Hey, everyone, and welcome to the first Book Review Tuesday of April 2019! No jokes, that was all yesterday.
Anyway, this was one of the (many) library books that I devoured in…about a day.
I had too much time on my hands.
This was one of those books where I just glanced on my Goodreads to-read list, saw the pretty cover (aDORE those watercolors), and put it on hold at the library, with absolutely zero expectations. But I must say, Ink, Iron, and Glass was an inventive, unputdownable book!
Enjoy the review!
Ink, Iron, and Glass
In an alternate version or our own world, a pen, armed with the right people, words, books, and intellect, can create an entirely new world. These worlds are created with the power of scriptology, and can house bizarre ecosystems, and even populations of unique people. Elsa and her scriptologist mother Jumi are not of this world; they dwell in a world created by other scriptologists; Jumi and Elsa are in charge of making sure their world is a well-oiled machine, with no faults, glitches, or catastrophes. But in a startling turn of events, Jumi is kidnapped, their house is ransacked and destroyed, and Elsa is forced to flee to Earth for answers. Her path of revenge leads her into 19th century Italy, where she teams up with a group of teenage alchemists and mechanists to track down her mother’s kidnapper. Will her mother–and the world that they lived in–be saved before her secrets are uncovered?
It’s difficult to place a genre on this book. At first glance, it seems as though it might be fantasy. I mean, that’s what the library labeled it as, so I’m not really gonna argue with that…
But as I got further and further into the book, it seemed to be a mix of science fiction, fantasy, with a little bit of historical steampunk thrown in.
And I know what you’re thinking, oh, dear lord, STEAMPUNK…yeah, those sort of elements were present, but they were a small fraction, and didn’t dominate the book. Don’t worry, no top-hats-gears-and-goggles overload.
All things considered, I think that’s a really good quality for a book to have. To have a book that can’t automatically be shoved into one genre is to have something made up of many different parts, working well in sync. It is to be something new, something original. And Ink, Iron, and Glass certainly was all of those things–wildly inventive, with fantastic world-building and lovable characters to work with all of the crazy and wondrous inventions and details.
Whether you’re a fan of sci-fi, fantasy, or something else entirely, I’d most definitely recommend this read. No matter what genre you hail from, you’re sure to enjoy at least something about this book.
I just found out, like…ten minutes ago when I googled the cover that yes, there is a sequel! It’s called Mist, Metal, and Ash and it came out in late February of this year. I’ll have to get to that pretty soon. And it seems as though the author has intended for this series to be a duology, so this may be it. Huh.
Well, thank you so much for reading, and have a great rest of your day!
