Sword and Pen is the fifth and final book in the Great Library series by Rachel Caine and it finishes the story of Jess and his friends. The previous book ended with their successful overthrow of the Archivist and their subsequent takeover of the library. Now the group must work on stabilizing the library’s power structure which is a monumental task in its own right. At the same time they have to work on defending Alexandria and the library from outside forces as they have a large gathering of different navies just outside the port with Russian ground forces banging on the gate at the other end. While all of this is going on they also need to work on weeding out any remaining Archivist sympathizers hiding in the library which is easier said than done. Finally they need to actually find the missing Archivist and make sure that he will no longer be a threat to the library, no matter what they need to do to achieve that. In the process each of them must also work on finding their own place within the new library.
I struggled somewhat with this series because I agreed with Jess and his friends about not censoring what ideas and thoughts the public has access to. It was because of this that I did not like the library and totally sympathized with those wishing to reform it. I actually thought the library was rather disturbing which was weird for someone who absolutely loves libraries normally. At the same time I thought this was an interesting concept and idea to explore in a fictional setting so found the story to be rather intriguing. The twists and turns that are revealed in this final book really added some depth to the characters and the setting as it pulled in some rather interesting elements to create them. Some of what was referenced I am familiar with but they were used in new and interesting ways so it felt rather unfamiliar a lot of the time. One of the things I liked is that ultimately they didn’t completely destroy the library. Like I said before I agree with Jess and his friends, especially in regards to the idea that libraries are needed but I also agree with the idea that they should not censor the information and texts they provide. The way this series explored that concept was great as it portrayed that idea as being horrendously wrong and something that no decent person should support. This book did a great job of wrapping that storyline up while continuing the character development of Jess and his friends. It also continued the multiple narrators that appeared in the previous book so we actually got a really rounded perspective on the defense of Alexandria and the restructuring of the library. This story also felt more nuanced in terms of the plot than many of the previous books as there was more different storylines going on throughout with each character having its own series of events though they were still fairly connected throughout. It was a great ending to a pretty great series and one that I thoroughly enjoyed even if I found the idea of this type of library rather disturbing. I am happy to give this book four out of five stars.
This book is the ending of a young adult fantasy series so it would probably hold the most appeal to young adult readers who prefer fantasy books. It might also hold some appeal to readers who like books with steampunk elements as it does contain some of that as well due to the abundance of automata throughout. Outside of that I am not sure how well it would hold a lot of appeal. However, I don’t see why the series wouldn’t hold some appeal for older readers who enjoy fantasy as I know I enjoyed it. That being said there are numerous elements present in the books that would make it unsuitable for younger readers so it should probably only be read by readers who are teens or older. There is some violence and some minor mature content. The characters are mostly teenagers after all. The last thing I should mention is to make sure to read the previous books first as you will be lost if you haven’t done so. If you decide to try this series out feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.