First we'll get our automatic First seed out of the way.
"Ook."
"Thank you, sir. We're honored you could make it for this discussion."
Now, Who Else in fantasy fiction, besides the Librarian from Unseen University, is a fantastical and wondrous librarian worth talking about?
This question just sort of popped into my head and I thought I'd ask and see what else people had to say.
Lirael in Lirael by Garth Nix
And obviously cheating 'cause it's a TV show, but Giles is my favorite fictional librarian (Buffy)
Haha I had forgotten Lirael was a librarian. But she was so proud of her red vest when she was promoted, that when she shape shifted the shapes had red chests or breast feathers .
“What do you know about running a shop?”
“It’s just like a library, the only difference is people pay for the things they don’t return.”
Giles is great because as a teen he was the adult in the room who made sure to funnel the scooby gang's energy, but as an adult he's so relatable when he's dealing with the random bullshit they throw at him.
The scene where she gets the job lives with me all the time. "Okay, you're a library intern. Go with her to the armory to get your gun and riot gear."
For me _the_ best librarian and library combination in any book. Though L-space and Library of Babel are a close second.
Giles is certainly my answer.
It's not cheating because it's TV. The sub trends towards novels but it's right in the About section that we're here for lit, games, film, etc.
"Conan The Librarian"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZHoHaAYHq8
Thank you. Thank you, truly, for this gift. I shall spread the good word. The glorious word. <3
Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books
"Don't taunt the Fear Demon" "Why, is it dangerous?" "No, it's just ... tacky"
While never (I think) confirmed as a 'librarian' per se, I enjoy the Cheshire Cat (yes, that one) in the Thursday Next series (Jasper Fforde) - he spends a lot of time in their version of a library as I recall.
Or as they call him now, the Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat.
Ook
You mean that strange looking monkey?
He’s gonna unscrew your head with his feet
(Whispers while ducking for cover) sshhhh, we don't say the m word
Came here for this comment. Was not disappointed.
Definitely going to find a brown banana behind a book.
I mean, the whole Sixth House from Gideon the Ninth/ The Locked Tomb. Shoutout to my gal Camilla for being a librarian with knives, and Palemedes for his sanity-saving fanfictions.
(I know there is some debate if this series is Sci-Fi or Fantasy but I say both is good).
Space Fantasy is a pretty good genre descriptor for it, very similar to Machineries of Empire.
GO LOUD
Master Lorren from Name of the Wind. Do NOT bring candles ;P
Wan Shi Tong, of course
He who knows Ten Thousand Things needs to update his title at some point.
Ten thousand is a significant number in multiple East Asian languages. It doesn’t always literally mean 10,000, it can mean “arbitrarily big” or “beyond counting.” Wishing for something to last for 10,000 years is a common expression with the same meaning as wishing for it to last forever.
Disclaimer: Not an Asian language expert. Just have a passing familiarity with this expression.
Evelyn from the Mummy.
Well, Ook, obviously, but I would also like to nominate Irene from the Invisible library series by Genevieve Cogman. 8 books with a multi-world universe all centered around books. Each book has its own mystery/quest, but theres also an overarching story. I loved this series!
My first thought, too. So much fun.
I was just thinking of this! I second it!
Astinus of Palanthas in Dragonlance. I wouldn’t say he’s the best but I thought of him first
[deleted]
I forgot about him. He's hinted to be an avatar of a god, maybe...
Alustin from the Mage Errant series! I love all the random bits of knowledge he has.
And he's a paper mage too 📝📝
Unnamed narrator in Borges' Library of Babel deserves a shoutout :D
Good answer!
Kanderon Crux. Anti-imperial giant Sphinx.
I hear she dosnt like parades.
If we’re allowed to use video games, I absolutely love Urag gro-Shub, librarian of the College of Winterhold in Skyrim. Not only is it neat to see an orc character so far outside of the stereotypical roles given to that race (even w/in TES), but he geeks out over the Elder Scrolls if you bring any to him and threatens to summon Atronachs after you if you refuse to bring back any of his books. Overall, I just find him delightful.
Carolyn in Library at Mt Char
This was "best" librarian ... Not "most terrifying" librarian. 😂
(Such a good book)
I feel like she must be the best librarian, given her promotion.
All I know is that I will NOT be arguing with her if she wants that title.
Might not technically be a librarian, but I am gonna add Sazed and his Copperminds as an option.
Seconded hes a repository of knowledge technically but that's exactly what a library is in my mind!
In a time where written information faces extinction, people carrying that knowledge is the only way a library can exist (unless it's written in metal)
Obviously Lirael wins, but honourable mention to Zelda from The Magicians
Yes Zelda!
Penny as well.
I came here to say this. Thank you!
Master Ultan from Book of the New Sun.
Irene Winters in The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. She deals with dragons and Fae in many worlds, and steals books for her Library.
Lucian, the Librarian Of Dreams from Sandman. His library contains not just every book ever written but also a much larger collection of every book never written. You could check out Parable Of The Trickster, Titus Awakes, The New Shadow, or anything else that never made it to print. The author is an evil [word the mods don’t like us using], but that doesn’t make this concept any less brilliant.
Myne from Ascendance of a Bookworm.
Nina from Pale.
Of course Ook goes without saying.
Myne is my favorite. She's building a writing and printing industry so that she has more books to read and she wants to spread the love of reading to everyone she can.
Chronicler Aelius from Nevernight chronicle is just about the only one that stood out as memorable when I saw the thread
Yep I came to say Chronicler as well nice shout
Could we please be inclusive of booksellers as well? Because The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is really fun.
Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookshop, too!
Loial, Wheel of Time. My personal favorite is Croaker from Black Company. Both are librarian adjacent.
There is a delightful librarian mentioned in Steven Brust's The Phoenix Guard, EDIT: the Easterner, Ricardo:
https://dragaera.fandom.com/wiki/Ricardo
ENDEDIT
and there's one in Iorich I think who uses magic to invoke a regular expression search, EDIT: Deleen
https://dragaera.fandom.com/wiki/Deleen
ENDEDIT
Bayaz from the First Law.
Technically correct but ugh. He would be the worst librarian ever.
No-one risks the fine for a late returned book to the Great Northern Library.
Cawneil and Khalul too. Wonder if we’ll ever learn where the Great Eastern Library is and who’s in charge? My money’s on the High Priestess of Thond.
Carolyn from the Library at Mont Char is something else
Ive not read the book you mentioned above, but a couple of interesting libraries/librarians come to mind (for very different reasons). For me, those are Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky and Kafka by the Shore by Haruki Murakami.
Service Model is a dystopian scifi from a robot's perspective and the library plays an interesting role.
Kafka on the Shore follows a few different story lines, one that leads a character to a private library and has a lot of dream sequences/magical realism.
Unseen University is in Ank-Morpork and features in numerous works by Sir Terry Pratchett. It's part of the Discworld universe.
The creepy librarians in Jordan L. Hawk's Widdershins series are eerie, haunted, devoted cultists, who lovingly care for the library bats and the restricted necromantic tomes that could destroy the world. And for them it's just another day on the job
It is kind of cheating, but A through L (Elle for short) in Cat Valente’s Fairyland series. Elle is a wyverary (a cross between a library and a wyvern), although she does only go up to L.
Seconding Cam and Pal from The Locked Tomb, but also want to add Lazlo Strange from Strange the Dreamer!
Penny from The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
The protagonist of House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones is a huge bookworm who's basically an aspiring librarian
I love Lazlo in Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor!
Claire! And Brevity. Ook is a given.
Quinn, from Library System Reset by K.T. Hanna.
Phix from Wapsi Square.
Does the bookshop owner in Beauty and the Beast count?
Chronicler Aelius in the Nevernight series by Jay Kristoff is an interesting character.
The librarians in the novella "In the Stacks" by Scott Lynch are pretty badass.
There's a book wrymm in one of the 500 kingdoms novels by Mercedes Lackey, but I can't remember which one exactly. However, they're second to UU's.
Probably not the best, but I liked Chronicler Aelius the librarian in Jay Kristoff's Nevernight series.
kinda fond of the royal librarians in Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A McKillip who take in orphans and name them after carnivorous plants XD
and the travelling librarians of the discworld who have a (probably mostly unfounded) reputation for being able to tell what book you need just by looking at you, and can take your voice away if you get too loud in the library!
I'm blanking on her name, but Iz's mother in The Hexologists.
I am a fantasy loving librarian & this thread is making me very happy 😊
The Arkon (original) from Michelle Sagara's cast series.
Irene from The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman
Lirael, Second Assistant Librarian to the Clayr, from The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.
I'll have you know that he goes by Lannagaros now!! 😂 I absolutely adore The Arkon. So crabby, so dignified, so dragony. His storyline was so satisfying.
I do, but I preferred him as the Arkon.
Years ago, at a convention, I did ask Michelle if the Arkon could please get to eat an Arcanist, because it would make him happy.
Librarians from the Metro series
Isaac Vainio from Magic ex Libris.
Pico from The Book of Flying
40K has a lot of cool librarians.
The Atlas 6 are technically librarians safeguarding the Library of Alexandria. They’re delightfully messy.
The Eternal Library from Untold Adventures.......not because the receptionist is a magic mirror with similar traits to the one from snow white, not because all the librarians are screaming Banshees.........no it's cause of the lost safety inspectors
Lucien from the Sandman comic book
I guess it's technically Fantasy so I'll go with my man Mike Hanlon from Stephen King's It.
How has Livira from The Book That Wouldn't Burn not been mentioned yet
Right - your comment was the last of my 200. That's not right - have an upvote ->
Not my favorite but Charles Halloway from Something Wicked This Way Comes needs some love