From the New York Times -bestselling author of The Night Circus comes a timeless love story set in a secret underground world--a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea. sea.
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From the New York Times -bestselling author of The Night Circus comes a timeless love story set in a secret underground world--a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea. sea.
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Seller's Description:
Fine. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 512 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Seller's Description:
New. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 512 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Fair. Ex Library with stickers and markings May have heavy wear and markings. May not include digital download codes. Stock photo may be different from actual cover.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. Used book in acceptable condition. Cover may include stickers/heavy wear. Heavy wear on pages, heavy highlighting/writing on pages, staining, and moisture damage (rippling/warping). All orders ship via UPS Mail Innovations-MAY TAKE UP TO 10 BUSINESS DAYS from first scan to be delivered. The dust jacket is in rough shape, shows significant wear. The dust jacket has stickers or sticker residue on it.
The story centers around an enormous, underground, labyrinthine library which apparently contains all the books, and the stories in the world. The starless sea (also underground - thus no stars) is mentioned periodically, but does not have a major role, so I don't know why the book name. Also, I can't tell if this book is a standalone or one of a series, and frankly, I don't much care - I had to force myself to finish it, gritting my teeth through to the end (if it wasn't part of a book club, I wouldn't have bothered)
The main character seems to be Zachary Ezra Rawlings (whose whole name is repeated ad infinitum), a 20-something grad student from VT who's gotten involved in games about which he knows nothing, but it takes over his life. Other rather main characters include Dorian (Zachary's putative lover); and Mirabel/Max/serving girl - whose actions appear to drive the action. More minor characters include Allegra (the villain). the Keeper/pirate, (one of whose roles seems to be gate keeper); Kat (Zachary's college friend); Madame Rawlings (Zachary's fortune telling mother); the lovers, Simon & Eleanor/Lenore/the girl (who insists neither are her name); the sun, the moon, the inn keeper; and the Kitchen (yeah, it's a character), and Winston Churchill may have a walk-on role. As noted, many of the characters have multiple names, and their backgrounds often don't have either a beginning or an end, (or both) which is frustrating. If it sounds confusing, it is.
Erin loves words, and she uses way too many of them - this book could be 100 pages shorter and still make about as much sense as it does now. The author has a thing about bees, owls, feathers, statuary, swords, hearts, stags, books, honey, and, especially, doors - the last feature prominently throughout. And the amount of time the characters spend wandering around the various sections of the library gets to be a drag (see 100 pages shorter, above). She has a taste for sadism (which I found off-putting); was influenced by Charles Dodgson; and she meanders through this book with disjointed bits of the story in separate chapters (if they can be called chapters - in some cases, vignettes would be more apt). She also committed the cardinal authorial sin, by using coincidence to get herself out of boxes she's written herself into.
She writes beautifully, no doubt: it is the most beautifully written stupid book I've ever read.
