Sword and Pen

Book Title: Sword and Pen

Author: Rachel Caine

Series: The Great Library #5

Date Started: August 17th 2019

Date Completed: August 19th 2019

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley & Allison and Busby for this eBook copy for review ◆

Man, have I loved this series. Before I get into it, I want to thank Berkley Random House who gave me an ARC of the early first book last year (it's only been a year since I've been reading these?!), and of course Allison and Busby for this last installment - thank you for making sure this story came to the conclusion it deserved. Because I don't know what I would've done without this final action-packed, adventurous and indulgently sentimental story. The Great Library series comes from a devout adoration of books and is a wonderful addition to the infinite modern collection of fiction we have today - and it can't be burnt down anymore.

The aesthetics of The Great Library series are really something to commend. As a childhood lover of Ancient Egypt and an adult admirer of Ancient Greece, really the Library of Alexandria was going to be a winner full stop. But Caine creates a world so different to everything else out there at the moment, replicated in a way that feels authentic but also creatively exaggerated for our own excitement. The people she places into that world hold it up, but the foundations are pretty solid for them to perform on.

The Great Library series has taken us on pretty much a world tour during its four earlier books, but Sword and Pen is the first time we've been confined to just Alexandria. I don't think it suffers from that at all. Alexandria is like home at this point, and it's really the only place things could come to a close. And everyone gets to a hero in their own subplots but, as I was desperately hoping and as this series deserves, everyone gets pulled together for the last finale. No spoilers people, but it's worth it.

I may complain about the plot lines sometimes, but these books have such a cool mix of side stories, world-building, and character dynamics. Yes, some things don't pay off as you'd expect (why was Morgan so powerful all along? What's the deal with Eskander? Is the war really the main enemy here?), but the pure glee I got while seeing all these different people interact in so many different circumstances, under so many varied threats and pressures. The stakes remain high because Caine is so creative in the obstacles she sets - many, many obstacles - and the characters are so solid it's a game getting to watch them figure out her puzzles.

Because really, when you come down to it, it's the characters who win or lose a story's success. And the Great Library makes me want to keep coming back because of the people placed inside it. Each with their own personality, their own motivations, their own backgrounds, their own subplots that are (mostly) all allowed to come to fruition. The romance is great, the rivalries are great, but what's really impressive are the non-romantic relationships. The pairings that are platonic, familial; the physical affection between friends as well as lovers; the unconditional love for arses that are still friends.

I'm sad to see this series come to a close, but it was a good ending. There's potential room for more stories in this world, I guess, but I think The Great Library was done justice enough - though that isn't to say I wouldn't read a sequel series. I'd probably devour it immediately, honestly. But for now, this is the end.