Ink and Bone has a really great premise and Rachel Caine delivers the story beautifully.
This is a world where the Library at Alexandria never burned down, but grew to eventually take over and control all the information and knowledge of the world. Personal ownership of books is outlawed and if you're caught with one, it means imprisonment or death. Information is controlled through the use of The Codex and blanks. The Codex is a database of publicly available knowledge and texts, as well as a communication device, and blanks are used to read those volumes. This is a world where teleportation exists, but telephones do no. There's alchemy, steampunk technology, and knowledge matters above all else.
The Brightwell's are a an upstanding London family for all intents and purposes, but in truth deal in the black market of original prints and hard copies of books. Jess Brightwell, is faced with a choice that will decide the rest of his life: test for a placement to become a Scholar for The Great Library, become his father's spy within the Library, or be thrown on the streets. It's not much of a choice really. After Jess tests and is accepted, he goes down the rabbit hole, learning what he can and fighting to keep his place. He makes friends, and enemies, and begins to learn the true nature of the Library. The Library doesn't have peoples' best interests at heart. Their power and control over knowledge is what matters, more than human life; a lesson Jess learns the hard way.
This was a cover buy for me and it did not disappoint! While I didn't quite understand what was happening in the beginning and it took the first chapter to orient myself, once I did, Ink and Bone sucked me in and there was no turning back. I was reading it any chance I could get just to find out what happened next. This was such a wholly new concept and fresh story, at least to me, that I couldn't get enough. The characters were wonderfully written and developed, just the right amount of romance-but not overdone- to keep me interested, and fantastic world building.
I just couldn't help but love Jess, I mean how could you not? The poor guy has a heartless father, a distant mother, and an aloof twin brother. Then said father forces him to either risk his life and work for the enemy and be a spy OR be disowned, penniless, and thrown on the streets. Thanks dad. The side characters were great too. It had just the right amount of drama and was paced very well. I never felt like the story was dragging.
Did I mention the world building? While it is earth, it's very steampunk with alchemy and strange technology that's not quite magic, and yet the world is still very underdeveloped in many ways. The only means of communication are verbal, through the Codex, or hand written - which is kind of a no-no - transportation is limited to trains, ground vehicles, or animals. With so much knowledge, they were still so limited....
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