Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine - OPTIONAL

Smoke and Iron (Great Library #4) by Rachel Caine, 448 pages.  Berkley (Penguin Random House), 2018.  $18.  

Language: PG-13 (16 swears); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG-13.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

The friends and rebel Scholars are continuing their rebellion against the Great Library in a quest to make knowledge and books available to all.  Jess escaped Philadelphia by passing himself off as his brother Brenden, but it leaves his friends unsure of his loyalty to their cause.  The Archivist has found a new and powerful weapon that is a formidable foe against the rebels.  Once again the rebels have to work together and believe in the greater good instead of the long followed tradition of controlled knowledge. 

This fourth book, much like the other books in the series, has a lot of action but not a lot of forward movement.  I like the characters, and care what happens in the overall sense, but at this point the story is dragging on and I wish this book had a better conclusion.  Unlike the other books in the series, each chapter is from the point of view of a different character, instead of it all being from Jess’s point of view.  The violence is fighting that is bloody.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson.