Plot or Premise

The year is 2098 and the world government has decided to close the last library and destroy all the books.

What I Liked

The basic premise of everything having gone digital, world governments, and a plague that wiped out most of humanity fifty years before was intriguing. Equally, the idea of the “last library” on Earth being a large structure in Portland was kind of quirky, with two others having been closed in Australia and Europe. And the last librarian wanting to save the books was wrapped in a larger mystery about the content of the digital book copies being changed. Very 1984ish or Brave New World.

What I Didn’t Like

The main character is not very strong, and it is hard to root for him as the “last librarian”. But the book tells you it repeatedly so you don’t forget. There is also no explanation of why it is the Portland library that remains, as opposed to the Library of Congress or something similar, but that’s quibbling.  » Read the rest