Ink and Bone

Title: Ink and Bone

Series: The Great Library - book 1

Author: Rachel Caine

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Young Adult, Steam Punk, Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 410

Publisher: Allison and Busby

Publication Date: 2015

Summary: In a world where the ancient Great Library of Alexandria was never destroyed, knowledge now rules the world: freely available, but strictly controlled. Owning privates books is a crime.

Jess Brightwell is the son of a black market book smuggler, sent to the Library to compete for a position as a scholar...but even as he forms friendships and finds his true gifts, he begins to unearth the dark secrets of the greatest, most revered institution in the world.

Those that controll the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life - and soon both heretics and books will burn....

This book brings a whole new meaning to knowledge is power and a world run by books. If you love books, at some point you have probably seriously considered a world that was run by librarians and books lovers as some kind of paradise and perfect world. Well...maybe not. In a world where books are the most precious things, owning them makes you powerful and only the powerful can obtain them. So naturally no one is actually allowed to own books. Yeah doesn't really sound like paradise any more. And when knowledge is power, well everyone else sort of just has to accept that they lack both.

I didn't find the characters in this book to book to be particularly interesting, aside from the characters that we never really got to meet. Between every chapter we got snippets of written correspondence between some of the most powerful people in this world of books but it is only right at the end that we actually get to meet these scarily powerful men and women. In many ways, however, the characters in this story were overshadowed by the much more enthralling world that was created.

Rachel Caine created a world that was mix of history, steam punk, science fiction in a world that is so like our own yet at the same time so very far a way. This world ruled by the Great Library of Alexandria means we get a setting that is a mix of the luxurious life style of the Egyptians, mechanical inventions of the industrial age with a dash of technology that far exceeds our own and throw in a smidgen of magic. The librarians are a mix of tyrannical and almost god like revered leaders who are the most intelligent people around and impossible to out play.

I was hoping that this book would be a little more fast paced and action packed but at certain points I found myself really forcing myself to keep reading. Ink and Bone was filled with lots of little story line moments which all came together at the end but sometimes I found them difficult to read as they didn't quite fit nicely together. This was also not helped by the fact that at some points Caine created such intense and action packed moments you felt like you were sitting in an action movie. Yet despite these shifts from extreme actions to lapses in events, I really enjoyed the book.

Wolves of the Northern Rift

Title: Wolves of the North Rift

Series: Magic & Machinery - book 1

Author: Jon Messenger

Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Fantasy, Steam Punk

Number of Pages: 350

Publisher: Smashwords Edition

Publication Date: 2015

Summary: Magin is an abomination. It spread from the Rift, a great chasm hundreds of miles long that nearly split the southern continent in two. The Rift was a portal, a gateway between their world of science and the mythological world of magic.

On the northern continent of Ocker, King Godwin declared that no magical monstrosity would be allowed within their borders. The Royal Inquisitors were formed to investigate reports of mythical occurrences and, should they be found, to destroy them.

Inquisitor Simon Whitlock knows his responsibilities all too well. Along with the apothecary, Luthor Strong, they've spent two years inquiring into such reports of magical abominations, though they've discovered far more charlatans than true magical creatures. When assigned to investigate Haversham and its of werewolves, Simon remains unconvinced that the rumours are true. What he discovers in the frozen little hamlet is that the werewolves are far more real than he believed; yet they're hardly the most dangerous monster in the city.

From the word go I found this book to be pretty average. Nothing about it in any way really grabbed my attention throughout any part of the book. Yet at the same time this book has the potential to be great. With an odd mix of steam punk and fantasy, this book had marvelous inventions and unusual werewolves.

Wolves of the Northern Rift had a very slow story line. If you look at the cover you see a red haired lady surrounded by white wolves. The cover is spectacular! You are convinced, there is going to be a red haired lady and white wolves. Well for the first half of the book there was no red haired lady and we had only met the werewolves for a chapter, if you don't count the dead ones - which I don't. And in the last half of the book Mattie (the red haired lady) is present for all of about five chapters. And the chapters aren't that long. This entire book seems to be about gathering information and nothing very exciting happens.

Now as you get to the end of the book it does slightly begin to redeem itself. As the summary says, there is something worse than werewolves in Haversham. You get these hints about a great evil, a monstrosity that it not just a threat to Haversham but to the entire kingdom.....and then things just get kind of anti-climatic. The bad guy (I won't say who) enthralls the townspeople under his control and almost easily, Luthor manages to over come it.

Now Luthor, there is an unusual character. You see, Luthor has a secret, a big secret; a secret that we don't get much of until we near the middle of the book. And yet despite this big secret once again we are let down and nothing much happens. Luthor is constantly portrayed as being less intelligent and useful, especially in comparison to the superior Inquisitor Whitlock but when it is revealed that Luthor is anything but, he pretty much lets us down and fails and Mr Superior wins.

Now my last thing to say about this book is a little strange. No ages were mentioned in this book. I know what your thinking: 'what the hell do ages matter?' Well they do! When you don't know the ages of your characters you have know idea if they are extremely talented for their age or if they have a life time of experience behind them? Are they young with a point to prove? Or are they arrogant because they have been so good at what they do for so long? Are they wise, or are they smart? Such a minor detail and yet it affects the entirety of who the characters are.