Review: Paper and Fire

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a classic second book in a series, it moves the plot along nicely but definitely feels like a filler (in a good way?).

Warning, this contains massive spoilers for the end of the first book if you haven't read that yet ...

At the end of the first book Jess and the remainder of his class have passed their postulate tests but Morgan has been taken into the Iron Tower by the Obscurists and Thomas has been taken by the Artifex, believed dead, for designing and building a printing press. Jess is being forced to spy on his friends by the Artifex. The remaining students have all been offered positions in the Library, but Jess is only offered a one year contract as a private in the High Garda instead of the scholarship position he rightly deserved.

At the start of this book Jess discovers that Thomas may not be dead, that the Artifex may have moved him to wherever Wolfe was taken when he was a prisoner. This book is about discovering where Thomas is being kept prisoner, making new allies, finding traitors in their midst and getting Morgan out of the Iron Tower. Their journeys lead them far from Alexandria and lead them to uncover the depths of the deception being played on the people by successive Archivists with the aid of the Artifexes.

One of the strengths of this series is that each of the characters is identifiable in their own right, this isn't Jess and his band of assistants, every character brings special skills and knowledge to the table. A picky person might argue that it is too much of a coincidence that all these special people made it into the one class of apostates, but I think the fact that they were the best of the best from across the world, tested for their academic and fighting abilities and honed through their teaching by Wolfe shows that the entire class, even those that failed, were special snowflakes.

I couldn't bear to stop reading so I am already halfway through the third book, but a natural break occurred so I took the opportunity to dash off a review, onwards readers!

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