Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians - Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson

*ARC Review*

What happens when a orphaned teen boy discovers his talent for breaking things is a superpower, there is a secret organization of Evil Librarians out to get him and he gets so overwhelmed with authoring this autobiographical tale that he refuses to write the final book in his series?!

Enter Bastille - Knight of Crystallia and Alcatraz Smedry’s personal bodyguard. Bastille takes up the mantle under the guise of pen name Janci Patterson and attempts to finish the last book in Alcatraz’s biography.

I was so excited to be able to get an ARC of the final book in the Alcatraz series. I love Brandon Sanderson and always look forward to reading anything he comes out with, even kids books!

The Alcatraz books are such a fun adventure that both adults and kids will enjoy. The main characters frequently break the 4th wall and the humour is both clever and “punny”.

Sanderson always manages to build super unique worlds with interesting magic systems while managing to convey poignant messages with humour. I felt this last book was a little short for me and I was hoping for a bit more out of the ending but as a children’s book - it’s perfect.

f you’ve been waiting years to find out what happened to Alcatraz after the events surrounding the altar of outdated encyclopedias, all you need to know is that Bastille did a great job wrapping up the series! It was a really good ending to the totally true events that happened at the Worldspire.

Thanks to “Brandon Sanderson,” “Janci Patterson,” and “NetGalley” for providing me an advanced copy of the autobiography in exchange for a review (which sounds like a Librarian scheme if I’ve ever heard one!)

My daughters and I had been waiting for this book for four years, so I was absolutely thrilled to get an early copy from Netgalley. It didn’t disappoint.

If you’ve read the rest of the series and enjoyed it, then yes, you absolutely want to read this one. If you haven’t read the rest of the series, I recommend starting with book one. Our family had just listened to the audiobook version of the first five books in the series, and while it’s probably not strictly necessary to reread them all before getting to book six, we don’t regret it.

I don’t want to spoil anything, and that makes this review hard to write. The book included lots of Alcatraz and Bastille, plus many other familiar characters: Folsom, Himalaya, Draulin, Kaz. I think my favorite thing was finally seeing so many things that had been hinted at in previous books finally show up: a gak (no, it’s not just an expression), sharks, kittens, and interesting breaks.

The book felt short, but it was satisfying. Like the other books, the focus is on the adventure, but there were also great messages about talents and flaws and the importance of a good apology.

I thought I would be glad to read how this series ends, but it has been so long and I didn't want to reread the whole series and I couldn't get into it.

First, Alcatraz Smedry lost his Talent for breaking things. Then he lost his father to the wicked Biblioden, leader of the Librarians. After that, he pretty much lost his will to live. That’s why his bodyguard Bastille, Knight of Crystallia, has to take over authorship of the final volume. It’s okay, she has her literary license. She goes straight from comatose to full action mode, rescuing Smedrys from magma, ambulatory romance novels, gravity, Gaks, and of course, Librarians as she races to rescue all Free Kingdomers from certain doom. The long-awaited finale maintains the series’ fast pace and snark despite the shift in narrators.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was such a fun read and a great conclusion the Alcatraz series. Bringing Janci Patterson on as a co-author was a fantastic choice, this still very much felt like a Alcatraz book while giving Bastille a unique voice.
This picks up just after the events of the 5th book but now narrated by Bastille as Alcatraz is too traumatised to continue the story. The fallout from the last book is well handled and grief, guilt and shame are addressed in a real and age appropriate way. Despite some of the heavier themes this is a ultimately light fun story full of adventure, silly puns, murder kittens, and of course evil librarians. As an adult the humor sometimes borders on too silly however I know for nine year old it would have been perfect. Would highly recommend this series to anyone looking for a fun adventure based middle-grade series. I love the characters, the uniqueness of the magic, the world building and the absolute quirky randomness that permeates the series.

Alcatraz vs. The Dark Talent (Book 5) ended on a cliffhanger. I was actually pissed the first time I read through it because we were so close to the end of his adventures and yet it cut off right there. Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians is a throwback to the title of the first book—except with Bastille, who is a Crystin Knight assigned to protect him (and is also 12 like Alcatraz). She’s the one telling the final chapter of Alcatraz’s story and why Book 5 had to end on a cliffhanger. The issue with reviewing the final book in a series is that their main job is to wrap everything up. We sadly don’t get many new characters or worldbuilding details since the previous books have already done that. Still, as a huge Alcatraz fan, I can say with certainty that Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, which Brandon Sanderson co-wrote with Janci Patterson to make sure that Bastille’s POV was sufficiently different from Alcatraz’s, does a great job concluding Alcatraz’s adventures with all the self-referential humor we’ve come to know and love.

My eARC says not to quote in reviews (sometimes publishers do this because galleys haven’t gone through final copyedits yet), but there’s a bit near the end where Sanderson talks about how Alcatraz’s journey was about learning that the thing he hated the most about himself, his Breaking Talent, which he hated so much that he considered it a curse, could be a boon too. I think that’s a lesson not only 10–12 year-olds who like books with weird covers can learn from. I’ll leave it at that.

This was such an amazing ending to the series! I was initially worried that th narrative shift was going to be jarring this late in the series, but it really worked for me and I love how this book tied up loose ends. It was a fun read and I ended up liking it even more than the fourth and fifth books! The authors did an amazing job!

I received an early copy of this book through the publisher from Netgalley. I was not required to give a positive review.

It's no secret that I'm a huge Brandon Sanderson fan, but this is the one series by him I hadn't ever read until this year when I heard the sixth and final book was being released. Over the past month, I read the first five volumes for the first time to prepare for the release of Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, and I had such a fun time with them.

The ending of the fifth book is quite devastating, and I can't imagine reading it and not knowing that there would be one more installment coming in the series. Luckily for me, I knew ahead of time, and I didn't have the agonizing wait for it to come out either.

Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians is a great conclusion to the Alcatraz series. It nicely wraps up the story in a satisfactory way and has all the trademark humor and character development that readers have come to expect throughout the first five books. To be honest, I couldn't really tell a difference between this book, written largely by Janci Patterson, and the first five books, written solely by Brandon Sanderson. The humor, including all the jokes and puns, is the same. It's a cohesive installment, which I was very happy to see.

The only real difference between this book and the other books is that this one is told from Bastille's point-of-view, while the others are all told from Alcatraz's point-of-view. I think having Bastille finish the series off was a great decision since she has become such a critical character in the narrative.

I love these books, and I can't wait to read them to my future children one day. They have good morals and great characters and excellent illustrations. Overall a very solid middle-grade series that I highly recommend, especially if you love funny fantasy stories.

Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, Sanderson and Patterson are back at it again. A good continuation of the series from a slightly different perspective.

I have loved all of Brandon Sanderson's work, and this middle grade series is no different. I think that this series is perfect for a middle school classroom. This entire series is entertaining, but also has important themes like family, friendship, grief, mental health, and the way a person views themselves versus how other people see them. After finishing the fifth book in the series I really couldn't wait to get my hands on this book because I needed to find out how it all ends. Sanderson talks about big issues that are not always glamorous but lightens the mood with the comedic attitude of all of the characters. I love how Sanderson turns what can be seen as flaws into super powers. This series is a perfect mix between Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and Percy jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. Bastille Versus the Evil Librarians was a perfect conclusion to the story, I was very excited to be able to read the story from her point of view. Sanderson has a way with making female characters powerful and amazing in their own right and just making them human, by doing this, he puts his male characters and female characters on equal ground and this is not an aspect that is found in most fantasy novels. I rated this book, and all of the books in this series, 5 stars. This book hit all of the criteria I am looking for in a good book. Here is my criteria for how I rate all books:
1 Star for a good story
1 Star for good character development/arc
1 Star for social/political/religious commentary
1 Star for good world building/setting building
1 Star for good writing (sentence structure/word choice)

This is a well written book, with some fine lines and a few well-conceived set pieces. That said, while I truly enjoyed and admired the first books in the Alcatraz series, try as I might, in this latest volume I found neither the characters, nor their situations, nor the overall narrative engaging enough to arouse or hold my curiosity and attention. As a consequence, it doesn't seem fair to write much more of a review, apart from encouraging inquisitive readers to give the earlier books a try.

I love the alcatraz series so much. This one was a little bit different than the other ones, and I didn't like it quite as much for that reason. I don't necessarily want to spoil anything, so I won't go in to much deeper detail than that. But I did still really enjoy this book. Sanderson and Patterson did a great job and it was fun to be able to get back into this series!!

Thank you Janci Patterson, Brandon Sanderson, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and NetGalley for the eGalley copy of Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians.

I first ready Janci Patterson's work in her collaboration with Brandon Sanderson on the Skyward novellas and immediately knew I wanted more - and the final volume of Alcatraz did not disappoint - though there were a few continuity skips that were a bit jarring on first read.

Filled with irreverence, word play, amazing (terrible) jokes, adventure, and redemption, this book was a lot of fun. If you haven't read the first five volumes, it's a bit much to dive into sight unseen and most of the world building will come across as absolute nonsense - so go back and read its predecessors first.

Oh, and if you're a fan of the Cosmere, watch out for a few Easter Eggs. While Alcatraz doesn't take place in Mr. Sanderson's Cosmere, the references are a joy.

What worked:
You’ll need to have a tolerance for silly humor with much of it being sarcastic in nature. Vicious kittens are within the realm of possibility. Alcatraz and his relatives have unusual Talents, with breaking things being Alcatraz’s ability. However, it has broken all of the other abilities, so there are few, if any, powers to get the characters out of trouble. Consequently, the first half of the book finds Alcatraz stumbling about in a funk instead of sharing ideas on how to stay alive. A large issue in the series is Alcatraz’s poor self-image, and it gets especially bad when he feels guilty for his father’s death at the end of the previous book. Bastille replaces Alcatraz as the narrator this time and adds her own snide comments and opinions to the story.
A fun aspect of the series is how the narrator references librarians and the writing process. Obviously, librarians are evil as they control everything we read and know. They’re even the ones who put those annoying tags in our shirt collars to distract and agitate us, and even reformed librarians can’t resist organizing everything they encounter. Bastille picks up where Alcatraz left off and shares her thoughts about narrating the book, although the publisher edits her when her descriptions of violence get too gross and disturbing. She tries to improve on Alcatraz’s previous attempts by expanding her vocabulary, but she takes issue with using puns unless it’s in self-defense.
Bastille’s character is the most interesting since she’s a warrior sworn to protect the Smedry family from all dangers and death. She also has feelings and emotions that she tries to conceal since they don’t fit the image of a fierce warrior. Bastille doesn’t want to admit she likes Alcatraz, and she feels resentment toward not being an oculator like the Smedrys. The animated discussions going on in her own mind are hilarious, as she tries to rationalize her accounts of events and her writing style to readers. These moments act as amusing timeouts before returning to the wacky adventure. Bastille refers to her literary license a few times when she uses unnecessarily big words or overuses a favorite word. She even pokes fun at the authors of this book and says Janci’s fantasy romance novels are “the most ridiculously fantastical genre of them all.”
What didn’t work as well:
I read the first book in the series but haven’t read the other four. This sixth book contains many new characters and references events I haven’t read about. Bastille shares a very brief recap in the beginning, because she assumes that’s what narrators are supposed to do, but it omits a lot of past history. The easy solution, and my suggestion for you, is to read books one through five before getting to this sixth episode in the series.
The Final Verdict:
Fall of the Librarians. I enjoy humor that makes me think, so this book’s absurd wit is up my alley. Starting the series from the beginning will be a huge help, as the adventure moves along in a familiar style. The characters and story are highly delightful, and I highly recommend you give the book, and series, a shot.