We return to the world of The Great Library with book two, Paper and Fire, Rachel Caine. It picks up several months after the events of Ink and Bone, where Jess is working on completing his guarda training alongside his friend Glain. It is here that Jess gains new skills and becomes more wary of the library and everyone associated with it after there are several assassination attempts on his friends and their associates. After gaining intel that suggests Thomas is not dead but instead help in a library prison Jess starts to work on trying to find out where he is held and how to get him out. An endeavor that requires him to reunite with the rest of his former classmates and his teacher in order to do so. However, this is a task fraught with peril as doing so will pit them even more firmly against the library and the Archivist Magister. Along the way Jess works on finding the secrets of the automata that guard the library as well as come to a decision about who he can and cannot trust with his life and secrets. A difficult decision at the best of times.
I normally like books about libraries because I, generally speaking, like libraries. That being said, I am not entirely sure that I like the library depicted in this set of books. This library started out as everything a library should be but somewhere along the way it really got twisted and now it is not even close. It heavily controls what the general public has access to in terms of not only literature but knowledge in general and it has managed to get private ownership of books banned. In this new addition to the series it also reveals that under the current leadership it would be quite happy to kill or torture or blackmail anyone who opposes what they are doing. This really doesn’t seem like what a library should be doing. Something I really like about this series is that Jess and his friends don’t want to completely tear down the library, the typical answer in similar situations in other books, but are instead set on forcing the library to reform and go back to what it was supposed to be. It is, in many ways, harder to reform and existing structure from the ground up then to tear down and build anew yet that is exactly what they are planning to do. These characters are highly determined to do what they consider the right thing and seem unlikely to let anything stop them from doing so, including the behemoth that is the library. I feel like in many ways, despite the seeming similarities, this struggle being depicted is highly unique in literature. A lot of books show a small group trying to outwit a larger group, oftentimes associated with the government. However, I don’t think I have ever read something where the larger group is a library so it has a pretty unique flavor to this particular struggle. On top of having an interesting plot and strong characters it also has a pretty good pace as each piece of the puzzle and each step on the journey doesn’t feel overly rushed or bogged down. It really draws you in and doesn’t want to let go. I am happy giving this book four out of five stars.
This book is a great addition to a continuing teen fantasy series from a great author. If you happen to enjoy fantasy I would highly suggest that you consider trying this series out, especially if you are within the teen or young adult age range. That being said I could see it also holding some appeal for adult readers who enjoy a good fantasy read. However, if you are not a fantasy fan than I am not entirely sure this series would hold a lot of appeal. It is good but it is heavily fantasy and deals with a lot of alternate history so it may not appeal to readers who don’t enjoy that type of work. I would not recommend this book to readers who have not already read the previous book as it relies heavily on an understanding of what happened in that book. It also has some mild violence that may make it unsuitable for readers who are younger than the teen or young adult age range so keep that in mind when considering it was well. I hope you do consider trying it as the series seems to be pretty good so far. As always feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.