Reviews

Ink and Bone is the first book in The Great Library series by Rachel Caine. It is 2025 in London. Everything is controlled by The Great Library. The Library is the keeper of knowledge, wisdom, and information. Jess Brightwell is the son of Callum Brightwell, a book dealer. Unfortunately, dealing in real, original books (hard covers with printed pages) is illegal. Jess is taught the business from a young age. He starts out as a runner where he delivers the illegal books to clients (and will be arrested if caught). The one thing Jess does love about the business is the books. He will read anything he can get his hands on (which means pilfering them from his father and hoping he does not notice). When Jess is sixteen, Callum buys him a placement in the Library training program. First Jess will have to pass a test and be accepted (which he passes with flying colors). Callum does have an ulterior motive, of course. Jess will be training in Alexandria where the Great Library is housed (other cities have satellite libraries). Callum will want Jess to acquire and deliver books. Jess is thrilled to get away (and hopes to find a way to avoid his father’s demands). The training is difficult and rigorous. Not all the candidates will make it through the training program. Their teacher is Scholar Christopher Wolfe and he is not thrilled to be teaching a group of postulants (as the students are called). Scholar Wolfe has no intention of taking it easy on this group. One by one the students are dismissed. Then the final group has to go on a dangerous assignment to save books in a war zone. Who will make it back alive?

I enjoyed Ink and Bone for the most part. It is an interesting world (Rachel Caine came up with some unique things), and I liked the main character (especially his love of books and reading). There is a lot of action in the second half of the book (especially towards the end) which made it more interesting and gave the book a faster pace (better than the first part). Imagine a world where owning a real book (especially old, first edition books) made with paper and ink is illegal! The Library owns all originals and you can be arrested/jailed if caught with books (especially trading in them). There is violence and death in the book (if not for that it would more suited to young adults/tweens). I give Ink and Bone 4 out of 5 stars (I liked it). I will be reading the next book in the series to see what happens next (I admit that I am curious).

I received a complimentary copy of Ink and Bone from NetGalley in exchange for an honest evaluation of the book. The comments and opinions expressed are my own.

isalie_acosta's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

tracilynn33's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i was hoping there wouldn't be a romantic subplot, but alas there is and it feels as flat as one would expect.

natalieyanka's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

5.0

amandalyn's review against another edition

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4.0

I don’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t what I thought it was honing to be. But I still really enjoyed it. It’s been a long time since I’ve read an Alternative History book, and this one did not disappoint. Super interesting concepts and I really liked the characters. I’m excited to get the next ones and see where it goes!

cutenanya's review against another edition

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3.0

This book took me a while to read because it's so slow, this is truly an exemplary of a book with great potential but poor execution. Reading this book reminds me of the digital vs. paper book problem. The blanks are like kindles (sorry but that's how I picture it) and the world is one where only the mega privileged, a.k.a. scholars are entitled to reading REAL books made from paper. The rest of the world, we can only see words floating on blanks if we want to read. While this may seem absurd from our perspective as we are used to be surrounded by real books and not digital blanks, nonetheless, this maybe the reality of our future generation. As a book lover, (like most of you who are reading my review :D) I can totally relate to the sad reality that not only is the number of real books gradually declining, we also see fewer thoughts being poured into the creation of books today. A few centuries ago, books are beautifully bound, with leather and occasionally bindings. Today, hardcovers cost so much I feel myself being a spendthrift just collecting this books.

Anyway, I have been sidetracked so I shall come back to Jesse's adventures in Ink and Bone. I think this book fails in the following aspects (and thus just 3 stars despite the awesome world building):

1) PACING: This books is SO SLOW I keep wanting to DNF it but I can't just because I feel a book with such a wonderful background world should not be dumped into my DNF shelf. Still, though it's action packed in a way, the actions don't really grab my interest. This is probably due to the poor development of the cast, bringing me to my second problem with this book.

2) CHARACTERS: I think Ms. Caine should REALLY work on character development. Frankly, the whole cast has potential to be lovable, realistic characters but I end up disliking Jesse and Morgan toward the end of the story and that's a HUGE problem when they are the main characters. Jesse is conflicted and inconsistent.

Spoiler

He's been used by other people his whole life - his family, the library, and even his girlfriend and hates it but he's doing exactly the same thing to Morgan. If that's not the works of a hypocrite, I don't know what is.

The rest of the cast though is awesome and I truly like Thomas and scholar Wolfe (MVP of the book). I adore Thomas for his intelligence and loyalty to Jesse and I adore Wolfe because he's intelligent, innovative, kind and caring. I also like the other characters but sadly, their screen time is too limited for me to develop any emotion for them.

3) ROMANCE: Again, I can't believe how Jesse and Morgan's romance can be SO BADLY developed.

Spoiler

It was okay halfway and maybe even a bit sweet immediately after their escape from Oxford and explosion on the train. However, things just went downhill when Jesse betrayed Morgan even if he had the best of intentions. She would be captured anyway if left alone, maybe even tortured so this is really the logical thing to do. Yet, the logical thing may not necessarily be the right thing to do. Jesse's too logical to border being insensitive and I guess that's what frustrates Morgan.

While Jesse and Morgan's relationships is disappointing though, the romance between other characters are more appealing, especially between Wolfe and Santi. I've seen many reviews expressing fondness for this couple (they're cute), supportive and caring for each other. Hopefully, they would form a model for the younger generation. Dario is not the best character for sure but he has potential to become a better person in the future and his crush (?) on Khalila is just SO CUTE!

Spoiler

When Jesse said Khalila is too good for Dario, he admits it. Imagine that !? An arrogant prick like Dario humbling himself and striving to be better for Khalila! Darn, that's adorable!!!

Overall, this is a book with a promising premise. The poor execution and poor characterization of the main character though is a problem for me. I'm still struggling as to whether I should continue reading the next books in the series but I definitely won't read it immediately.

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