The Library of Amorlin by Kalyn Josephson: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

The Library of Amorlin by Kalyn Josephson

The Library of Amorlin starts The Age of Beasts fantasy, and it was one of my anticipated reads for the start of the year. The beginning was promising, but unfortunately, the book didn’t deliver.

The setting is interesting. A world of several kingdoms around a neutral zone of a magical library that bends time and space within its limits. The library is in charge of protecting magical beasts and mediating between kingdoms. Unfortunately, Kalthos, one of the kingdoms, is ruled by a religion that sees the beasts as embodiments of sins, and systematically destroys them. As beasts die, magic becomes more unpredictable and the natural order of things begin to unravel. So, Kalthos and the library are at direct odds.

The premise is good too. Kasira, in her late twenties, is a con-artist who grew up on the streets of Kalthos until she was captured. She was held imprisoned in inhuman conditions for four years, after which the sentence was commuted to hunting and killing beasts as part of elite killing units, which she’s been doing for the past three years. And then she’s offered a chance for freedom by Vera, the Kalthos ambassador to Amorlin: con her way into the library and bring it under Kalthos’s rule. She has three months. Fail and it’s back to prison.

Kasira sets out to convince the librarian, Allaster, that she’s not a Kalthos spy. He doesn’t believe her. He’s right. She pulls off a couple of cons and manages to change his mind. And then a twist happens, which changes things for Kasira, sort of but not. And then another twist, upping the stakes but not. And then the final con that brings the book to a satisfying conclusion with no cliffhanger ending.

Technically, this all should’ve made for an interesting book. Problem is, there’s no plot. There are events that spring out of nowhere and end as fast, with no aftermath or consequences. The events include cons that Kasira pulls, but how she does them isn’t shown on the page. What readers see is her reading books, tending to beasts, and training with Allaster. The plot that affects them both happens elsewhere. There is a war brewing and a possible coup taking place in Kalthos, on top of the battle for the library, and on the background, Vera is pulling strings.

The final continues the same. The reader is shown one thing, only to learn that Kasira has pulled something on the background. On the surface, it’s interesting, but not as interesting as following her along it would’ve been. The end result is satisfying and clever, but it leaves the reader cold.

From the reader’s point of view, Kasira has no agency in her own story. There are the cons, but the reader isn’t shown them, and the small wins she creates are made void by an outside influence that always trumps her efforts, forcing her to react instead of being in charge. We’re only seemingly following Kasira’s story, but what we get is Vera’s efforts on the background.

When the protagonist is a con-artist, I expect to be shown how they plan the cons, and whether they can pull them off, especially since some here seemed a bit impossible. I don’t want a smug admission after the fact that “I made this happen,” without being shown—or even told—how. The surprise factor isn’t interesting. Kasira comes off as useless, boring and smug on the page. That she makes things work in the end is fine, but doesn’t feel like a win when we’ve not seen her do it.

Allastair, who also has point of view chapters, isn’t any better. He’s grabbling with a magical condition that already killed his predecessor. He’s 130 years old and he still hasn’t found the solution. All we ever see him doing, when he’s not mistrusting Kasira, is reading. He comes off as waffling and useless. The same goes with the few side characters. They all have issues on the background that affect how they act, with some surprises, but again, it’s not shown on the page.

Without a plot, the author is forced to use the out of the blue twists to make the story more interesting. All it would’ve taken is to give the main characters something proactive to do and show it to the reader. Anything that would take the reader along the ride, anticipate and fear with them. The events of the ending especially suffered from this. Kasira is clever, but we get nothing but the aftermath. There wasn’t even a proper romance yet to make things exciting.

All this is to say that this was a boring book. There’s no reason to read it; just skip to the end. It took me ages to finish, and that’s not including the couple of days after the second twist around 60% mark when I stopped reading completely. I almost didn’t pick it up again, but forced myself to finish. The ending was more conclusive than I expected, and it was good enough to leave the story here.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.