Library Mayhem

The Great Library of Tomorrow

The Book of Wisdom Trilogy #1

Rosalia Aguilar Solace

473 pages • first pub 2024

Helia is the Sage of Hope, and while performing duties with her partner Xavier, Sage of Truth, they are ambushed while visiting the Rose Gardens in the realm of Silvyra. Helia realises that the Ash Man or Suttaru, long considered a legend is very real. As he destroys the gardens, Helia and her partner are hurt but she must get back to the Great Library of Tomorrow to raise the alarm and start the fight back.  

The story starts of in the thick of it with Ash Man making his presence known and that he is about to wreak havoc on all the worlds. Helia and Xavier are in a battle for their lives, and the pace is frenetic. You quickly learn that Helia and Xavier are accompanied by magical orbs that can communicate. With Helia’s escape that is when things slow down and get complicated.  

You are introduced to an additional eight or ten characters that all have bearing on the story but in some cases their motivations are never really explored.  

The story is told as two quests, with two-character groups trying to resolve the issue against the impending danger of the Ash Man.  

The first group is Helia and Nu who try to resolve the missing dragon, the loss of the elixir of life and finding a rose seed. They are accompanied by Dzin, his brother Yantuz and a female fighter with steel wings, called Rascal.  

The second group is Arturo and Robin who try to resolve why the Book of Wisdom can no longer communicate. They are assisted by everyone at the library. 

Pretty much everyone has a special power of some sort, that they use to great effect.  Arturo’s power, well I kept thinking why does he not use his ability to end the life of the Ash Man? Could have been all over as soon as he writes a happy ending.  

The Ash Man has great promise as a baddie, but you really do not understand what is driving and fueling his hatred? I mean I did not really know to the end why the Ash Man wanted to obliviate the world. When the reveal is made, well it was a bit lack luster and done as a tying up a loose end.  

What for me was missing was no coordinated ongoing sense of danger or conflict. When Helia heads back to alert the library that their entire world is under threat what do they do? Why they research, no need to panic that a horde of monsters is coming to destroy you. In fact, is business as usual, pretty much. We are told there are Sages who cannot be contacted but no one seems in a rush to let them know that they might be hunted down and eliminated. The Ash Man seems confused as to who or what he is trying to cull. One minute it is the library, then it is a town, then he is chasing Helia or is it Nu? Never quite sure on that one. This is where I struggled with the story as there are all these promising elements of conflict that just don’t pull together.  

I found the premise intriguing, full of promise, a wonderfully rich world, interesting social structures but an overly large ensemble of main characters that did not work.