Rachel Caine
I won't go into any details about this final book at all, except that it delivered in every possible way, With the exception of a relatively slower start in the second book, the story was wellpaced and incredibly engaging, These books absolutely cannot be read on a standalone basis as the narrative from start to finish is one big continuous arc that does not veer into any sideplots at all.
In fact, thend andrd books had cliffhanger endings, And even though the penultimate volume ended with less suspense, one would want to continue to the final book as soon as possible,
Similar to the previous book, Sword and Pen is multiPOV, which worked really well for these last two instalments, In spite of the brisk pace of the story, character development was never compromised, As a result, I was hugely invested in each and every single character that mattered to Jess Brightwell, who I considered as the main protagonist of the series, I've mentioned in one of my previous reviews that it's rare for me to be so interested in every member of the main cast and that has not diminished in the least.
Caine made sure of that by giving each of them their own screen time, and I enjoyed every minute of it,
I might have not mentioned much about the worldbuilding since my first review, and I would like to address this shortcoming on my part, Caine did a magnificent job in realising this alternate world where the Great Library of Alexandria persisted and became the preeminent power of the world, She portrayed a realistic view of what our world would be like when such absolute power corrupts those who held all of the world's knowledge, It has always been lamented as to how much ancient scientific knowledge and technology had been lost in the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, Mythology has given us ideas about gods and robots, and Caine had given us a vivid realisation of that world,
There's really nothing much about these books that I could actually criticise, There were no silly tropes to begin with, Our young protagonists were sensible pretty much most of the times, and even when they seemed to be making mistakes, it was due to love, loyalty and friendship, Even the romance was handled really well, especially in the final book, And while there were a couple of occasions where things were resolved a tad too conveniently, I felt that the overall story and its characters have earned it somehow,
What more can I say except that I loved every moment I spent reading this series, On top of that, the physical books look absolutely stunning making it a truly worthy addition on my shelves,
Just look at those gorgeous spines!
Series
Ink and Bone: sitelink,/stars
Paper and Fire: sitelink,/stars
Ash and Quill: sitelink,/stars
Smoke and Iron: sitelink/stars
Sword and Pen: /stars
Overall: ,/stars
You can purchase the book from sitelinkBlackwells sitelinkBookshop, Org Support Independent Bookstores sitelinkAmazon US sitelinkAmazon UK
You can find sitelinkthis and my other reviews at sitelinkNovel Notions.
A satisfying conclusion to the series!
While I've felt there was a sliiight decline beginning with book, the series is still solid through and through, I think one of my dislike was that, with book, it started getting multipov, Don't get me wrong. I love the other characters as well but I had grown stuck on Jess and was bit territorial with charing my pagetime with him with others,
Also with this decline was that, stuff didn't have the same emotional impact on me, Bookhad me crying and wheezing and basically dying, Bookhad that too but not quiet up there, And I don't have this empty feeling I usually have after finishing the last book in a series, But it was satisfactory and I do hope Caine will do revisits in the future and the series do is rereadable,
Also Wolfe and Santi being confirmed dads is EVERYTHING, and even though it was only confirmed to Jess, and he confirmed them being his dads too and I'm cry, I know the others are also very much adopted.
A difficult one to review really.
There is a lot of love out there for the whole series but I felt this last book did not quite make the grade,
sitelinkSword and Pen never really grabbed me at all, The characters came and went as the POV kept changing and not one of them, even Jess, interested me much, People got in a fight, they were injured, they were fixed, then they got in another fight, And so it went on,
Maybe the best part of the earlier books was the group of young people being together, When they are separated, as in this book, they lose value for the reader, For this reader anyway.
Still an interesting series overall and if it did not finish with a bang it did at least end with some shocks and a clever twist, في يناير ٢٠١٦ دخلت عالم ريتشل كاين "المكتبة العظمي" مكتبة الإسكندرية
بسؤال sitelinkماذا لو لم تحترق مكتبة الإسكندرية القديمة
حكمها طاغية رئيس الأرشيف وطارد شخصيات الرواية المختلفة المتنوعة خلال الأجزاء السابقة بسبب رغبته في السيطرة وإحتكار العلم والمعرفة
وما بين الأسكندرية ولندن وأمريكا دارت الأحداث بالأجزاء السابقة بوصف يزداد اتقانا مع كل جزء, . كانك في اسكندرية فعلا
ربما أتسم بعض اجزاءها بالتطويل ولكن جاء الجزء الأخير هذا بشكل ملحمي يعد كأفضل خاتمة متكاملة بحق بالنسبة للروايات الشبابية
YA
الاحداث مثيرة ومتسارعة بشكل كبير بهذا الجزء وكالجزء السابق كل فصل من وجهة نظر احد الشخصيات بسبب وجود كل شخصية من الشخصيات الثمانية الرئيسية في مكان ومهمة مختلفة فكل فصل هنا يعد تنوع تشويقي
لتأتي الفصول الأخيرة في ليلة عاصفة مطيرة "سكندرية" أصيلة وكأن المؤلفة رحمها الله عاشت فعلا بها ويتجمع أبطال مغامرتنا الثمانية لأخر مرة سويا في تلك الفصول الأخيرة لتقديم تلك النهاية المذهلة الملائمة جدا للقصة والسلسلة ككل
شعرت طوال الكتاب حتي بعد منتصفه إن النهاية قد تكون سوداوية تماما الكتاب حتي قبل أخره المكتبة والشخصيات كلهم في مواقف مميتة والمكتبة مهددة بالحرق بالنيران الاغريقية الخضراء
وأعجبني جدا كيف تعاملت المؤلفة مع النهايات دون مبالغات, بل وقدمت ختامات لشخصيات كانت فرعية بشكل ملائم وخطوط بسيطة كعلاقة جيس بوالده مثلا وعلاقة وولفي بوالده أيضا قامت بغلق كل هذا بإتقان
الشخصيات تطورت كثيرا وكبرت بالفعل مع الحكاية كتاب وراء كتاب
كيف في احد المشاهد الأخيرة ل'جيس' بطل الحكاية يجد نفسه يفطر في مشهد مشابه من بداية الكتاب الأول منذ سنوات عدة
وكيف الصداقات تحولت لحب, . . وكيف الطموح تكلل بالنجاح
نهايات سعيدة وأخري مأساوية وحلوة مرة والحياة تستمر وظبطت نفسي أدمع كثيرا في اكثر من مشهد بالفصول الأخيرة
شخصية 'خليلة' الفتاة المسلمة مرسومة بشكل بديع حتي صلاواتها وقولها إن شاءالله في أصعب مواقف الرواية. . كما فهمت من إهداءات الكتاب أن للمؤلفة أصدقاء مسلمين ساعدوها في إخراج الشخصية بهذا الإبداع
وأيضا 'جلين' من ويلز الشجاعة تطورت شخصيتها بشكل كبير
للأسف رحلت المؤلفة العام الماضي بعد صراع مع السرطان ولكنها تركت مجموعة كبيرة ومختلفة من الروايات والسلاسل الشبابية الشهيرة
وإن لم تلق سلسلة المكتبة العظمي شهرة رواياتها الأخري فإننا محظوظين بأنها انهت تلك السلسلة بهذا التألق قبل رحيلها, . . لأني اتوقع لها فعلا نجاحا آكبر إذا ما تشجع منتج لتحويلها مسلسل ضخم
كل محبي روايات الشبابية
YA
لا تتأخروا في تلك التجربة والرحلة المثيرة في مكتبة الإسكندرية الكبري
محمد العربي
من ١٨ اكتوبر ٢٠٢١
الي ٢٦ اكتوبر ٢٠٢١ This series definitely did not need to be five books, I think three would have been more than sufficient to tell the story,
This finale was underwhelming and the pacing was bizarre, A “war” of a few days doesnt carry much weight in my eyes, The ending for some of the characters felt rather lazy and rushed, .
of the best series I've ever read ever, Rachel Caine, you are a fantastic genius, Thank you for not giving up on this idea,
I have to add: It is nearly always a TERRIBLE idea to begin a series with the final book, I say this because I saw updates from someone who picked this up without having read the first four and had no idea who anyone was or what was going on.
This is NOT one of those series where you can start wherever you like all willynilly and such, PLEASE start with Ink and Bone, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. Much to my delight, Sword and Pen delivered a truly satisfying and emotional conclusion to The Great Library, a spectacular YA series that has earned a spot as
one of my favourites.
I would once again reiterate that I don't read very much modern YA, and one of the reasons is that the subgenre, is more often than not, chockful with problematic tropes.
I found, however, that I did enjoy YA titles which were penned by authors who predominantly write adult fiction such as Brandon Sanderson, Sebastian de Castell and Joe Abercrombie, I'll add Rachel Caine to that list even though she also wrote a huge YA series The Morganville Vampires, I'm not sure if I'll read that series but I will recommend The Great Library wholeheartedly, As a lover of books and libraries, the premise of The Great Library was way too enticing that I had to give it a try, Was I glad that I did! My experience was further enhanced by buddy reading the entire series with my cobloggers, sitelinkCeleste and sitelinkEon, who loved the books as well.
"What we offer is not simply books on shelves, It is a commonality of scholarship and knowledge, Without it, the world could easily fall into darkness and chaos, without a shared culture of understanding, "
I won't go into any details about this final book at all, except that it delivered in every possible way, With the exception of a relatively slower start in the second book, the story was wellpaced and incredibly engaging, These books absolutely cannot be read on a standalone basis as the narrative from start to finish is one big continuous arc that does not veer into any sideplots at all.
In fact, thend andrd books had cliffhanger endings, And even though the penultimate volume ended with less suspense, one would want to continue to the final book as soon as possible,
"In this place we burn the lamp of knowledge that never goes out, We light the world. "
Similar to the previous book, Sword and Pen is multiPOV, which worked really well for these last two instalments, In spite of the brisk pace of the story, character development was never compromised, As a result, I was hugely invested in each and every single character that mattered to Jess Brightwell, who I considered as the main protagonist of the series, I've mentioned in one of my previous reviews that it's rare for me to be so interested in every member of the main cast and that has not diminished in the least.
Caine made sure of that by giving each of them their own screen time, and I enjoyed every minute of it,
"Sometimes there simply were no good choices to be made, Only costly ones. "
I might have not mentioned much about the worldbuilding since my first review, and I would like to address this shortcoming on my part, Caine did a magnificent job in realising this alternate world where the Great Library of Alexandria persisted and became the preeminent power of the world, She portrayed a realistic view of what our world would be like when such absolute power corrupts those who held all of the world's knowledge, It has always been lamented as to how much ancient scientific knowledge and technology had been lost in the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, Mythology has given us ideas about gods and robots, and Caine had given us a vivid realisation of that world,
"He'd been living in a desert for so long that finding a rose in the sand seemed impossible, "
There's really nothing much about these books that I could actually criticise, There were no silly tropes to begin with, Our young protagonists were sensible pretty much most of the times, and even when they seemed to be making mistakes, it was due to love, loyalty and friendship, Even the romance was handled really well, especially in the final book, And while there were a couple of occasions where things were resolved a tad too conveniently, I felt that the overall story and its characters have earned it somehow,
“Better I die for something, even if its nothing youd believe in, Loyaltys just a word to you, Its real for me. "
What more can I say except that I loved every moment I spent reading this series, On top of that, the physical books look absolutely stunning making it a truly worthy addition on my shelves,
Just look at those gorgeous spines!
Series
Ink and Bone: sitelink,/stars
Paper and Fire: sitelink,/stars
Ash and Quill: sitelink,/stars
Smoke and Iron: sitelink/stars
Sword and Pen: /stars
Overall: ,/stars
You can purchase the book from sitelinkBlackwells sitelinkBookshop, Org Support Independent Bookstores sitelinkAmazon US sitelinkAmazon UK
You can find sitelinkthis and my other reviews at sitelinkNovel Notions.
A satisfying conclusion to the series!
While I've felt there was a sliiight decline beginning with book, the series is still solid through and through, I think one of my dislike was that, with book, it started getting multipov, Don't get me wrong. I love the other characters as well but I had grown stuck on Jess and was bit territorial with charing my pagetime with him with others,
Also with this decline was that, stuff didn't have the same emotional impact on me, Bookhad me crying and wheezing and basically dying, Bookhad that too but not quiet up there, And I don't have this empty feeling I usually have after finishing the last book in a series, But it was satisfactory and I do hope Caine will do revisits in the future and the series do is rereadable,
Also Wolfe and Santi being confirmed dads is EVERYTHING, and even though it was only confirmed to Jess, and he confirmed them being his dads too and I'm cry, I know the others are also very much adopted.
A difficult one to review really.
There is a lot of love out there for the whole series but I felt this last book did not quite make the grade,
sitelinkSword and Pen never really grabbed me at all, The characters came and went as the POV kept changing and not one of them, even Jess, interested me much, People got in a fight, they were injured, they were fixed, then they got in another fight, And so it went on,
Maybe the best part of the earlier books was the group of young people being together, When they are separated, as in this book, they lose value for the reader, For this reader anyway.
Still an interesting series overall and if it did not finish with a bang it did at least end with some shocks and a clever twist, في يناير ٢٠١٦ دخلت عالم ريتشل كاين "المكتبة العظمي" مكتبة الإسكندرية
بسؤال sitelinkماذا لو لم تحترق مكتبة الإسكندرية القديمة
حكمها طاغية رئيس الأرشيف وطارد شخصيات الرواية المختلفة المتنوعة خلال الأجزاء السابقة بسبب رغبته في السيطرة وإحتكار العلم والمعرفة
وما بين الأسكندرية ولندن وأمريكا دارت الأحداث بالأجزاء السابقة بوصف يزداد اتقانا مع كل جزء, . كانك في اسكندرية فعلا
ربما أتسم بعض اجزاءها بالتطويل ولكن جاء الجزء الأخير هذا بشكل ملحمي يعد كأفضل خاتمة متكاملة بحق بالنسبة للروايات الشبابية
YA
الاحداث مثيرة ومتسارعة بشكل كبير بهذا الجزء وكالجزء السابق كل فصل من وجهة نظر احد الشخصيات بسبب وجود كل شخصية من الشخصيات الثمانية الرئيسية في مكان ومهمة مختلفة فكل فصل هنا يعد تنوع تشويقي
لتأتي الفصول الأخيرة في ليلة عاصفة مطيرة "سكندرية" أصيلة وكأن المؤلفة رحمها الله عاشت فعلا بها ويتجمع أبطال مغامرتنا الثمانية لأخر مرة سويا في تلك الفصول الأخيرة لتقديم تلك النهاية المذهلة الملائمة جدا للقصة والسلسلة ككل
شعرت طوال الكتاب حتي بعد منتصفه إن النهاية قد تكون سوداوية تماما الكتاب حتي قبل أخره المكتبة والشخصيات كلهم في مواقف مميتة والمكتبة مهددة بالحرق بالنيران الاغريقية الخضراء
وأعجبني جدا كيف تعاملت المؤلفة مع النهايات دون مبالغات, بل وقدمت ختامات لشخصيات كانت فرعية بشكل ملائم وخطوط بسيطة كعلاقة جيس بوالده مثلا وعلاقة وولفي بوالده أيضا قامت بغلق كل هذا بإتقان
الشخصيات تطورت كثيرا وكبرت بالفعل مع الحكاية كتاب وراء كتاب
كيف في احد المشاهد الأخيرة ل'جيس' بطل الحكاية يجد نفسه يفطر في مشهد مشابه من بداية الكتاب الأول منذ سنوات عدة
وكيف الصداقات تحولت لحب, . . وكيف الطموح تكلل بالنجاح
نهايات سعيدة وأخري مأساوية وحلوة مرة والحياة تستمر وظبطت نفسي أدمع كثيرا في اكثر من مشهد بالفصول الأخيرة
شخصية 'خليلة' الفتاة المسلمة مرسومة بشكل بديع حتي صلاواتها وقولها إن شاءالله في أصعب مواقف الرواية. . كما فهمت من إهداءات الكتاب أن للمؤلفة أصدقاء مسلمين ساعدوها في إخراج الشخصية بهذا الإبداع
وأيضا 'جلين' من ويلز الشجاعة تطورت شخصيتها بشكل كبير
للأسف رحلت المؤلفة العام الماضي بعد صراع مع السرطان ولكنها تركت مجموعة كبيرة ومختلفة من الروايات والسلاسل الشبابية الشهيرة
وإن لم تلق سلسلة المكتبة العظمي شهرة رواياتها الأخري فإننا محظوظين بأنها انهت تلك السلسلة بهذا التألق قبل رحيلها, . . لأني اتوقع لها فعلا نجاحا آكبر إذا ما تشجع منتج لتحويلها مسلسل ضخم
كل محبي روايات الشبابية
YA
لا تتأخروا في تلك التجربة والرحلة المثيرة في مكتبة الإسكندرية الكبري
محمد العربي
من ١٨ اكتوبر ٢٠٢١
الي ٢٦ اكتوبر ٢٠٢١ This series definitely did not need to be five books, I think three would have been more than sufficient to tell the story,
This finale was underwhelming and the pacing was bizarre, A “war” of a few days doesnt carry much weight in my eyes, The ending for some of the characters felt rather lazy and rushed, .