The Legend of the Last Library

Cole, Frank L. The Legend of the Last Library

August 6, 2024 by Shadow Mountain

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Juniper Knox lives in Syphon City after The Blight has killed most of the trees and the world is a horrible place. She and her grandfather, who are in very bad health, lives in The Mounds, run down apartments with sketchy electrical supply. They would be even worse off if their landlady, Ms. Gupta, didn't have a soft spot for them. Juni tries to bring in money by "plifting"; scrounging abandoned places for paper to sell, since the necessity to burn all wood and paper products during The Blight made paper extremely rare. Juni's parents were archaeologists who were killed in Harker's Village while trying to find the fabled Last Library, so her grandfather doesn't want her going there. Of course she does, and she and her friend Doler find some interesting items. Sadly, the Novexus Nikos, robotic dogs who are set to kill, follow them into the building. They are saved by Kobyn and his dog Lewis, who distract the dogs so they can escape. This outing brings them to the attention of the sort of evil Quaze, a girl their age who was there when they found the items, and says they are hers, as well as the really evil Ullred O'Donnell, who has Nikos as well as governmental power. Juni and Doler turn over the paper to Quaze, which makes her rich and dangerous, but keep an odd piece of plastic with a vaguely familiar symbol on it. This turns out to be a library card, and combined with a box left by Juni's parents, the key to finding the Last Library. Juni gets the box (known as the Overdue Archive) opened and finds out that it communicates with her in the form of Zeno, a robotic holograph. There is also a note from Obadiah Wixom. Reading the actual book is so much better than reading on a tablet from the Global Database of Learning or "uplinking" information directly to her brain. After visiting Kobyn and talking to his mother Garland, who knew Juni's parents, and who has information that can lead the group to the location of the library. It's been hidden very well, and it turns out that since Juni has one of the books, she is the only one who can get into the building. It's a treacherous experience, and she has to lower herself down a dark shaft to get the others access to an elevator. The technology used is impressive, and Zeno is there to help. Family secrets also come out, and the group gets to experience the glory of the library briefly before Ullred shows up with his forces to tell them that the library is going to be dismantled and sent to museums. Juni manages to take the hard drive to the Global Database of Learning, but the group is not able to save everything. Will they manage to change the world with what they did find?

Strengths: Juni's ability to scavenge and to help out her grandfather while still managing to finish out the school year is a good example for young readers, and she is a fearless character. There is a lot of good family history that I don't want to ruin, and I was glad that Juni knew how to read (not everyone does, because of the uplinking) and enjoyed her book. It's also heart warming to see that there is a supportive community around her to help her find the library. There haven't been as many dystopian novels published recently, and there is always a demand for them. 
Weaknesses: I had a lot of questions about the world building that weren't answered. Young readers will not be quite as bothered about most of them, and maybe they will be addressed in a sequel. Does Juni really make any money plifting? Wouldn't there be massive copyright issues with the Global Database of Learning? Why couldn't the elevator in the last museum have started at the top? How did Novexus get started, and how are the citizens okay with the Nikos roaming around? How dangerous is the acid rain, since Juni comes in contact with it? Also, I was hoping for a bit of happiness when the Last Library was found, but things took a dark, dark turn that library lovers might not appreciate. 
What I really think: Readers who enjoy dystopian worlds that involve pieces of current society, like Perry's Scavengers, Ford's Forgotten City, or Peterfreund's Omega City will find Juni's world intriguing. This also reminded me a little of Fry's Jupiter Pirates series Magoon's Robyn Hoodlum. I have vaque memories of another book where paper is scarece, and a girl went to visit someone who had a typewriter and had a museum of some sort, but I can't for the life of me think of the title.