A young septuagenarian dinosaur Optimus Yarnspinner is on a quest to uncover the author of a manuscript left by his authorial godfather. And it's to Bookholm he must go.
Bookholm, a city I'd call a bibliophile heaven. A city obsessed with books and everything about them. Only many of these books are not just for reading. Some are truly hazardous while others are just downright deadly. Some are even alive! All to be found in this city of strange inhabitants like Sharkgrubs and Murchs who live above enormous catacombs, filled with even more books of inestimable worth, and even stranger creatures. Booklings, animatomes, Harpyrs, and flora and fauna of the truly bizarre kind inhabit the caverns far below. But the strangest and most fearsome of them all is the dreaded Shadow King.
Optimus falls into the clutches of an evil book dealer, is hypnotized, poisoned and abandoned in the catacombs. What happens next is a rollicking adventure unlike anything I've ever read in a long, long time. Definitely not a children's book; too many bloody scenes and vicious books that could scare them out of picking up a book ever again! I raced through it in 5 days and enjoyed every word of it.
Highly recommended and a definite re-read.
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