Paper and Fire
Rachel Caine
Jess Brightwell sacrificed his bright future at the Library when his friend Thomas was murdered. Determined to set the mystery at rest, Jess can’t keep his nose out of trouble – and seems determined to drag his friends in as well. With London burning and the safe havens Jess has always known crumbling, it’s not clear how he will get out of this mess.
I find it very difficult to give an objective assessment of this novel. It’s told from Jess’ perspective, which granted is rather limited. Jess is basically a book stealer by trade, and so he looks at everything with a certain degree of detachment, which is actually very useful. He could do better with hiding his emotions though!
Everything seems to happen very quickly in this novel, the time is compressed and the action is thrilling. The characters never get a real chance to rest, it’s all plot and excitement. I found it impossible to put down, even when I was giving it a little reread to refresh my memory to review it.
I would have liked to get a sense of more of the mechanics behind the ‘magic’ of the Library, which comes in parts through notes written in the Codex of other characters (usually the ‘bad guys’). I think that further information from Thomas will be useful in this, and I hope to see more in the third novel.
I wanted this novel right after I had eaten up the first novel (Ink and Bone) in one very happy sitting, but I had to wait. The wait was well worth it, and I only wish I had managed to reread the first before settling into this one. Depending on the publication of the next novel, I might manage it then. Being separated from my main bookshelves makes rereading quite hard.
I’m going to give this novel 5 stars for being fantastically twisty with characters that I loved time and time again.
Faber Factory Plus Ffp | 27th July 2016 | AU $16.99 | Paperback
