The first time I visited a library, I fell in love. I will die a librarian in love with books and libraries, therefore I had to download this. Lots of good reviews, so I'm excited. Yes, it's good and I recommend it. It is followed by: The lost treerunner(Justar journals #2) and The list keeper (Justar journals #3).

This was worth the purchase. Very involved, thankfully it's in my Kindle app so I have tools to do bookmarks, get ids and pronunciations. Additionally, I'm a little familiar with the Portland area. There are so many factions, you are always encountering more of the story. At least one review points out that it didn't have an ending, but there are two more books! Revolutions and changes take lots of time, so to do all of this in about 400 pages would not have done justice. Additionally, it's covering a long-time span!

When the single remaining library of physical books is ordered closed and its “dangerous” contents burned, almost no one notices, almost no one cares, but a few did.

The impossible task of rescuing the books is up to an angry author, a brazen revolutionary, and the last librarian.

They must unravel a coded paradox hidden in the texts.

If they fail, humanity will lose more than just what is printed on those antique pages…

…if it survives at all.

You’ll love Book 1 of this thrilling series, because every chapter contains secrets and surprising twists.

Followed by: #2 Lost treerunners (KINDLE); #3 List keepers (KINDLE). $4.99 ea. or set of all 3 $9.99 ( )

A very enjoyable read, a fine mix of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, with riveting plot. ( )

The best I can say about this book is it has potential. I'd love to see the author follow up on a lot of the critical reviews on here, and rewrite it with those in mind, as it would improve the book greatly.

First of all, introducing new words. When done right, this can add to a story; not in this case. Their use didn't feel organic to the story; they were forced in with an info dump. Every time I ran across torgon (fuck) blac (cigarette) or zoom (email) it just completely broke the story.

Speaking of which, the author spends the entire book building up a character to make said character seem important, then poof, nothing. All that build up and investment in the character for nothing. Why bother with it at all?

And no closure. I understand this book is part of a series, and that events can, and often will, continue on from book to book; however, closure is still necessary damn it. Every character involved is either left on a cliffhanger, or just not mentioned near the end.

And character interactions. I can understand having relationships built around books; hell, a lot of my relationships are that way. But to have the character interaction between a father and his best friend, and the father and the son consist mostly of quoting books at each other? No one does that as much as these characters did. It was like reading about 3 walking cliches of pseudo intellectuals.

And don't even get me started on the major reveal 3/4ths of the way through the book that completely changes the story. It wasn't hinted at all, and making no freaking sense in the tone of the rest of the story.

I just hope the author grew and fixed a lot of these problems with the rest of his books. I won't know though, as unless my local library carries them, I won't be reading them. ( )

BOTTOM-LINE:
Okay premise, ridiculous ending, poor writing
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PLOT OR PREMISE:
The year is 2098 and the world government has decided to close the last library and destroy all the books.
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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.
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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. It's large, but hardly the Library of Alexandria. The story also can hardly go 3 or 4 pages without throwing in a literary quote, all from books already written now (i.e., nothing quoted from the next 50 years, although writing continues) and mostly in the 1900s and American. But it was an "okay" book, with enough mystery to keep me going to the end, probably a 3 rating overall (good). But the ending has a major PoV problem that is typical of beginner writers, and provides no closure to the story. Sure, it's part of a trilogy, but the story can't even stand on its own as a one-third portion. The whole component they were dealing with basically shifts to being almost a non-story. If it wasn't on my tablet, I would have thrown it across the room. The only "upside" was that it was free.
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DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow him on social media. ( )

I'll be honest, I can't even be bothered to finish this one. The concept is interesting enough but the execution is poor. The writing is stilted but even worse it was very poorly edited. Not in terms of typos, it's surprisingly clean that way. But there are so many sentences where the word choice is poor, either changing the meaning or rendering it meaningless. It's aggravating. Given the plotline, I suppose it's vaguely possible that this was a deliberate choice, but if so, it's not an effective one (at least for me). ( )