But as plots thicken, they have to survive plots against their lives. Initially, Jess and his classmates just have to survive the strict instruction of Scholar Wolfe, which is terrifying enough. As Jess gets to know his classmates, he gradually realizes the same thing they realize – The Library can stifle knowledge, creativity, expression and freedom even as it protects rare volumes of words. Jess Brightwell, member of a family of book smugglers, is accepted to enter the library as a student (all students either fail, which means they are kicked out, or they pass, which means they take on jobs in the Library). Anyone throughout history who comes up with an idea for a printing press is ruthlessly suppressed by The Library before their invention can be made public, so The Library both protects all books and controls access to them absolutely.

But only the library can print and disseminate a book, and it only shares books through Codexes – no one is allowed to own a paper book, an original copy. Everyone carries a Codex, which is sort of like an eBook reader – you can request a book from the Library and read it whenever you want. All writing is controlled by The Great Library, which has outposts in several cities and is politically neutral. The Great Library is about an alternate future in which owning a book is illegal. Ink and Bone was also fast paced, but it included a lot of time for the characters and the world to be established, so Paper and Fire could afford to be more hectic in terms of pacing. The first book, Ink and Bone, pretty much derailed all my plans for two days because it was just so nommy, and Paper and Fire did the same thing, largely by making the characters run at full tilt from one problem to another without sacrificing character development. Paper and Fire is the second book in the series The Great Library by Rachel Caine, and it is AMAZEBALLS. Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult

The great library series rachel caine