Second Chronicles of Illumination

by C. A. Pack

Overview

When an alien invasion threatens the existence of all the knowledge in the universe, eighteen-year-old Johanna Charette and seventeen-year-old Jackson Roth must rely on their wits, guts, and pluck to save the fantasy-come-to-life world of the Library of Illumination.
It wouldn’t be so bad—all right, it is bad but it would hurt less—if Johanna and Jackson weren’t the ones responsible for breaching the portals to a dozen distant worlds. Now, outside forces are causing shock waves in the space-time continuum, and if that isn’t awful enough, someone from another dimension is trying to steal a book of powerful spells created by a very famous wizard.
At first, traveling to other realms in a time machine seems like a fun perk. However, discovering some inhabitants want to obliterate the teens doesn’t leave them with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Instead, they find themselves forced to sacrifice their own welfare and the safety of their loved ones for the greater good.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940151906715
Publisher:	C. A. Pack
Publication date:	06/30/2015
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	529,110
File size:	609 KB

About the Author

C. A. PACK, author of "Chronicles: The Library of Illumination" (a Kindle Reviews’ Best Book of 2014), "Evangeline's Ghost," and "Code Name: Evangeline" is an award-winning journalist and former television news anchor. A former president of the Press Club of Long Island, she is a proud member of International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, and Mystery Writers of America. She lives on Long Island with her husband and a couple of picky parrots.

Editorial Reviews

2015-06-05
Pack's encore batch of riveting adventures about an interdimensional library system.In Chronicles: The Library of Illumination (2014), readers met Johanna Charette and Jackson Roth, teens who co-curate a library where the subjects of books can enter the real world. In their first five adventures, the two faced increasingly complex situations that tested their inquisitiveness and loyalty to each other. This second volume reprints the fifth story, "Portals," to reintroduce audiences to the 13 Libraries of Illumination set on different worlds, including Romantica, Scientico, Terroria, and Fantasia (Earth). The next entry, "The Overseers," brings the teens to Lumina, the prime library realm, where Johanna's mentor, Mal, is tested for a position in the College of Overseers, which runs the library system. Competing against Mal is Terroria's horridly ambitious Nero 51 (introduced in "Portals"). "Myrddin's Memoir," a novella-length sequel, sees a book arrive on Johanna's desk that proves to be the legendary wizard Merlin's diary of spells. The wizard projects himself through the open volume and explains to Johanna that someone wants to steal his work and must be stopped at all costs. The collection ends with a preview of "Escape to Mysteriose," the next story in Pack's deftly expanding universe. As in the first Chronicles, the relationship between 18-year-old Johanna and slightly younger Jackson is grounded in light romance and sarcasm; when he suggests he's one of a kind, she replies, "We can only hope." Pack's prose is lucid and tight, especially when explaining the libraries' logistics: "This is a Library of Illumination. When the information kept here disappears, the contents of [citizens'] personally owned literature and documents will vanish." Nero 51, meanwhile, is a master manipulator who lies as steadily as a heart beats; he also smells like "a chemical factory built in a field of rotting flesh." Pack's aptitude for spinning plots major (time travel) and minor (Pru Tellerence's missing child) continues to make this a singularly engaging series.The stakes have never been higher in Pack's inventive epic.

Kirkus Reviews