Present day, 16-year-old Jess often sneaks away from his father to read books.Knowledge to be controlled, not allowed in the hands of the masses. Ephemera: describes Gutenberg’s proposal of a printing press and how it was rejected and he accused of treachery.Ends up near St Paul’s Serapeum where the lion automatons chase after him, killing innocents, but Jess gets away. Six years ago – Jess Brightwell runs illegal books for his father, dodging the Garda.Trains) and lack of progress (clothing, carriages) World where knowledge is power and the possession of private books is illegal.Ephemera: Letter from Pharoah Ptolemy II to his Archivist, allowing selected texts from the Great Library at Alexandria to be copied and housed in a daughter library (Serapeum).Those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life-and soon both heretics and books will burn. but even as he forms friendships and finds his true gifts, he begins to unearth the dark secrets of the greatest, most revered institution in the world. Jess Brightwell is the son of a black market book smuggler, sent to the Library to compete for a position as a scholar.

In a world where the ancient Great Library of Alexandria was never destroyed, knowledge now rules the world: freely available, but strictly controlled. Main Characters – Jess Brightwell / Thomas Schreiber / Khalila Seif / Dario Santiago / Glain Wathen / Morgan Hault / Christopher Wolfe / Niccolo Santi

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine