Library of Broken Worlds

I have never had such a difficult time picturing or understanding what's going on in a book. it took me such a long time to finish this one because I could only read small chunks at a time before my brain felt overworked. I saw someone saying somewhere that this is more fantasy than science fiction, and I think that's somewhat true in that, even though it is set in a technologically advanced future, it just refuses to explain any of its concepts. by the end, though, I think I almost admired that. some of the turns of phrase are so shockingly good that I found myself reading them over and over. this book is incredibly beautiful and very poignant (particularly right now); I would have happily given it 5 stars if it hadn't been just so difficult. I rarely re-read things but I think I will have to with this one, if just to come back to the concepts now that I've seen the whole scope of the story.

The Library of Broken Worlds is an (ostensibly) YA scifi book, about an orphan named Frieda born in the Library who we learn in the opening prologue has been sent to kill the oldest god (and it's both unclear if it's possible or if she even wants to).

The worldbuilding here is delicious. I don't want to spoil too many details, but here's a taste. The Library with a capital L is on a disc in space with four material gods. They are "material", as in they are something other than what you think of as normal "spiritual" gods. They exist in space. They have physical avatars. There are tunnels which you can crawl through dangerously. To search the information of these gods feels like a physical process of planting queries and waiting for the results to grow. Librarians can also delve physically (and dangerously) to commune and ask questions of these gods more directly.

Thematically, this book has a lot going on; it's about friends and love, about colonization and abuses of power, about multilayered stories and myths and lies, about sexual trauma (not explicit), about the nature of freedom, about betrayals, about history and information, about space politics and legal shenanigans, about many worlds theory, and about identity. It also asks a bit of its readers, in terms of not spelling out how much of the world works in physical detail, and instead talking in ways that almost feel metaphorical.

I find it hard to talk about too much here without spoiling a lot of what the book is about. If you want more details, I think this Tor review does a much better job than me at pitching this book: www.tor.com/2023/06/12/book-reviews-the-library-of-broken-worlds-by-alaya-dawn-johnson/

I quite enjoyed this.