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A review by tomlloyd
The Relic Guild by Edward Cox
3.0
Feels a bit disingenuous giving it a 3 stars, but I certainly did like it, and but for a few niggles it'd have been 4, so a 3.5?
The good? Well it's a very enjoyable epic fantasy in a noir-ish dystopian setting, emcompassing two time lines and dashes of vampirism and zombies - all neatly balanced despite it being a debut, with likeable characters and a fresh setting.
The less good? (bit spoilery) My main issue was with the blue avatar. It leads the relic guild by the nose and drives their side of events, but given you don't find out anything about it and the book's only a first in a series, it... well, without this unknown force they'd be sunk by halfway. And at the end you're left with a bunch of questions, which bugged me despite the fact I'd been merrily rattling through the chapters. The only other big thing I had was the sense of the city - you've got this huge labyrinth and these other worlds and... you don't get to play with the shiny toys. They get put behind a wall because they're dangerous and you're left with glimpses in the flashback time line. While that didn't affect the actual story, it was a let down in terms of what I was hoping to see and dulled the sense of place I got from the book. But mostly I was just hoping for some crazy world building to picture.
As for minor niggles, the relic guild wasn't big enough for a city of a million people, the name Van Bam bugged me throughout as I kept hearing it in the voice of Duff Man from the Simpsons, Clara didn't actually do a whole lot and I suspect she'll be a lot more fun to read about in book 2, I never got a great sense of the original war and why/how it all came about plus much about the Thaumaturgists.
But all in all, I did enjoy it and expect good things from book 2!
The good? Well it's a very enjoyable epic fantasy in a noir-ish dystopian setting, emcompassing two time lines and dashes of vampirism and zombies - all neatly balanced despite it being a debut, with likeable characters and a fresh setting.
The less good? (bit spoilery) My main issue was with the blue avatar. It leads the relic guild by the nose and drives their side of events, but given you don't find out anything about it and the book's only a first in a series, it... well, without this unknown force they'd be sunk by halfway. And at the end you're left with a bunch of questions, which bugged me despite the fact I'd been merrily rattling through the chapters. The only other big thing I had was the sense of the city - you've got this huge labyrinth and these other worlds and... you don't get to play with the shiny toys. They get put behind a wall because they're dangerous and you're left with glimpses in the flashback time line. While that didn't affect the actual story, it was a let down in terms of what I was hoping to see and dulled the sense of place I got from the book. But mostly I was just hoping for some crazy world building to picture.
As for minor niggles, the relic guild wasn't big enough for a city of a million people, the name Van Bam bugged me throughout as I kept hearing it in the voice of Duff Man from the Simpsons, Clara didn't actually do a whole lot and I suspect she'll be a lot more fun to read about in book 2, I never got a great sense of the original war and why/how it all came about plus much about the Thaumaturgists.
But all in all, I did enjoy it and expect good things from book 2!