable mentions (presented without further comment for sake of space): The Princess Bride, Tangled, The Avengers (and other Marvel offerings), Howl’s Moving Castle, Tangled, North & South (BBC), The Holiday, Ever After, The Hunger Games, How to Train Your Dragon, Big Hero 6, Wall-E, V for Vendetta, A Knight’s Tale, The Count of Monte Cristo (Jim Caviezel version), The Fall, Treasure Planet

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As any book-lover knows, narrowing your favorites down to a small list is HARD. I think I’ve managed it, but just as Peder did, I’ve included a couple of series rather than just single books. I agree with his opinion that some series are just too good to separate out, and that it generally makes more sense to look at them as a single unit rather than individual books.

So without further ado–here are my top 5!

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Like Peder, I couldn’t quite narrow my list down to five — so, a few honorable mentions: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Impossible by Nancy Werlin, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

So which of these have you read? Did you love them as much as I did? What are some other books you’ve read and loved?

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I’m starting off with my Top 5 Books.

Now, I’m going to add a disclaimer — when I say books, I mean top 5 books or book series. Some series are just too good to split up into single books, and I expect that more often than not you’re going to see series on my list.

Let me say that creating this list was harder than I thought; getting criteria in my head as to what should make my list was tricky, and there’s always something nagging in the background like, “but there’s probably a book you’ve forgotten.” Hopefully I didn’t make a glaring miss on my list. When choosing, I thought about the number of times I’ve read the book, if I’d want to read it again, and how much I’ve enjoyed the book, and I think I’ve come up with a pretty solid list.

Some books that were close but didn’t quite make it are Inkheart by Caroline Funke, Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

But what other books do you think I would enjoy? What are your five favorite books?

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The saga of the Hunger Games adaptations has been an exciting and, for the most part, satisfying one. As I said in my post on books and their film adaptations, I’m all for watching the movie before the book when the situation calls for it, but in this case, I’m glad I didn’t. In my (totally biased) opinion, the Hunger Games movies have thus far been some of the best adaptations I’ve seen of anything, period. Reading the books first let me appreciate that in a way I couldn’t have if the situation had been reversed.

When the first movie came out, we were all cautiously optimistic about it. After all, who hasn’t been burned by bad movie adaptations that turn great stories into laughable, slapdash travesties? But this time, the hopes we hardly dared to hope were realized. Yes, a lot of the details were spot on and gave the movie the right feel, but the important thing was that The Hunger Games captured the spirit of the original story, and conveyed its message powerfully without cheapening it. What could have been a film that wallowed in the spectacle of it all (thereby missing the point entirely and basically turning us all into Capitol citizens staring wide-eyed at the shiny, shiny fight scenes) was a film that was not only well-made in a cinematic sense, but that made us think deeply about the way the world is, and the direction it could be headed if we don’t sit up and pay attention.

The second film was much the same — there were a few more plot deviations and liberties taken than in the first film, but it held up well, and didn’t fall prey to the second-movie-slump syndrome that other movie series have. It treated the characters with the same dignity that the first movie did, brought in new characters that were every bit as compelling (and snarky) as we could have hoped, and communicated the underlying message in a way that was, if anything, stronger than ever.

As for Mockingjay: Part I, well…I have a confession to make, guys. I haven’t actually seen it yet. But aside from bad timing (and admittedly, some procrastination, because, I’m sorry, were YOU excited to see Hijacked!Peeta? I didn’t think so), there’s a good reason for my tardiness.

As I’m sure is the case for many of you, I’m decidedly not in favor of the two-movie split for Mockingjay. To me, this is a step down for the series as a whole, and tempers my admiration of it a bit. It’s a setup that’s not only completely unnecessary (there’s no more material in Mockingjay than there is in the other two books, after all), but one that also feels uncomfortably like the filmmakers are capitalizing on the spectacle inherent in the stories, which is exactly what the books warn us against. I have a hard time seeing the scheme as anything more than a cash grab.

Obviously, I’m not supercilious enough to let this keep me from seeing either of the movies, and I’m every bit as excited to watch them as you’d expect. But seeing them closer together feels a bit more like seeing them on my own terms. And seeing them in one big chunk, like they were intended to be, dang it!

I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to see the Mockingjay films, but I know it will be soon. And when I do, I hope I’ll find that their overall quality is enough to surmount the dubious real-world shenanigans surrounding them. When all’s said and done, I have faith that we’ll end up with four films that stand as admirable examples of how wise, timely, and insightful stories likeThe Hunger Games can be — stories that show us what’s real, and what never should be.

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