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A review by raj_page
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
5.0
I stumbled upon this because I had a sudden urge to read about the Library of Alexandria
This book is based on a simple enough premise. The Library survived the fires. What would such a world be like to live in?
At first, I thought it'd be similar to [b:The Name of the Wind|186074|The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)|Patrick Rothfuss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1515589515l/186074._SX50_.jpg|2502879]. A boy goes to study to a great place which is equally awed and hated at the same time. But that's the end of the similarity. Jess is not a great hero or saviour. He's as human as it gets. He is scared and vulnerable and just the right amount of broken. In short, he's relatable. When we walk in his shoes, we know that we'd probably be a similar person. And that's what I loved about the book.
The world is cleverly built and even though it is set in our world, the world is nothing like ours. Here knowledge is power and books are more important than people and the word of Library is absolute. In our world, the Library was destroyed which caused such a large amount of knowledge to be lost. Assume that it wasn't lost. Assume that 2000 years ago they already knew the basics of Automata Theory. Assume that such a world has had 2000 years to grow. The technology is similar but at the same time is vastly different as it has different roots than ours. Enough Said.
This book is based on a simple enough premise. The Library survived the fires. What would such a world be like to live in?
At first, I thought it'd be similar to [b:The Name of the Wind|186074|The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)|Patrick Rothfuss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1515589515l/186074._SX50_.jpg|2502879]. A boy goes to study to a great place which is equally awed and hated at the same time. But that's the end of the similarity. Jess is not a great hero or saviour. He's as human as it gets. He is scared and vulnerable and just the right amount of broken. In short, he's relatable. When we walk in his shoes, we know that we'd probably be a similar person. And that's what I loved about the book.
The world is cleverly built and even though it is set in our world, the world is nothing like ours. Here knowledge is power and books are more important than people and the word of Library is absolute. In our world, the Library was destroyed which caused such a large amount of knowledge to be lost. Assume that it wasn't lost. Assume that 2000 years ago they already knew the basics of Automata Theory. Assume that such a world has had 2000 years to grow. The technology is similar but at the same time is vastly different as it has different roots than ours. Enough Said.