Smoke and Iron

Four and a half stars. It has been six months since I read the first three books in this series and I have the memory of a goldfish, yet it took only minutes for me to remember the characters and the plot so far. Don't try reading this book unless you've read the others because you won't understand the relationships between the characters or how they got where they are. At the end of the third book Jess and the others had rescued themselves from the beseiged city of Philadelphia at enormous cost to life and property only to be betrayed by Jess' father Callum Brightwell. Morgan and Wolfe had been sent back to Alexandria and the Archivist. Khalila, Thomas, Santi, Glain and Dario are on board Red Ibrahim's boat, also bound for Alexandria and Jess has changed places with his brother Brendan. Our intrepid rebels have turned disaster into opportunity by deliberately allowing themselves to be placed in the heart of the enemy's stronghold in Alexandria in order to destroy it from within. If that hasn't whetted your appetite for the series I don't know what will? Okay, what about mechanical automatons in the shape of lions and Egyptian gods? Creating magic from the written word? High Garda, Elite soldiers, thieves, book burners and smugglers? In this book all the pieces come together. We see the plot advance through the eyes of most of our friends and the rebellion rises to a crescendo. And then ... there's a book five. For the love of god, woman! I thought that was the end!