This month, the reddit book club is reading and discussing The Library at Mount Char. I’m checking in more or less daily, and there will be an official Q & A on January 29th.
http://www.reddit.com/r/books
By shawkins
This month, the reddit book club is reading and discussing The Library at Mount Char. I’m checking in more or less daily, and there will be an official Q & A on January 29th.
http://www.reddit.com/r/books
By shawkins
I’m happy to report that The Library at Mount Char made it onto a number of “Year’s Best” lists over the last few weeks. Please pardon the shameless self-promotion. I’m pretty excited, and you only get to do this once.
“A wholly original, engrossing, disturbing, and beautiful book. You’ve never read anything quite like this, and you won’t soon forget it.” –Full Review here |
Unlike anything I’ve ever read before, this book is a surreal, violent, adrenaline-fueled punch to the brain, a book you can’t stop thinking about. More, please.”–Full Review here |
“Like a dark-hearted take on what might really happen if child wizards like Harry and Hermione weren’t so well-behaved, Hawkins debut is harrowing, entrancing, and never less that utterly original.”–Full Review here |
“A wild ride of a novel, fierce and totally bonkers yet moving and humane, The Library at Mount Char will stun you on every page.” –Full Review here |
“Dark, demented, and drop-dead funny, Scott Hawkins’ twisted fantasy morality play is the best genre debut in years!” |
“The Library at Mount Char is a brilliant, highly original piece of fantasy that more people should be reading.” –Full Review here. |
Nominated for the Best Debut category in the Goodreads Choice Awards, and lost. Badly. (Final result: 13th out of 16.) But it was in fact an honor to be nominated. |
Full list here. |
The audiobook, narrated by Hilary Huber, is fantastic. She recently won a “Best Voice” award from AudioFile magazine. |
Minnesota Public Radio included The Library at Mount Char on their “Top sci-fi and fantasy picks of 2015” list. |
“Scott Hawkins is a recent discovery for me personally, but he’s a talent I’ll look to in the future, as he’s given the world one of the greatest stories to hit shelves in 2015.” –Full Review here |
“Scott Hawkins doesn’t have time for your stinkin’ genre conventions. The Library at Mount Char winds its way through the realms of horror, fantasy, and mystery—sometimes occupying all of these spaces at once.” –The Lineup Presents: The Creepiest Reads of 2015 |
All Books Considered included it in the 2015 Best New Authors roundup. |
“This debut fantasy novel creates a magical and surreal world that’s similar to our own yet imbued with supernatural danger, deities, and plenty of adventure.” –Full Review at ReadItForward.com |
Top 10 Books of 2015 |
By shawkins
I found out recently that Library at Mount Char made the semi-finals in the Goodreads reader’s choice awards for Best Debut category. As a write-in, no less! Many thanks to those of you who voted—I seriously didn’t even know that write-ins were possible.
If you’d like to vote, here’s the link.
The last day to vote is today, November 15.
By shawkins
Here are the highlights of the reviews / blurbs:
“A wholly original, engrossing, disturbing, and beautiful book. You’ve never read anything quite like this, and you won’t soon forget it.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Hawkins makes nary a misstep in this award-worthy effort of imagination. His language is entirely apposite; his characters are fascinating; his sometimes apocalyptic but always sly tone right on the money. And his novel is compulsively readable. Don’t start it if you have something else to do because you won’t be able to put it down.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“A bizarre yet utterly compelling debut…might remind readers of Robert Jackson Bennett’s or Neil Gaiman’s horror/fantasies.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“A first-rate novel… a sprawling, epic contemporary fantasy about cruelty and the end of the world, compulsively readable, with the deep, resonant magic of a world where reality is up for grabs. Unputdownable.”
— Cory Doctorow / boingboing.net
“If you read only one book this summer, make it this one. Sheer perfection.”
— Mybookishways.com
“An early contender for my favorite book of the year. … Set it up people, let the hype flow. This is a book to look out for.”
–Fantasy Review (5/5 stars)
The LA Times included it in their May 28 feature “Get Ready To Be Obsessed With These 29 Page-Turners.” Mt. Char came in right next to Austin Grossman’s new one. (I love Austin Grossman.)
“Funny, horrifying and original…the kind of story that keeps yanking you off in ridiculous new directions every time you think you know what’s coming next.”
—David Wong, New York Times bestselling author of John Dies at the End
“The most genuinely original fantasy I’ve ever read. Hawkins plays with really, really big ideas and does it with superb invention, deeply affecting characters, and a smashing climax I did not see coming.”
—Nancy Kress, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Beggars in Spain
“This book is batshit crazy. From the very first pages, the story grabs you by the guts and doesn’t let go. It mashes together fantasy and thriller, love stories and dark comedy, into a wild trip at once unpredictable and unforgettable. You’ll never look at a librarian in quite the same way.”
—Keith Donohue, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Child
“A pyrotechnic debut…The most terrifyingly psychopathic depiction of a family of gods and their abusive father since Genesis.”
—Charles Stross, Hugo and Locus Award-winning author of Accelerando and The Apocalypse Codex
“Don’t pick up this book unless you want to read something you’ve absolutely never read before. The Library at Mount Char is funny, bizarre, moving, frightening, and surreal. The most original work I’ve read in ages.”
—Walter Jon Williams, New York Times bestselling author of Destiny’s Way and This is Not a Game
By shawkins
The LA Times mentioned The Library at Mount Char in their summer reading list of 29 Page Turners. I was especially tickled that Mount Char ended up next to the latest by Austin Grossman. I absolutely loved his last book, Soon I Will Be Invincible.
Anyway, here’s the list.