Lynnie
young adult, fantasy
Jess Brightwell has been raised to be a book smuggler in
London. The Great Library has claimed
possession of all original books which are stored in its serapeums (like
library branches) around the world. It
provides copies, or mirrors, of the originals to the people of the world. Punishment
is severe for those caught in possession of originals. But when Jess turns 16
years old, his father decides that Jess should attempt to become a scholar at
The Great Library so that he can serve as a spy for smugglers. Jess is happier
than his father realizes to be escaping his home and his life of crime.
Amy's Review
Ink and Bone is a creative novel set in an alternate future where the Great
Library of Alexandria, rather than being burned down, has become the
headquarters of an all-powerful system of information where only the highest leaders
decide which information is available to the public, how it will be
disseminated, and who has access. Within
this world, The Library holds itself above all governments and religions wielding unchecked, absolute power. It holds as hostages those who are most talented with alchemy and it forces them to do The Library’s bidding. Ink and Bone
has a disjointed feeling of being set in medieval times while simultaneously
feeling more current, with magic used similarly to the way technology is
utilized today. The method by which the public receives information feels similar
to today’s e-readers. But they are called “blanks” and there is none of the
current technology.
Jess is a fantastic character—smart, cunning, strategic, but
still a teenager who makes mistakes. He, as well as most of the characters, are
not easily labeled as good or evil. Rather, they are a little bit of both which
makes them that much more believable and intriguing. The more you read, the more you learn about
things that make you re-evaluate previously formed opinions.
I’ve not enjoyed a book about students this much since Harry
Potter. There are a few similarities between The Great Library series and the
Harry Potter series, but they really are entirely different.
While Rachel Caine is a terrific writer overall and I love
her creative premise and character-drawing, the novel does have its flaws. There were scenes which went on for entirely too long. I started to zone out while listening to the
audiobook because these “journeys” did not matter to the story—only the
destinations or what happened when the journey ended was important. For me, it
would’ve been enough to know a lot less about the details of the journeys. If
I’d been reading the novel, I’m sure I would’ve skimmed them. Alternately, there were settings and battles that
didn’t feel all that well described. I was a little lost but just accepted that
the details of these scenes didn’t really matter. Again, these scenes weren’t
all that important to the outline of the story.
I’m hopeful that her writing will improve with the series.
The audiobook narrator was simply fantastic. A+! Julian Elfer has a large vocal repertoire
including multiple accents, stupendous vocal acting, and made the novel that
much more enjoyable from his delivery. I hope I get to hear him narrate further
novels in the series.
Lynnie's Review
Don't
get me wrong, there's a lot to enjoy about the late Rachel Caine's Ink
and Bone. I loved the world she created and most of the characters were
really fascinating. I also am admittedly a sucker for anything that
revolves around libraries or boarding schools so the combination of both
was bound to thrill me, right? Not exactly.
The truth is, it
took me until nearly the end of the book to put my finger on exactly
what I wasn't appreciating about it; why wasn't I tearing through it and
telling everyone, "you have to read this book?" Even
though I enjoyed it, I knew exactly what was going to happen. Though there are 4 other books in the series, I think I can figure out
with at least marginal accuracy, what will happen to the characters and
the Library by the end of book 5. Caine is not a master of subtlety, and
if I'm going to invest time in a series, I would like to be surprised
by SOMETHING.
In this book, the deaths were all 100%
predictable, the people chosen for the Library? Predictable. The heroes and villains? Predictable. There is only one thing that I predicted
that failed to materialize, so my guess is that it is sure to happen in
one of the future books. So, as much as I enjoyed this world, and Jess
and the rest of the crew I won't be rushing off to spend more time with
them. Perhaps in the future I'll change my mind, but I'm just not in any
hurry.
Amy 
young adult, fantasy
Paper and Fire picks up six months after the events at the end
of Ink and Bone, again focusing on Jess and his experiences. He’s now in the
library’s army under the command of his friend, Glain. His other library
scholar friends are working in their newly assigned fields. However, Jess
suspects that Thomas, who had supposedly been killed near the end of Book One,
is alive. Jess enlists his friends’ help to save him.
In the first half of the novel, I was happy to be spending
more time with these characters. However, near the middle, things started to
feel unrealistic. (Even fantasy novels
should feel plausible.) Fortunately, I was able to move past this bad section
when their adventures pulled me back into the story. All in all, not a bad
sequel. If you liked Ink and Bone, you’ll probably like this one well enough.
I’m just not sure how much further I’ll go with this series. I’ll likely give
it one more novel at least.
Again, Julian Elfer was the narrator and, again, he was
entertaining and did a fabulous job with the voice acting of many different
characters. Once again, he earns an A+.
No comments:
Post a Comment