Paper and Fire

Book Title: Paper and Fire

Author: Rachel Caine

Series: The Great Library #2

Date Started: February 23rd 2018

Date Completed: February 26th 2018

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four stars

Review:

This series is so much fun. The action is great, the romance is addictive, the world is brilliant. Any alternative history where books, knowledge and adventure are the focus wins for me, but The Great Library books bring more than that.

There's a lot of worldbuilding and imagination packed into this. To her credit, Caine does it without you really noticing while you're reading; everything works together very naturally. It wasn't until I tried to explain it to a friend that I realised how much detail is weaved through that influences the politics and personality of the characters. Not to mention how much it elevates the setting itself; I adore Egypt and ancient history anyway, but Caine fits mechanical lions and magic teleportation into it without losing the tone and believability.

I think the story itself is becoming a little repetitive. You get (well-written) action scenes and then some puzzle-solving dialogue, then another action scene, some threatening, secret meetings etc. But it's only really something that I notice in hindsight; while I'm in the middle of it it's exciting and it's fun. There's enough variety in the exact situation they're discussing and the exact action and tension that I'm more than engaged. And, really, what I come for is the characters.

Having varied characters with their own personalities and motivations seems to be one of the more difficult things for writers, particularly in YA books; they're (stereotypically) more likely to have a range of ages and tend to focus on protagonists that are in limbo and haven't quite worked out who they are. It's hard to write, understandably. Which is why Paper and Fire (and The Great Library series as a whole so far) is so engaging to read. There's a big cast of main characters and each of them has different strengths and weaknesses - and they affect the way the story goes because of these! If Dario wasn't such an arrogant but self-righteous idiot, things would've gone differently; if Morgan wasn't so determined and persistent (even if she does spend half her time crying) Jess and the others would've been screwed. I make a big deal about this because I really don't come across it that often, and it's what makes me fall in love with a story. Diversity is so important in the literal sense (I adore the fact that in a cast of eight primary characters, three are white English and the rest are from all across the globe) but also in the sense of personalities; people are so different to each other and it's a very hard thing to translate into fiction. But Caine does it.

If you couldn't tell, I really enjoy this series. It's not high literature but I always want to immediately keep going when I finish a book. I'm glad there are going to be more than three books, but I'm not so happy that I have to wait a while for them.