I loved Django Wexler’s The
Forbidden Library when it came out in 2014. The sequel, The Mad
Apprentice, however, appeared to much less fanfare in the middle of last
year, and I missed it. But now I’ve hunted it down, and can heartily recommend
it to anyone who enjoyed the first book in the series. Didn’t read The
Forbidden Library? Do so at once!
A quick recap of the FL premise: when law-abiding Alice loses
her father in a shipwreck, she is sent to live with mysterious Uncle Geryon, and,
breaking the rules for the first time in her life, secretly sneaks into his
labyrinthine library. Here she discovers that she is a Reader – someone with
the gift of entering books of magic, and subjugating the extraordinary creatures
she finds there. As her mind fills up
with threads – links to the creatures she’s vanquished, granting her access to
their attributes and powers – Alice accepts the role of Geryon’s apprentice. But
she never loses sight of the mystery of her father’s death…
In book two of the series, Geryon sends Alice out to capture
another apprentice; one who has done the unthinkable, and killed his Master.
With a group of unknown apprentices, Alice must navigate the hostile domain of
the murdered Master’s library, held together by a terrifying entity known as
Torment. Torment is mad, and he wants the invaders out of his realm, or dead. But
he may also have a clue about Alice’s missing father.
Fighting Torment’s creations at every turn, trying to keep
herself and her fellow apprentices alive, Alice finds that the darkest,
thickest thread in her mind – the link to the creature called the Dragon – has at
last become responsive. The Dragon is speaking to her, warning her, guiding her.
But will his influence be enough to bring her safely through the Labyrinth?
What I particularly loved about The Forbidden Library was
its pervasive sense of secrecy – of every member of the cast knowing more than
they’ll let on – and its nuanced moral landscape, which compels Alice, and the
reader, to remain alert throughout for potential pitfalls. These elements are still
very much to the fore in the dangerous world of The Mad Apprentice: the Readers’
magic is still invasive, based on “cruelty and death”, and Uncle Geryon is by
no means unquestionably benevolent, though he may represent Alice’s best chance
of survival. The beetling towers and terrible traps of Book 2, and the
increased insight we’re allowed into other Masters’ methods of training and
recruitment, make for darker shadows and grimmer depths, too. But Alice’s cool competence
and quick-witted responses, and the swift pace of the story as it hustles us
deeper into the maze, make The Mad Apprentice a compulsive, single-sitting read;
a worthy sequel to one of 2014’s best books.
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