Smoke and Iron is the fourth book in the Great Library series by Rachel Caine and with it we see the continuation of the open rebellion. Jess is posing as his brother Brendan in Alexandria in an attempt to gain intel from the Archivist Magister and the library in general. Meanwhile, Morgan is back in the Iron Tower under the control of the new Obscurist Magnus, Gregory, as she works to gain allies from within the tower amongst the other obscurists. Her main goal is to convince Wolfe’s father to help and for him to replace Gregory. Wolfe is actually in the prison complex at Alexandria working to gain allies and information from the other prisoners. At the same time the rest of their friends are traveling by ship to Alexandria with Anit as her prisoners. Deciding that will not work they instead work to overthrow the ship’s crew, including Anit, and force them to dock in Cadiz where they can get help and refuge with Dario’s cousin, the emperor. As things continue building they are forced to consider what they plan to do after the overthrow of the Archivist and their overall plan for the library itself.
This book was interesting in that it seems to be branching out some with the characters. I say that because previously the books were almost exclusively Jess’s perspective but now we see Morgan’s, Khalila’s, and Wolfe’s perspectives as well so we get to see a more well-rounded point of view. With so many different events going on in different places the story had to do this but it still adds more layers by doing so. It also allows for more character development for some of them. Reading Khalila’s point of view we really get a lot of insight into how she thinks about and approaches things. Mind you, I also rather enjoyed watching as she took charge of the group she was with as I would have expected one of the other characters to do so. One of the things that I found interesting and helped with the character development is the fact they were faced with the idea of actually redesigning and restructuring the new library. They had to create a plan for afterwards and decide what their roles would be in that plan. As such they also each had to face the idea of what they were actually fighting for and what they felt was the right thing to do to create that future. I feel like they are finally no longer stumbling around just trying to survive, if that makes sense. Things are starting to come together for them, at least somewhat. As with the previous books it was extremely well written and thoroughly enjoyable. A very engrossing read so far that makes me really curious about how events in the final book will play out. I am happy to give this book four out of five stars.
This is a good example of young adult fantasy so if you happen to be a reader in that age range who enjoys that genre than I would suggest you consider trying this book out. However, I would also recommend that you make sure you have read the previous books or you would probably be lost pretty quickly with this one. If you are not a huge fan of the fantasy genre than I am not sure how well you would enjoy this series, though the slight steampunk elements may appeal to other readers. This series is aimed at the young adult or older teen age range so I would not recommend it to younger readers though older readers should feel free to try it. There is some violence present in the book, about the same level as the previous books, but it is something you might want to keep in mind going in. Outside of that there is not really anything to be overly concerned about I don’t think. It is a pretty good book overall and I hope you consider trying the series out. As always feel free to share your thoughts about it in the comments.