Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson, Janci Patterson Narrator: Suzy Jackson, Ramon De Ocampo
Series: Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians #6
Published by Recorded Books on September 20, 2022
Genres: Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult
Length: 4 hours, 52 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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As a Knight of Crystallia, I, Bastille, swore to protect the Smedry clan from the Evil Librarians. (And believe me, screwups like them constantly need protecting.) But when Alcatraz Smedry got strapped to an altar of outdated encyclopedias to be sacrificed to the dark gods, I arrived too late―and instead his father took his place.
Now Alcatraz is a blubbering mess, so it’s up to me lead the charge against his father’s killer: Biblioden, founder of the Evil Librarians―I was sure he died centuries ago!―who’s back to complete his goal of world domination. Now he’s going to use the dark powers he gained from that sacrifice against everyone not under Evil Librarian control. Being burned up from the inside is not how I plan to die, so I’d better figure out some way to stop him or we’re toast!
I know Alcatraz is wrong when he swears he’s no hero. But when a hero falls short, that’s the time for everyone else to step up and do what needs to be done.
Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians is the final book of the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series where we change PoVs from Alcatraz to Bastille. You might wonder why on book 6 we are changing PoVs but that is easy, because Alcatraz is a blubbering mess for the first half of the book and Bastille is busy dragging him around so he can be the hero he is supposed to be and figure out how to save the world before the Evil Librarians basically vaporize anyone not in the mundane world.
You might wonder if you are too only for middle grade stories and for a lot of them I am. But every now and again something really fun comes along and it will be great for all ages. This is one of those series with crazy unique superpowers like breaking things, dancing badly, being horrible and math and arriving late even it is to your own death. The fourth wall is broken all the time and honestly the series is just fun with monsters made out of the pages of romance novels. Bad puns thrown like weapons and strange and crazy tech that is unexpected and wonderful.
Bastille had been Alcatraz’s protector since he found out he was a Smedly, one of the only families that has special ‘talents’ a.k.a. superpowers. She helped him learn how to be a hero and now she is going to help him again to figure out how to pull up his bootstraps and pick himself up after his biggest failure. They will have to travel the world to find the world spire and save it from being used by Biblioden, their long time adversary and founder of the evil librarians who have lied to all of the mundane world for years, keeping the disinformation flowing for generations. What you think to know to be true, well a librarian controlled that information and so you just go on believing in things that don’t exist.
I’ve had a great time with this series. There are so many wonderful things for adults to get out of these books especially if they are reading them or listening with their kids. Alcatraz is a completely reluctant hero that needs a lot of help this time around, so when a hero needs help their friends and allies will step up and make sure to help the hero in their time of need so they can get their crap together and save the day.
A middle grade book that anyone can enjoy. While not as intense as The Dark Talent it is a strong conclusion to this series. Don’t let those pesky librarians fool you out there in this mundane world, there is another world full of wonder, magic and fantastically original tallents.
Narration:
Ramon De Ocampo has narrated the entire series and is joined by Suzy Jackson, who I love from the Skyward series. Suzy does a great job taking on the voice of Bastille and really bringing the humor of her character to life. She really fits this genre and age group well. Ramon De Ocampo didn’t get as much voice time as in the other books of the series but again does a fantastic job with all the voices and the fun of the story. I was able to listen to this at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson was born in 1975 in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a child Brandon enjoyed reading, but he lost interest in the types of titles often suggested to him, and by junior high he never cracked a book if he could help it. This changed when an eighth grade teacher gave him Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly.
Brandon was working on his thirteenth novel when Moshe Feder at Tor Books bought the sixth he had written. Tor has published Elantris, the Mistborn trilogy and its followup The Alloy of Law, Warbreaker, and The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, the first two in the planned ten-volume series The Stormlight Archive. He was chosen to complete Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series; 2009’s The Gathering Storm and 2010’s Towers of Midnight were followed by the final book in the series, A Memory of Light, in January 2013. Four books in his middle-grade Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series have been released in new editions by Starscape, and his novella Infinity Blade Awakening was an ebook bestseller for Epic Games accompanying their acclaimed Infinity Blade iOS video game series. Two more novellas, Legion and The Emperor’s Soul, were released by Subterranean Press and Tachyon Publications in 2012, and 2013 brought two young adult novels, The Rithmatist from Tor and Steelheart from Delacorte.
The only author to make the short list for the David Gemmell Legend Award six times in four years, Brandon won that award in 2011 for The Way of Kings. The Emperor’s Soul won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novella. He has appeared on the New York Times Best-Seller List multiple times, with five novels hitting the #1 spot.
Currently living in Utah with his wife and children, Brandon teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University.
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I like middle grade every once in a while and I would trust that Sanderson would be able to write middle grade that I would enjoy. Great review!
For sure. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if it wasn’t Sanderson but he has such a cool take on some of his “for fun” books that I knew it was going to be fun.
This series sounds adorable! I love that it has evil librarians. What a lot of fun!
Fun take on people you would normally think were mild mannered for sure
I usually really enjoy this books but I haven’t tried this series yet
I think it is a lot of fun and while definitely middle grade still a great read
The first one in this series was only okay for me. But I know the students at my middle school enjoyed it. Great review!
Definitely read it for what it is a fun middle grade book with some nonsense and cool concepts
How fun!