Alcatraz versus the Scrivener's Bones

This is the second book in the series, if you haven’t read this book then I can tell you, you should, after reading the first, on which I made a different review: Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians. So if you haven’t read this book, or you haven’t read any of them. Please read them, they are great!

Spoiler warning for Alcatraz versus the Scrivener’s Bones

Introduction

In this book we return to Alcatraz after a few months has passed since the first book. It starts with an escape sequence where Alcatraz escapes onto the Dragonaut, which is a glass flying vehicle that works with a similatic engine. He meets Bastille there, as well as Bastille’s mother Draulin. His cousin Australia is there as well and his uncle Kazan. They fly a bit when they get attacked by a jet that uses some glasses to be more resistant to Talents as well as using Blood-Forged Lenses that are made by sacrificing an Oculator. Blood-Forged Lenses can be used by anyone and Oculators can sense these Lenses when they are used but the feeling is more ominous. The person flying the jet seems to be partly machine, which we later find out is actually partly Alivened. After surviving this attack they crash-land but with Kaz’s Talent to get lost, they arrive at the Library of Alexandria.

Library of Alexandria

Scrivener’s Bones

Throughout the book Alcatraz is followed by Kilimanjaro, a Librarian of the order of the Scrivener’s Bones. They enhance themselves by making parts of themselves Alivened. It is unknown how they do this but they are incredibly dangerous as they use Hushlander technology together with Free Kingdom technology. The jet uses a Blood-Forged Lens and is incredibly dangerous.

Kilimanjaro

Library

They went here because Grandpa Smedry told them he has followed Alcatraz’s father there. The Library is an interesting place as it is “guarded” by Curators. If you take a book without signing a contract, you have 10 seconds before your soul is taken to become a Curator forever, if you sign a contract you could have 10 hours with any book before turning. In that time you can’t share this knowledge with anyone else though. All in all, a pretty bad deal as you could gain any answers you’re looking for, only to be doomed to eternal damnation.

A Curator of the Library of Alexandria

The Curators place traps to ensnare any visitors to try to entice them into getting information about how to get out of the trap. If they accept this they give up their souls of course. After some fighting with the half-Alivened, Kilimanjaro, who is apparently a part of the order of the Scrivener’s Bones. They discover that Alcatraz’s father has given up his soul to read a book but Alcatraz figures out how to get his father’s soul back. You see, his father used the contract to get a book on how to return to humanity after becoming a Curator. He does this by bequeathing his soul to his son before he was turned. This way Alcatraz reclaimed his father’s soul and therefore returned him from the Curators.

A Curator Trap

Final Thoughts

All in all, another fantastic and funny book as the author keeps throwing in random side tangents and it’s very easily read. I absolutely love this book series and can’t wait to read more.