[Book Review] Ink and Bone

Ink and Bone : The Great Library / Rachel Caine (Powell's Books)

Adventure!  Danger!  Romance!  Magic!  Librarians!

No, this isn't the next season of The Librarians.  Rather it's the start of Rachel Caine's latest series.

Books are everything to Jess Brightwell.  Perhaps too much, as anyone involved in book smuggling must be ready to destroy a book on moments notice to stay free.  Books, originals, belong to the Library, accessible to the masses through an Alchemical mirroring process called "mirroring" where the text is duplicated into a ready blank as needed.  When his father offers to send him into the Library service, even as a family spy, it's more than he ever imagined.

But then, the Library itself is more than he ever imagined.  The Library has changed over the years, growing in power and size, and as the ranks swell so has the opportunity for men to gain, and abuse, dominion over others.  Those with power fear change, even change that would better the world, the library, and the lives of those in its service.

Caine creatively re-imagines a world where Alchemical magic powers life as we know it and the Library of Alexandria never burned.  A world where the Library can be quite dangerous indeed.

Advanced Reader Copy copy courtesy of PENGUIN GROUP Berkley, NAL/Signet Romance, DAW; differences may exist between uncorrected galley text and the final edition.

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