Little Daniel was at the window, tears streaming down his hot and puffy face as he pounded on the window with his little pink palms. He flicked on the light by the bedside table and wandered across the floorboards that felt like ice under his old and calloused feet. Nothing seemed to matter since Jake had been stolen by the sea. Even after a year had passed, sleep still eluded him.Įven if he couldn’t for another sleep for another year, for another ten or even fifteen, it didn’t seem to matter. II.Ī voice screamed from the other room and Tom Hathaway sat up. Urban legends didn’t take your oldest son from you. Most folks dismissed it as an urban legend, but Tom always scoffed at them. Nothing was above an evil that rose from the depths of the water, when the moon was full, as the clock struck twelve. Nothing stood higher than the midnight wave. But oh, you could see it if you knew how to. Tom always saw it.Īt midnight, on the dot, the crystalline wave rose out of the sea. Even with the beam of the lighthouse, you’d struggle to see it. And then beyond, to where the reckless and foolhardy would turn back. No, it was further than that, right out to where only the reckless and foolhardy would go. Tales From the Radiation Age is his latest book.Far beyond the Paulo Lighthouse, a tidal flow wound its way, in a hundred tiny aquatic arcs towards the bay. He is currently the restaurant critic at Philadelphia magazine, but when no one is looking, he spends his time writing books about giant robots and ray guns. Jason Sheehan knows stuff about food, video games, books and Starblazers. And in a multiverse of infinite choice and infinite possibility, I'm just not sure that the answer matters enough. The only question left hanging over all of it is which one she'll finally choose. Enough of a theoretical portion of an infinity that she feels as though she has seen them all by the time we're closing on the final pages.
The story, then, forms solely around the lives she passes briefly through, the choices and their consequences. He gives her a tree, and though there are many branches, it is still just a tree. Ultimately, Haig gives Nora (and those of us following along with her) a straightforward path from suicide to closure, from regret to acceptance. And a character who doesn't actively want something - even when it is something so basic as to keep on living - is a hard character to identify with. Or maybe she does, but the arc of the plot hinges on her trying to figure out what exactly it is. what sucks a measure of the color and life from 'The Midnight Library' is that Nora, as a character, doesn't really want anything.īut what sucks a measure of the color and life from The Midnight Library is that Nora, as a character, doesn't really want anything. After meeting another "slider" (as those who can bounce around between multiverse possibilities are called), and discussing the pop-science implications of a multi-dimensional existence, Nora muses on her situation: A simplicity to the narrative that has to be taken as a choice on Haig's part, not an accident. When she finds herself excited again about living, things calm down.Īnd there's a deliberateness to it all. When Nora loses hope, the library starts to collapse. Infinite possibility, sure, but only one shot at each of them. Infinite options, yes, but maybe not an infinite amount of time in which to choose. Elm's job is to present everything to Nora very clearly and to lay out the stakes very directly. The Midnight Library is unusual in that it follows a plot with no twists, no turns that don't feel like a gentle glide.
Haig presents all of this as a straight line.
'The Midnight Library' is unusual in that it follows a plot with no twists, no turns that don't feel like a gentle glide.īut here's the problem.
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