It's no exaggeration to say that I truly loved the first book of this trilogy; due mostly to an expansive plotline and enjoyable characters.  I'm not sure why, but I didn't come away from this book with the same awe; I kind of felt a little let down.

Spoilers ahead:

The end of the last book was a bit confusing; the library was on fire (it was always on fire somewhere and sometime), our protagonists had learned that the Library had been built by two brothers who waged an eternal battle over control.  One brother believed the Library to be a good thing; a repository of all knowledge so that when a race was beaten down to a primitive state it could rise again with all the knowledge at hand.  The other brother had come to believe that knowledge given instead of earned was not the boon the other had thought. He believed that a race given knowledge would be careless with it and commit yet another catastrophe; and the proof was out there.  There was a great deal of evidence that humans and caniths had been warring for time out of mind and each time one race hit bottom and used the library they had, yet again, warred with each other. And there were a great many races who had access to the library with similar results.  The brothers compromised by allowing certain events to occur.  But the devices built into the library have had an unexpected result.  Livira and Evar spent a lifetime inside a Mechanism with her book. They both accessed the Exchange, which had been forbidden to humans (with no explanation as to the why). Livira and Malar lived a lifetime inside a Library Assistant and Soldier. And much of the events that directed their choices (to stay or to go) were because of the book that Livira wrote over years both in her past and in her future. There's something about that particular book that is driving the plot and I couldn't quite make heads nor tails of it.  I don't think it would be a stretch to compare the book to an ouroboros.

This book (not Livira’s) begins by introducing us to a new species, the Ganar.  We meet two of them, brother and sister, who are slaves in a mine managed by humans who treated them much as one would treat cattle or chickens.  Hellet and Celcha were somewhat troublesome slaves, prone to too much intelligence and cleverness; which occasionally earned them some punishment.  When Celcha found a buried book it was Hellet who grabbed the book from her hand just moments before an overseer came on them.  And the punishment he received apparently broke his spirit; he began conversing with two angels, as he described them.  But it was books that ultimately saved them both when the slave crew broke through a wall and discovered a room full of books.  This brought a Librarian out of the city to come and investigate.  Hellet made himself and his sister both useful and knowledgeable enough that the Librarian decided to take them both with her when she left with all the books. 

Life in the Library was luxury beyond measure for them both. But it wasn't just their apparent interest and care of the found book treasure that impelled the Librarian to take them with her.  She had need of a new pair of Ganar since her last pair had died.  Although much understanding of the Library had been lost over the eons, the Librarians did understand that doors were keyed to species.  The humans and Canith learned that working together meant that twice as many doors could be opened.  Having two willing (the Library insisted that door openers were willing and not coerced) Ganar meant they could open more doors.  Some were still locked to them; maybe being Skeer doors and no one wanted those doors open.  The Skeer were a nasty murderous insectoid race.

Unfortunately, despite the luxury and apparent respect they gained by becoming apprentice librarians, the two Ganar still found themselves being regarded as particularly clever animals.  The anger and hate they had stored up for the many many years they'd been enslaved wasn't gone.  And Hellet had promised her that they would kill everyone; he had a plan.  And his two angels (or ghosts) were going to help him.  Ganar lived a very, very long time and they were very, very good at biding their time and being patient.  But time and circumstance had led them to a place where they could actually enact a punishment on both Canith and Human for the enslavement of a race that had actually traveled through space from their moon to this planet.  They had been enslaved for so long that only books remembered the heights they had aspired to. (What I had trouble understanding within this plotline was why two Canith who were in ghost form would help them.)

Livira and Malar spend most of the book in ghost form following Evar, Clovis and many of Livira's human friends.  They had escaped the fire in the library and combined their strengths to fend off the murderous Skeer.  They were all involved in complex adventures; ultimately bringing them all together, Human and Canith.

Throughout the plot there were several suggestions that the two brothers, Irad and Jaspeth, still existed and were possibly using our protagonists in their secret war.  Livira's book was definitely an ouroboros but I couldn't figure out why; not sure if the author left clues I missed or intended that we wait until the third book to comprehend.

Incredibly, this book ends with a cliff-hangar that I could not have predicted.  And there were many threads that haven't been resolved. I'm trying to think of what I most want to see in the third book.  I think I want to know if Irad and Jaspeth really are having a secret war using our characters as their proxies; and if so, then I want to know why – what will their success or failure accomplish?  And because I have a strong streak of sentimentality, I want those two crazy kids, Livira and Evar, to find happiness. I think being conflicted about this book stems from confusion; this book raised more questions than it answered and I confess to being very confused with when and where actions occurred - time and space not being constraints for the library.

These two books have been the most unpredictable prose I can remember reading.  I haven't decided whether I like that or not.  "Waiting will fill" - a quote from a favorite book that fits here, I think.  ~  Catherine Book

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