The Relic Guild

The Relic Guild #1

by Edward Cox

Magic caused the war. Magic is forbidden. Magic will save us.

It was said the Labyrinth had once been the great meeting place, a sprawling city at the heart of an endless maze where a million humans hosted the Houses of the Aelfir. The Aelfir who had brought trade and riches, and a future full of promise. But when the Thaumaturgists, overlords of human and Aelfir alike, went to war, everything was ruined and the Labyrinth became an abandoned forbidden zone, where humans were trapped behind boundary walls a hundred feet high.

Now the Aelfir are a distant memory and the Thaumaturgists have faded into myth. Young Clara struggles to survive in a dangerous and dysfunctional city, where eyes are keen, nights are long, and the use of magic is punishable by death. She hides in the shadows, fearful that someone will discover she is touched by magic. She knows her days are numbered. But when a strange man named Fabian Moor returns to the Labyrinth, Clara learns that magic serves a higher purpose and that some myths are much more deadly in the flesh.

The only people Clara can trust are the Relic Guild, a secret band of magickers sworn to protect the Labyrinth. But the Relic Guild are now too few. To truly defeat their old nemesis Moor, mightier help will be required. To save the Labyrinth – and the lives of one million humans – Clara and the Relic Guild must find a way to contact the worlds beyond their walls.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Steampunk, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult

400 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 2014

About the author

Author of THE RELIC GUILD trilogy (The Relic Guild, The Cathedral of Known Things, The Watcher of Dead Time) published by Gollancz. Represented by Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. Daddy, husband, reader.

I can also be found here:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdwardCox10

Tumblr: http://edward-cox.tumblr.com/

Wattpad:http://www.wattpad.com/user/Edward_Cox

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark and gritty fantasy. Centred around a group of magically gifted people who are part of a cross between secret service and elite forces , following the Relic Guild across two times, the end of a war, and the restart of it 40 years later.
A good strong mix of characters and a nicely set up universe which promises a lot more as it is opened out.
Enjoyable while being dark.

[Maryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a really good debut fantasy book.I enjoyed the story and the way it is told. It shift continuously between now and past when everything was ruined.Edward Cox knows how to engage the reader with the story.

The relationship between current Relic Guild members is processed very good, Old man Sam Picky, young Clara unsure about her powers and a little confused in the new world she has been dragged into and Van Bam the wise, calm Resident of the Labrys town. oh vilains... you hate them but at the same time admire them for their intelligence.Best of them angry and crazy Thaumaturgists.

[Mieneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I like Edward Cox. We're friendly online and I was lucky enough to meet him last year in Brighton. The synopsis for his debut The Relic Guild sounded great, but you never know, right? Thus it was with a bit of trepidation that I started reading Ed's novel, because what if I didn't like it. Well, I’m pleased – and relieved – to say that while I had some issues with the narrative, The Relic Guild didn't disappoint and on the whole I had a great time with the story.

So let's just start off with the issues I had. These were mostly centred around the world building and the lack of a map. I know, how cliche to whine about the lack of a map, but in this case it would have really helped me because I spent a large part of the novel just having trouble figuring out where I was and visualising how Labrys Town looked. I couldn’t get to grips with the scale of the town and its surrounding labyrinth and though we do get some sense of the numbers and size of this universe about a third of the way in, I kept running up against how to visualise my surroundings. There is magic, but also ‘modern technology’ in the form of magic-powered pistols, trams, reflector helmet, and CCTV observation, yet society and the rest of their surroundings don’t feel modern, they feel more like a renaissance era setting. It was only once I decided to just go with it and had some good chunks of reading time to get stuck into the narrative, that I really got immersed in the story enough to not worry about how I should see it in my head and just follow the characters.

The story is told in two timelines, one during the Genii war and one set forty years after. In both timelines the central characters were young women. Clara, in the present timeline, is a new beginning for the Relic Guild and is our way into this mysterious organisation, while Marney is our window onto the past. I loved both of them for different reasons. Clara is very much the newbie drawn into the Guild and trying to find her feet and learning to accept her power. Hers is very much a coming-of-age story, while Marney already knows these things. If Clara is an apprentice Guild agent, Marney is at least a journeyman. Marney’s story is far more about figuring out why the  Guild does what it does and how she fits within that mission.

There is some overlap between the agents we see in the two timelines, notably Samuel, Van Bam (I’m sorry but that name just makes me giggle), and Hamir. I found it fascinating to see them in these two incarnations; while it was a great way to get to know them better, it also created questions about how they ended up as they did. There are several agents we do not encounter in the present, the most important of which is Marney’s mentor Denton. I really liked this gentle, kind old man and the interaction between him and Marney.

The Relic Guild’s plot is well-constructed. I loved how the past timeline informed the current, allowing the reader to understand what is happening along with Samuel and Van Bam, but before Clara. I found both timelines equally compelling. They both centre on the same mystery, but where in Marney’s time we start with the question of who the culprit was, in Clara’s time we know who the culprit is, it just isn’t clear what he’s doing exactly. In Marney’s time they are trying to stop a war, while in the present they just might start one if they don’t stop a catastrophe from happening.

I enjoyed The Relic Guild tremendously. The characters were wonderful and their stories compelling. Cox leaves both timelines on a cliffhanger and with plenty of questions about our characters left unanswered. Such as what did Marney implant in Clara's mind? What happened between Marney and Van Bam? How did the Genii war truly end and who is on the other side of the portal? I can't wait to crack open the next book and find answers to these questions. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll also get my map. With The Relic Guild Cox delivers a strong debut and I look forward to reading more of his writing.

[Murkypoke · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once in a long while a book comes along that changes everything. A paradigm shifting book that effects everything around it. THE RELIC GUILD is such a book. Such never before read crapness, a total void of writing talent and chaotic thought spew, has permanently altered my conception of “bad writing”, “bad book” and “just how totally S**T can a piece of writing be?”.

Edward Cox is an author whom all others authors are seriously indebted to. They should tithe him or something. He has sunk the bar of writing so low that much previously degraded and ridiculed work now has space to breathe. Every book that I have rated one star until now just rose magically and effortlessly up to three stars through the power of the sheer awfulness of this unbelievably bad book.

By writing such a failure of the mind as THE RELIC GUILD Edward Cox has given me a rare gift, a curative to my cynicism. Everything I read from now on will not seem as bad as it otherwise could have thanks to this deep valley of utter drivel that has appeared in my reading landscape with an earthquake fissure. Well done Mr Cox!

By awarding THE RELIC GUILD one star I mean only and exactly one thing, this is a piece of dog s**t pretending to be a book and smells exactly as it should. The overwhelming and shattering poorness of this book will change your life.

[Nina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought it on the strength of the blurb (it sounded like it ticked most of my boxes!), but was utterly disappointed by the execution.

Did not enjoy the author's writing, and was disappointed by the execution of the ideas in there that had promise. Way too much exposition, way too much 'as you know', way too much recapping. Characters did not grow into themselves, and I struggled to 'hear' the voices of the main characters at all - they felt like there was very little to set them apart from each other except for a character sheet of abilities. I never really cared for any of them and only finished the book in the hope that it would all come together late in the game.

The 'end' of this book annoyed me. It would have been nice to at least get some closure from book 1 of a series, but... nope. Nothing. Just a reaction of "Seriously!? That's it!?" from me over here.

Having said all that, I'm pretty sure that if I'd read this when I was a kid I'd have loved it. Maybe I'm just not the target market, maybe I'm too snobby on the technical aspects, ultimately not the right book for me.

[Joanne Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific debut novel, with plenty of scope for expansion and some really good world-building. Most importantly, lots of fun. Looking forward to the next one.

[Tom Loock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, interesting unique world with intriguing characters, BUT ...

... the novel has the kind of opening assault I hate: Within the first few pages two handfuls of characters are introduced by name plus a multitude of (newly invented or adapted) terms like Relic Guild, Aelfir, Genii, Voice of Known Things, Timewatcher, Thaumaturgists, Great Labyrinth etc. So much/so many I almost gave up before the first chapter.

... had I known that this is the first book of a trilogy that ends with a cliffhanger, I would not have purchased this book. In other words: it has no ending.

... maybe some things will be explained in the next two volumes, but at the end of "The Relic Guild" that are huge logic holes and problems with logistics re. Labrys Town with its one million inhabitants. To name just some: The tram system would not suffice as the only mass and goods transport system, and getting all supplies for the city this size through one portal would simply not work. While the town has an elaborate sewage system - where does the water come from?

... the development of (one of) the main character(s), Clara, is too spontaneous and not explained (explainable?) by events in the novel.

... pacing, dialogue and exposition will need to get better in future volumes.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A promising steampunky fantasy debut. It took me a while to get into the story and find my way into the world, but I quickly found myself intrigued by the present and past storylines, getting sucked in deeper with each subsequent chapter. Great characters and fascinating worldbuilding - I'm eager to see where the story goes from here.

[Lucy Hounsom · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many things to love about The Relic Guild. First and foremost, it neatly delivers the reader into a unique world – rare in the saturated fantasy genre – that’s peopled with a great cast of characters and a conflict spanning decades. This conflict has shades of the Biblical: the Satan-like Spiral – a being of higher magic – defies his Mother, the Timewatcher, in order to pursue his own ends. Some of his fellow Thaumaturgists sympathise and join him, obliterating their Thaumaturgic tattoos from their foreheads in refutation of their Mother and Her laws. It’s a conflict that works because it’s ancient and understandable, and it makes for an excellent story.

The Timewatcher is a suitably ineffable figure, and time/dimensions are an intrinsic part of Cox’s idea. From this perspective, it’s almost wrong to envision the story’s two narrative arcs as separate, since the present day narrative is a continuation of the original. Nevertheless, the book is divided equally between the two.

In the present-day, the people of Labrys Town are virtual prisoners, contained by unscalable walls that protect them from the dangers of the Great Labyrinth beyond. Once upon a time, portals connected Labrys Town to myriad Aelfirian Houses, but the war with Spiral necessitated their closure, trapping the entire race of humans in one place.

I loved the idea of the Aelfirian Houses. Each ‘House’ is an entire realm with wonderful names like The Icicle Forest and Web of Rock. All of these realms – and the great Labyrinth itself – are contained within a kind of nebula called The Nothing of Far and Deep. Cox has created a vast universe, which makes Labrys Town and its high walls seem smaller by contrast. This claustrophobic awareness is lodged somewhere in each character’s psyche and is a major influence on their development.

The past narrative is situated forty years before the present and recounts the story of the Relic Guild’s fight against Fabian Moor and his fellow Genii. Since the reader is told from page one that Fabian Moor was defeated, Cox’s decision to relive history could be seen as risky – if we know the ending, doesn’t that diffuse tension? Not so. I think Cox is allowing us to see only a corner of his story’s intricately-plotted page. He doesn’t dedicate half his book to recounting past events simply because those events make for a good story. They do indeed make for a good story, but I suspect that they serve a much larger purpose yet to be revealed.

In an interview published on Civilian Reader Cox mentioned that neither narrative could structurally stand alone and remain successful – a point with which I agree. There’s no denying the symbiosis that occurs between the two timeframes and sets of characters. A few overlap of course – notably Samuel, Van Bam, Hamir and Marney – and I found the parallels that this overlap created slightly disorientating. The young Marney began to merge in my head with Clara and I sometimes felt the same way about the older and younger Van Bam and Samuel. I’m undecided as to whether this sense of character blurring works with or against the flow of the narrative. We certainly don’t know everything about Clara, but we do know she is somehow linked with Marney, which leads me to wonder whether the overlapping of these two characters is deliberate.

On the whole, Cox’s characters are well-realised individuals, each with a story to tell. At the top of my list are Marney, Samuel and Fabian Moor. Marney is such a great character. Her magic is empathy, which allows her to manipulate human emotions. By the end of the book, I felt as if we’d truly met and Cox has me wholly invested in her fate. Samuel is a bounty hunter whose magic and marksmanship skills make him an excellent assassin. Samuel has the taciturn and practical nature of a true mercenary and his cold-blooded attitude serves the Relic Guild well. Near the end of the book, we’re treated to a glimpse of Sam’s inner life. Riddled with bitterness and hurt, it raises some pertinent questions about his pre-Relic Guild years, which I hope Cox will explore in subsequent stories. Comparatively, we don’t see much of Moor, but I appreciated his wry, calculating nature and couldn’t help but be intrigued by his motives. Hamir – the Relic Guild’s necromancer – is another character who has me fascinated and I am convinced he is something more than he seems.

My one real niggle when it comes to character is Clara, who is billed as the protagonist. She’s supposed to be a whore – and a good one at that – but I couldn’t quite make myself believe it. I didn’t feel that the way she behaved around her fellow characters – almost exclusively men – tallied with someone who’d made a living from her body since the age of fourteen. Even in the privacy of her own head, she doesn’t think about her profession, or seem especially affected by it. One could argue that this absence of consideration is a form of repression, but I remain unconvinced. You could swap out prostitution for factory work and it wouldn’t make a difference to the character. Although I can only go on my own feelings as a woman, Clara simply didn’t come across as a whore. And therefore when any character referred to her as ‘the whore’, it rang falsely.

Perhaps it’s also the fact that Clara has so little personality compared to Cox’s other characters. I found it genuinely difficult to warm to her – chiefly because there wasn’t much to latch onto. As the story continued, she did finally seem to wake up and respond in a more recognisable way to her surroundings, but she still remains my least favourite character. I hope I’m not being too harsh on poor Clara, and I sincerely hope my opinion doesn’t dissuade you from reading the book. Although the blurb names Clara as the protagonist, she doesn’t have much more page time than Marney, Sam and the other members of the Relic Guild.

Cox’s morals are fairly clear cut – this is not grimdark, folks – and that is more than fine with me. The bad guys (Spiral’s Genii) exhibit a chill disregard for anything that stands in their way, and the good guys (the titular Relic Guild) are fairly decent human beings, though – as you might expect – their modus operandi isn’t entirely ethical. They use whatever talents they have to keep the people of Labrys Town safe and these talents vary widely.

Magical abilities possessed by humans range from illusion and empathy to heightened physical senses. Thaumaturgy – the energy that denotes a being of higher magic – is less easy to classify. It powers Labrys Town like electricity, but only the Thaumaturgists themselves can wield it in the way of sorcerers. They are distant, powerful figures who dwell beyond the realm of humans and whose minds are open to the secrets of the universe.

The combination of the two makes for a highly successful magic system that doesn’t require a lot of explanation and complements the setting beautifully. Caught halfway between technology and medievalism, Labrys Town has a certain steampunkish air. It’s full of trams and creepy Big Brother-like eyes that spy on the populace. And the mysterious Nightshade – the home of the Resident and the Relic Guild – is a sentient maze of a building with a personality all its own.

Taking the book as a whole, I found the dual narrative structure clever and effective, and appreciated the way Cox keeps his world’s history alive and relevant to current events. My one disappointment in this regard was the novel’s lack of closure. In the interview quoted above, Cox talks of his aim to create one story seamlessly split into three books. As a reader, I like novels to have some sort of conclusion even if they are part of a series. This is obviously a personal opinion and does rather fly in the face of Cox’s purpose. However, I was rather surprised that The Relic Guild didn’t include the battle with Fabian Moor – a battle that would have provided my desired closure. The reader anticipates this battle from the very first page, and I can only conclude that Cox has some other plan up his sleeve. As it is, the book ends between one chapter and the next. While that ensures a seamless transition, the downside for the reader is the wait between books –an interval that may water down the effect.

I had the pleasure to read a very clean proof copy and I enjoyed Cox’s easy prose immensely. Chunks of info-dumping are rare and where they do occur, they are done succinctly with a view to explaining a subsequent development in character or plot. Despite its few flaws, The Relic Guild is a formidable debut from an author with huge potential, and I will be one of the first clamouring for a copy of the sequel.

The Relic Guild is published 18th September. Thanks to Gollancz for this proof.

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first thing I want to mention was the top-notch narration, as I listened to it as an audio book; there was a whole host of different characters with individual personalities and backgrounds, and all of them were easily distinguished from one another thanks to the variety of tones and accents.

That said, the story was marvelously spun through a myriad of viewpoints, both current and past, weaved into a fascinating and detailed landscape. The Labyrinth was wonderfully imagined, and easy to lose yourself in. The characters were fantastically realised and a combination of hate to love and love to hate that really worked so perfectly for the story. The magic system is complex, but relatively easy to understand, although the author hasn't gone into a great deal of detail up until this point; it seems to be broadly divided into human magic, elf(?) magic and higher magic.

It ended with a lot of open story lines and unanswered questions, so I'm looking forward to the next part of the series.

[Stephen Aryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deliciously devious and detailed investigation in a city wreathed in mystery and magic. The city is as much of a character as the people, and this book mixed elements of the modern with the fantastical.

It features supernatural, magic, technology (although I'm kind of reluctant to call it that, more...items powered by magic perhaps is a better explanation without spoiling stuff) and it is a melting pot of a lot of ideas that gel in this shadowy world, full of dangers lurking in the shadows. Fantastic stuff!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the latest in a series of debut novels that Gollancz have promoted this year. For me, it’s not a completely successful debut but still quite an entertaining read.

From the back of the book:

“Magic caused the war. Magic is forbidden. Magic will save us.

It was said the Labyrinth had once been the great meeting place, a sprawling city at the heart of an endless maze where a million humans hosted the Houses of the Aelfir.

The Aelfir who had brought trade and riches, and a future full of promise. But when the Thaumaturgists, overlords of human and Aelfir alike, went to war, everything was ruined and the Labyrinth became an abandoned forbidden zone, where humans were trapped behind boundary walls 100 feet high.

Now the Aelfir are a distant memory and the Thaumaturgists have faded into myth. Young Clara struggles to survive in a dangerous and dysfunctional city, where eyes are keen, nights are long, and the use of magic is punishable by death. She hides in the shadows, fearful that someone will discover she is touched by magic. She knows her days are numbered. But when a strange man named Fabian Moor returns to the Labyrinth, Clara learns that magic serves a higher purpose and that some myths are much more deadly in the flesh.

The only people Clara can trust are the Relic Guild, a secret band of magickers sworn to protect the Labyrinth. But the Relic Guild are now too few. To truly defeat their old nemesis Moor, mightier help will be required. To save the Labyrinth – and the lives of one million humans – Clara and the Relic Guild must find a way to contact the worlds beyond their walls.”

The Relic Guild holds a great deal of promise. The world building is great, with the Labyrinth composed of lots of dark Victorian-esque streets, trams, strange watching eyes and magic, which together created a rather Mieville, ‘New Weird’ or Gaiman type feel. It didn’t take long before I felt I knew the place.

The book starts well, in an exciting rooftop chase scene. The characters are then introduced. We have Clara, the lost waif of a prostitute who is also a changeling (read werewolf), Marney, an old empath, Samuel, a grumpy assassin who’s clearly seen too much of the world, strange magic, evil villains and god-like overlords.

And yet in the middle I found it dragged a little. We have lots of running about, and rather repetitive exposition, often flashing back to events forty years previous. It did pick up towards the end, when the tale becomes almost Lovecraftian in its echoing of cosmic scale and horror.

Ultimately my overall feeling was that although there was a lot about The Relic Guild I liked, there was little I loved. Perhaps it was the two-hander style, which flitted between ‘the present’ and forty years previous throughout the novel, but did little to enhance the plot. Such changes in perspective, whilst useful, were rather unnecessary and actually became a little galling in that I would just be getting to grips with one part of the tale before being whipped back/forward to the other. Whilst I accept that it is a common enough technique these days, and shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, usually such a process means that things become reconcilable towards the end. Here it seemed more of a narrative trick rather than for any great purpose.

Or perhaps it was the characters, who became rather similar in places – Clara quickly adapts to her new role in the Guild and ends up sounding rather like the younger Marney, who we keep flashing back to. This may be deliberate – showing the reader the effect of being part of the Guild, perhaps – or it may just be that the characterisation is rather cookie-template.

Perhaps my biggest issue is that, in the end, as good as the writing was, and as enjoyable as the world building was, in the end I didn’t really care about the characters, nor felt that they were facing any major world-destroying peril (although this seems more important as we get to the end). This was a shame, as I think that overall the story may have potential and it may be that it only reaches that potential in the next book.

The ending was a little abrupt and really did nothing but set up the next novel. In terms of the resolution of the tale, there was some at the end, but there were also a lot of unfinished elements that may either leave the reader wanting to read the next tale or alternatively feeling a little frustrated at the point that a lot of things happened that seemed to go nowhere.

So in the end, there was little more to say than I enjoyed it, it was a solid, though rather unremarkable debut, entertaining yet also undemanding. It is clear that Edward Cox as a writer has potential, but this one didn’t entirely work for me. The Relic Guild may be a case of a novel where the execution is fine but that the process creates something that in the end seems rather soulless. There may be others who love it more than I did, although for me it was more of a ‘like’ than a ‘love’.

File under ‘enjoyable, a brave effort, but may not be for everyone.’

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good things here, but I am tired of books that don’t stand alone as well as having sequels. It means the ending is inevitably disappointing.

[Lynn Worton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an intriguing start to a science fiction/fantasy series. I really enjoyed it!

I was recommended this book by Amazon through their Audible division, due to my taste in science fiction and fantasy. I was intrigued with the blurb, so I downloaded the audio book. The story is narrated by Imogen Church, who has also narrated Bridget Jones's Diary. She did a fantastic job in bringing the characters to life. I loved her speaking voice, and her reading pace was perfect.

Peppercorn Clara is a young woman of eighteen, who has been working as a prostitute in a brothel since the age of fourteen in the Labyrinth city called Labrys Town. I really liked her. She is stubborn and determined, and hiding a secret. She has magic in her veins and is a wolf shifter.

This is a unique story; the world building and character development is extraordinary. I loved the descriptions of the scenes and characters. The story has a post apocalyptic feel to it, with a hint of steampunk, which is further enhanced by the split timelines, which are forty years apart. The characters in both the past and the present are quite interesting. However, the changing timelines were a bit confusing at times. Trying to keep it straight in my head was a little like juggling apples (extremely difficult, since I don't juggle), but I persevered and found myself hooked! I even listened to the story twice! I was intrigued as to how one million humans ended up living in the middle of a labyrinth. Did they feel like prisoners, being trapped within the confines of Labrys Town after the portals were closed? Or, safe from the dangers of war ravaging the Thaumaturgists? This aspect was not explored by the author, but I couldn't help but wonder at it. But, if I lived in such a place, would I be happy, angry or sad at the circumstances? I don't know. Maybe a combination of those emotions. Nevertheless, the denizens of Labrys Town seemed resigned to their fate and carried on as normal.

I loved meeting Old Man Sam, a bounty hunter, and Vam Bam, the Resident of Labrys Town. They, along with a Necromancer called Hamir, and Marney, an empath, are the only remaining members of The Relic Guild. This guild acts as a magical police force, who confiscate objects that had been brought into Labrys Town by the Aelfir and the Thaumaturgists before they closed the borders, to keep the denizens safe. I loved Hamir; he is a very intriguing character, who has a very dry wit. He has been around for a long time and has seen and done a lot of things, but he seems ageless to me. Unfortunately, Fabian Moor, a renown Thaumaturgist thought to have died forty years previously, returns to Labrys Town after being in hiding. Enter Clara. What follows is a fast paced race against time, and a dangerous foe who will do anything to gain access to The Nightshade, the home of the Resident and the Guild. There are twists and turns galore, as well as magic in this tale, which kept me riveted. I was intrigued with the appearance of the mysterious avatar, who appeared to know everything that was going on, but refused to divulge too much information to the Guild members. I am not sure what he/she's motives are, but it will be interesting to find out. The end of the story left me hanging, as it finished on an unusual cliffhanger. I have a love/hate relationship with cliffhangers because they frustrate me to the point of screaming, but I am looking forward to continuing this story as soon as I can.

Edward Cox has written an interesting debut novel. I loved his fast paced writing style, but found the flow of the story to be a bit disjointed due to the flicking timelines. However, each timeline story flowed well within its respective space. I will be keeping an eye out for more of this author's work in the future.

Due to scenes of violence and abuse, I do not recommend this book for younger readers. However, I highly recommend this book if you love science fiction and dark fantasy genres. - Lynn Worton

[Merijeek · Rating 1 out of 5]

You really don't want to read this.

I've read a shocking amount of epic fantasy and scifi. This book kind of wants to be both, but is neither.

It's just bad. It could have been tolerable, if it was a book, but no, it's the first part of a trilogy. This is a review as I'm about a 1/3rd the way through the third book. Where to start?

The plot. What's wrong with the plot? Well, basically, everything that happens, happens because The Avatar made it happen. Why did this person do this thing? Well, either the Avatar told them to do it, or the Avatar told someone to tell them to do it. Why are they breaking into this dungeon under city hall? Our heroes don't know WHY they're doing it. They're just doing it because a key to the cell in the dungeon of city hall appeared in someone's pocket. Therefore, the Avatar must have put it there. Therefore, they're supposed to go there. They guess. Who knows? They heroes go somewhere, and they get help from a guy. Why is this demigod sitting there doing nothing in the wilderness? Because the Avatar told him to sit down and wait for people to show up in a few years.

The Characters. None of them are likeable. None of them. Not a one. Whether it's a bitter whore who whines a lot who then uses her newfound powers to become a bitter bully who whines a lot to the old bitter bounty hunter who goes from being and old bitter bounty hunter who whines a lot to an older bitter bounty hunter who whines a lot.

Oh, but none of that compares to the world building and the magic system.

The world building is completely nonsensical. Get this, there's a place called "Mother Earth" but nobody goes there. The Time Watcher (aka, God by another name) comes from there. And nobody ever goes there but her and her angels Sky Watchers. So, presumably our world exists somewhere in there.

But that's not the big thing. Not really. See, there's "Aelfs". What is an Aelf? Why, it's clearly just an Elf by another name. Let me tell you about these Aelfs. They have big eyes and triangular faces.

That's it. Otherwise, they are in no way different from humans. They come in the same body shapes. There's nothing ethereal or special about them. They even have the same lifespans as humans. The only difference is that there's billions of them. Why does that matter?

Because there's only, as far as has been revealed, a million humans. Period. In the entire universe (unless there's an upcoming revelation about Mother Earth on the way in the last two thirds of the last book) there are one million humans. The number is always thrown around in a way that is just something that is just a known fact. And all those humans live in Labrys Town in the middle of the labyrinth.

What is Labrys town? A giant city. What is the labyrinth? A giant maze surrounding the city. In that maze used to be portals to Aelf "houses" (we'll get to that in a second). There's no point to going into the maze because the portals are all closed after the totally-not-Satan's-rebellion-against-God events of forty years ago. And besides, random demons (somehow) randomly wander the maze. But they can't get into the city. Except when they can, and we know it happens sometimes because it's used as a cover story for events.

OK. So all the humans are trapped in this city. One million of them. That's nice. Now let's talk about the Aelf "houses".

Each Aelf House is a dimension. There's really no clarity as to whether or not it's a pocket dimension or a full universe, as basically all of them seem to be a portal, a patch of wilderness, and a city. There must be lots of them, though, because there are billions of Aelfs and we never really seem to see any population in a house that's over a couple hundred thousand. That's where Aelfs live. "Billions" of them. These Aelfs can't reach each other without going through the Labyrinth, in which all the portals are closed. But...we know there's transit between the Houses because some characters have done it.

Oh, and Aelf houses all have their own symbol. Sure, that makes sense. And you need to know the symbol to get through the portal to their House (back when they worked). Surely, I can't use that to find some fault with the world building?

Yes I can. Because, you see, some of these symbols are described. Let me describe the ones I can recall off the top of my head. 'A diamond in a circle.' And, 'A triangle in a circle.'. You're going to do hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of House symbols using a simple geometric symbol in a circle? Sure, good luck with that.

Why make elves that aren't elves? Just make them humans.

Finally, the magic. Oh goody, the magic.

What can magic do? Well, it can make guns. Just replace gunpowder with "power stones". Hooray! Of course there's a character who doesn't like guns. But just give her what is basically a machine hand-crossbow and...I don't know, you've made her more interesting or something. I guess.

But apart from that, the great thing is that you can do anything with magic! As long as the plot needs it to move forward. Unless of course your magic doesn't work because of [plot], and then it will fail.

Oh, and Empaths are basically like Professor X, but more powerful. To the point of forcing people to commit suicide and downloading their minds into someone else's head. At least call them Telepaths, since 90% of what they do is actually Telepath tricks.

But even ignoring that, it's just so SLOPPY.

One character is an illusionist. He can use his "illusionist magic" to levitate things. To create energy barriers. To keep people cool in the desert using THE ILLUSION OF COLD. He's not an illusionist. He's manipulating physics. Oh, and he's got a green glass cane. Why? I don't know, but trust me, it is never referred to as a cane. It's always a green glass cane. To fill word count, maybe?

There are people who use blood magic. And everyone hates them and fears them. They must be blood soaked monsters, right? Wrong! They cut THEMSELVES and fire off magical firepower that lets them face down demigods. And then they heal the cuts on themselves afterwards. Meaning the net cost to them are some scars on their hands. But those cuts leave scars! That's it. They cut THEMSELVES. They don't cut up friends and enemies and use their blood for power. Just their own. And they can heal those wounds. So they've got a bunch of scars on their hands.

Oh, the sacrifice!

But here's probably the most obvious example of the sloppiness of this series. A big deal is made of the incredible power contained in the blood of a changeling. It's terribly significant that one of the characters has two vials of changeling blood. Must be pretty potent!

Now, let's understand that you've got your typical "OR EVIL WILL CONSUME ALL THE UNIVERSE IF WE FAIL" kind of story going on here. Well, you see, the good guys have a changeling with them. They've got a gigantic magical battery traveling with them at all times. But do they use it? Who knows, maybe at the big climax, but it's not like they need to gut the changeling to get it. Syringes exist in this world. Characters die when being overwhelmed by bad guys with a giant magical battery standing right next to them.

There's anachronisms that just continue to demonstrate the sloppiness of the books. A character thinking about "static" when looking at snowfall being the one that screams the loudest to me.

Maybe the last book will turn this around. Maybe all the stuff that seems sloppy and that doesn't make sense is going to be explained because, oops, it turns out this is just a giant poorly realized MMORPG or something.

But I doubt it.

[Blodeuedd Finland · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a world where there is only one city, and a labyrinth, our story takes place. There are other places, but they can't be reached. So everyone is just stuck.

There was a great war, now magic is gone (and bad!). So everyone just, well tries to live the best they can.

There are a few POVS. Clara, a whore with a secret (she is a shifter, and that could get her killed. ) And then there is the Relic Guild, a hidden organization with people who still have magic. They need her as an old enemy is rising. Oh those old enemies, they always are so evil.

It was an interesting world and premise. The weird labyrinth. The place where the bad Aelfir were put. The city that just lives on but does not really live. A strange world. I would so have wanted to know more about the Aelfir, oh well :/ They went away after the war.

But I would have wanted more, I did not really feel the world. It was there, but I would have wanted a bit more world building. The same with the characters, I wanted more from them too. I could not truly feel them or their actions.

Still, go Clara, it's always good that a former prostitute gets to shine too. She has promise. And I so want to know more about the Aelfir, what? I was curious.

A strange dark world on the brink of doom.

[Tash Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine Brandon Sanderson and Scott Lynch smushed together and you get Edward Cox. And it totally works. The world of The Relic Guild is incredibly rich and complex, spanning the entire colour spectrum from the murky browns of labyrinthine backstreets to the electric blues of deep space. I loved the idea of the Houses of the Aelfir being in some unimaginable realm accessed only through portals and the tiers of magic that put Thaumaturgists above Magikers. Also, 'Spiral' is the best name for an evil overlord ever, perhaps even better than (dare I say it?) 'Voldemort'. The book has a kind of split-level narrative so that the events of the present and the events of 30 years ago run concurrently and the story constantly moves between the two - this was a little confusing at times but mostly I enjoyed spotting the subtle parallels between the two strands. The second person narrative also switches every chapter between characters, which is one element of the book that I feel I could have done without... Ultimately though, this was a hugely enjoyable read and I'm sure I will pick up the sequel before too long.

[Lozzi Counsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

WON IN A GOODREADS COMPETITION.I really enjoyed this book and surprisingly felt the biggest connection with old man Sam! I would however split this book into 2 books.

[Jasper · Rating 5 out of 5]

originally posted at: http://thebookplank.blogspot.com/2014...

Another cracking debut brought to you by Gollancz. They have published some very exciting debuts so far with The Boy with the Porcelain Blade by Den Patrick, The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs and this month with The Relic Guild from Edward Cox. The thing that got my attention piqued was the mentioning of of course magic but also the reference of Thaumaturgy, this directly reminded me of China Mievelle and another great debut, Unwrapped Sky that I read earlier this year. All highly enjoyable reads. As I already mentioned The Relic Guild is the debut of Edward Cox, prior to writing The Relic Guild he wrote various short stories.


The Relic Guild picks up with the story of Clara Peppercorn, a girl who is on the run for escape. Clara has a special ability that you learn later on, she is marked as a very valuable asset, she gets rescued by persons from the Relic Guild. But with this rescue do come a whole lot of other things and that is becoming part of the Relic Guild. After this point the story splits into two separate narrations one that takes place in the current time line and the other takes you back 40 years prior and shows what just what happened and how and why magic got banned in the world. The war was fought between Fabian Moor one of the most powerful Thaumaturges that wanted to pick a fight with the Timewatcher. Early on you did learn that Fabian Moor was defeated by the Relic Guild and banned for good. Well if only. as in the present story line you learn that not everything that you think you locked away for good remains locked away. Troubles are brewing in Labrys Town as, yes, Fabian Moor is making a reintroduction with only one, no, two goals in mind. First: destroy the Relic Guild and second: free his master Lord Spiral.

I really enjoyed reading the story of The Relic Guild, this is far from your ordinary fantasy story. Edward Cox has created a very unique setting. Too be completely honest when I first read about The Relic Guild I thought it would play part in a more earthy urban environment instead of a completely self envisioned world, don't know how I got to this thought though. But back to the story. All the different elements that Edward Cox shows and utilizes in his story from building his world (which is amazing Ill get to it in a bit), his interpratation of magic and Thaumaturgy and the different characters all work together to bring this story to a new height.

So for the world. This is pretty awesome. Edward Cox has created a truly one-of-a-kind world. Imagine well. The central place wherein the story takes place is called Labrys Town but during the last war, Labrys town lies at the hearth of a vast labyrinth and was once the place to live an thrive but in the last war this place was sealed off by invisible barriers. They have picked up life once again. Labrys Town is being governed by The Resident a powerful and all knowing person, this guy remains a lot in the background for the people and is perhaps more known a a presence via for example the magical globes he is able to send around town to gather information. The Resident also stand at the head of the Relic Guild. It is in describing the events and surroundings of Labrys Town that I got a definite labyrinthine feeling, often there was only one direction or way towards a goal and it wasn't in particular the one with the least resistance. Added to this come the concepts of the Aelfirian Houses. Complete realms that stand on their own and which have some amazing names. The world that Edward Cox managed to inspire is one that will make you want to just sit there stop reading and just dream away with endless possibilities but also one that inspires a definite doom and nefarious and often very real claustrophobic feeling.

As for the characters that feature in The Relic Guild, I have already mentioned The Resident, he goes by the name of Van Bam. I liked the idea of what The Resident is and what he can do, one very cool thing was the fact that the current Resident is always in direct link with the past, deceased Resident, they are able to commune with each other, is there a better way of learning your role? Van Bam is blind, but able to see more than perfectly clear with his mind eye, so he doesn't encounter any inhibition with it in his work, armed with his cane he is more than a force to be reckoned with. Next up there is a very powerful empath Marney. Being an empath means that she is able to exploit and influence human emotions. I don't think I have read a story yet where such a magic takes place and especially the interpretation of empathy. Marney's empath magic allowes her for example to block feelings of hurt and makes her in turn resistant to any torture method, because when you can't feel it, you won't react. But given this, it does require a lot of effort to focus and when it does get to much... even this magic won't be able to save you.You also have a close right hand of Van Bam, the gunslinging bounty hunter Samuel. Sam also has a special gift, one that gives him an edge when it comes down to fighting and can perhaps be best described as an spider sense. He known just when the action will take place. I liked reading about Sam in particular because he is a guy who does what is needed when it is needed and doesn't sit around and mope about how tough it is, it is him that you want to have as your back-up plan. Then there is also the old Hamir, a necromancer, his gift should be self explanatory, lets just say his gifts wont cure you, Hamir is a wise old guy, it is not really that he is deceiving anyone by not telling but he knows a lot, and his years have taught him that you really have to be careful just what you reveal and tell to others...

And then last but definitely not least you have Peppercorn Clara, the one child who defies everything. She is the first born within the barriers of Labrys Town that has a magic gift. Is she the bringer of good news? or a downfall? When I first was confronted with her profession, that of being a prostitute I was a bit like wow, ok... You learn that she is good at her job but I am always a bit off put by such bold introduction and luckily Edward Cox does make it ebb more into the background instead of letting it be a focus. Edward Cox uses Clara's character in a very nice way, he uses her to show all the details of the Relic Guild and hereby reveals a lot of the history because as the latest recruit of the Relic Guild you do have to learn everything. I always like it when a story is told this way as it greatly reliefs the moments of information dumps and let everything about the dynamics of the world and histories of the character come over as a natural flow. As for Clara's character, she really grows into her role as the latest member, she comes to terms with her own powers that of being able to shapeshift, which at one time she was terrified of, she now starts to embrace and sees it as a way to only make her stronger. I already have high hopes for her for the continuation of the series.



With Fabian Moor, Edward Cox introduces a nefarious presence and what better way to show what their intentions really are than by dedicating parts of the story to them. I have said in many times before but will repeat myself, showing the inner thoughts of the plans of the bad guys in a book, when done in a good way, work wonders for me. And this is precisely what Edward Cox manages to do in The Relic Guild. he clearly wants to show that Fabian and his Genii have some deadly plans in store for the Relic Guild. It was a pleasure to read just how Van Bam and the Relic Guild was thinking and plotting and then seeing the focus on Fabian and his Genii and how they were plotting really nicely done. Top stuff.



But then The Relic Guild sadly draws to an end and well what an end. All I can say is WHY!? Why put my through a year of torment for the sequel! The ending that Edward Cox introduces will get you fired up for the sequel and really leaving you with an urge just to travel to his doorstep and force book two out of him. It's gonna be awesome I know it will.

The Relic Guild is an awesome book and that doesn't even come close. In the saturated fantasy genre as an author you really have to bring your A game if you want to break through and for me Edward Cox has delivered this. The whole setting of The Relic Guild and here I mean mainly the world building with Labrys Town and the way it is all described is very provocative and Edward Cox leaves enough for you to think about it for yourself. Then you have the interesting magic system and a great bunch of characters that really make the story come together and alive. Each and every character is different and it feels like Edward Cox invested a lot of time and effort in them to let them come out the way they did, very humane and natural and you will grow attached to them. I must urge you to read The Relic Guild, it highly enjoyable and has some great bold idea's that Edward Cox brings to the front. It's is by far a standard fantasy story, so if you are looking for a something refreshing to read pick it up, if you are looking for a next read, pick it up. Well, make sure this book is the next thing that touches your hands, you don't want to miss out on it! BRING BOOK TWO!

[Thea Wilson]

'Magic caused the war. Magic is forbidden. Magic will save us.'

The Plot Of The Story:
The plot of this book is quite a complicated one and it's hard to explain what the book is truly about without giving parts of the story away but I'll give it a go.

The Labyrinth.... a deep dark maze that was once a prison. At it's heart lies Labrys Town. Labrys Town was once connected to all the realms of the Aelfir through various portal throughout the town until a magical war broke out, the Genii (some of the magical thurmatologists - magic users) led by Lord Spiral who's intent is to totally subjugate the Aelfir and rule over them all. Labrys Town, with it's doorways to the realms, is the key that Genii need to overthrow the Aelfir so in a desperate attempt to stop the Genii and save the Aelfir from utter destruction all the portal throughout Labrys are destroyed. All except one and that one is a one way door only and is the town's only means of supply, though they have no idea where the portal comes from. Everyone in Labrys Town is now completely trapped with no way out, no means of escape as even if they could leave the town (which they can't thanks to unscalable walls surrounding the town) there is no where to go as the Labyrinth is never ending and full of incomprehensible dangers in it's own right. The armies against the Genii fought hard and along with The Relic Guild (a group of magickers chosen to protect the town from the Genii and their evil) of Labrys Town and they believed they had destroyed Lord Spiral and his Genii.... until now.

Now it seems that Fabian Moor, the worst of the Genii and long thought dead, is back and has somehow found his way to Labrys Town. How did Moor survive, why is he back and what is he planning.... only The Relic Guild has long been disbanded and there is no-one to protect the town from the rampaging and twisted Genii. The Resident of Labyrs Town, the leader of the town and a former member of the Guild, decides to reform the Relic Guild and to use them to fight Moor and put a stop to his dastardly plans but the Guild member are now old and are few so do they even have what it takes to stop Moor anymore?

The Characters:

Peppercorn Clara - a former whore, currently in hiding after being implicated in a murder. She hides a magical secret of her own.
'Old Man' Sam - one of the original members of The Relic Guild. Sam is now the ultimate grumpy old man but he's still on the ball and more than capable of doing what is called fall despite his advancing years. His magical gift is that he has a heightened sense of dangers around him.
Marney - Another of the original members of The Relic Guild. Marney is an empath and is the key to Fabian Moor's latest plot.
Van Bam - A original member of The Relic Guild and an illusionist of the highest degree. Van Bam is the current Resident in charge of Labrys Town and leader of The Relic Guild. He is blind now but being the Resident and a magicker has given him a strange kind of sight that is his alone. He's a very powerful man but has a lot of weight on his shoulders being in charge of the town and it's people.
Hamir - a necromancer and one the more interesting characters in the book, if underused in my opinion.
Lady Amilee - one of the Aelfir, only seen in the flashback parts of the book. She's a beautoful and powerful character.
Fabian Moor - The books big bad and bad he is to the very core, he a shadowed and nefarious man. He was presumed dead for many years but is now back, and back with a vengeance. The terms of his reappearance has left him a kind of vampire, who needs to feed on others just to survive...... and he's not alone.



The Book's Setting (Time and Place):

The Time - the book is a book of two halves that run concurrently through the book. Parts of the book are set in the current time and chronicle the current battle to stop Fabian Moor and others are set forty years in the past before the portals to the outside world were closed. If you don't keep a close eye on what you're reading it can easily get a bit confusing but the split between times is necessary as the past of the book in the past give you a better idea of why current events are happening and it's an important part of the story. I really wanted to know a lot more about the original war than the glimpses I got of it via flashbacks, it has the potential to become an integral part of the backstory, of the mythos, but maybe more detail is being saved for later.... I just wanted more now, I'm not patient at all.


The Place - The setting of the book is wonderful..... we have the dark and deeply oppressive Labyrinth and at it's very heart , behind 100 foot tall walls, is the town of Labrys. Labrys has the same kind of feel as a Dickensian London, you know that dark, dirty and rather depressing feel you get, it's feels very Victorian, very noir. It doesn't feel like it's particularly pleasant place to live and that's mainly because the denizens of Labrys Town are trapped there, there is no means of escape for them and it gives you sense that the people aren't really living, just existing while desperately praying for a better life.When you take that kind of Dickensian vibe and throw in the twist of magic, of steampunkesque machinations, you get a very individual feeling noir setting.



The Writing:

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this book is an easy book to read as it's not, it has highly detailed and saturated structure to it, it's fantasy to the extreme and you need to make extra effort to concentrate to take all the information that is thrown at you in, and there is an awful lot to take in BUT if you can take it all on board what you end up with a is complicated and intense story, chocked full of rich detail and it makes for an interesting and intriguing read. The plot is intricately and sincerely woven and the dual-aspected narrative had been cleverly thought out and well presented even if it can be a little confusing in places.

The characterisations are good for the most part, most of the character are well rounded and eep, they each have their humanizing flaws and secret that make them interesting to read although there are some niggle things that I wasn't quite so keen so. Van Bam as a character name wasn't the best choice for me, it didn't sound right in context with everything else and didn't seem to belong. Maybe if the character had been referred to by his christian name instead of Van Bam all the time it might not of bothered me as much as it did. The other character that bugged me was Clara who didn't seem to fit in the story until the last few chapters when she finally became her own persona as before she was easily indistinguishable from the Marney of the past, they are so similar. Clara really need room to grow into her own person as she's a bit too vanilla for the majority of this book, maybe she'll grow in the future if there are future books to come. I loved the idea Cox had for the creation of the stone golems in the book, it's a unique take and it gave the book something different. I've read other books containing golems but this take is new to me and really enjoyed it.

Although I could find no clear grounded evidence that this is just the first book in a series it really feels like the start of a much wider and significantly bigger story as there are many unanswered questions by the end of it that don't get tied up in a neat bow and will need further explanations so I can only hope that there is much more to come from Cox as I like his style of writing, it's not easiest of styles to read but once the book is finished you get a real sense of achievement for getting through it and really understanding what the book is about. The scope for future books is immense and could be extremely expansive of Cox does write more.


Final Thoughts:

I found this to be a wonderful read, it's intense, dark and highly detailed but worth the read with it a whole host of unique points that make it stand out from the crowd. It's a book I would recommend to those who enjoy big complicated stories full of exquisite detailing but if you like your books simple, to the point and with all it's ends nicely tied up in a bow then maybe this isn't the book for you as this book is a complicated ride through a magical yet dark world before it takes it's leave with many questions left hanging around unanswered.

Will I be hoping, praying and waiting for a sequel to The Relic Guild..... without question it is a resounding yes from me. I loved this book, it's a unique read that's an action packed and magic fuelled delight of well written prose. It's epic and worth each and every page!

[Peat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know when I brought Edward Cox's The Relic Guild, testament to how great a life we booklovers have in the age of kindle sales. But I do remember how I came to actually read it and that is thanks to book pusher extraordinare Anna Stephens, who was talking it up on Twitter. I searched for the book and found that I already owned it - score!

Obviously, I had to have a look.

My first impression of The Relic Guild was that there was nothing amazing or standout about it but except that I kept clicking next page - which is arguably the most standout quality any book could have.

There was something about Clara, the young woman who finds herself hunted and possessed of magic powers, and her home of Labrys Town that commanded attention. The setting hums with a mix of gothic horror and steampunk-esque technology; I could easily imagine a computer game set there. And Clara is smart and resilient enough to be interesting, but has enough vulnerabilities to feel human and sympathetic.

Cox describes well; what he does even better is to create the right level of tension in the stakes (for me at least).He's also very adroit in knowing how much information to give, ensuring we're neither mystified nor overloaded as to the nature of the eponymous Relic Guild, the perils they face, and the importance of Labrys Town to both. In general, Cox's grasp of storytelling and narrative principles are highly impressive.

Which makes my major problem with this book all the more puzzling. The Relic Guild has two storylines, a then and now, and when the 'then' storyline showed up, it slowed my pace of reading dramatically. The characters and hooks are nowhere near as compelling; it is a long time before I felt like they struggled enough to make me sympathise and wonder what came next. I'm a big fan of split-timeline narratives if done well, but for me this wasn't.

It's a huge shame as this took the book's biggest strength - a quick-paced moreish adventure story - and slowed it down. By around the halfway point I did gain an interest in the past narrative for its own sake but the damage had been done. It did give more depth to the setting's mythos and lore, and helped flesh out the backstory of some of the other major protagonists, but the extra knowledge raised more questions than it answered. Which incidentally mirrors my next biggest problem - an ending that didn't offer enough resolution for my tastes.

These points of disagreement didn't stop me from enjoying The Relic Guild - only from falling in love with it. At its best, this hit all the right buttons for me and felt like a very refreshing change from a fantasy genre that's fixated on psychodrama and darkness. Not that The Relic Guild is happy and fluffy and consequence free, but its focus is action and adventure and discovering a strange world. That focus is what made the book so more-ish to me.

And that's what ultimately I would recommend or not recommend The Relic Guild on. Looking for something that digs at the human soul? Look elsewhere. Looking for a fun adventure read in fantasy's best traditions? Then The Relic Guild might be what you were looking for.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little difficult for me to "rank." There are elements I really enjoyed, and elements that I felt could have been better. The main premise of the book is war. A war 40 years ago, thought to be over, resurfaces. Many of the players in the first war are the same now, but older and in different positions than before.

The setting of this book I thought was neat. Labrys Town is surrounded by a vast labyrinth, and serves to connect a vast amount of other realms through various portals. A way-point almost, and serves as an important spot for conflict between those that want to subjugate the realms and those that want to keep them safe. The whole idea of the history of the labyrinth I also enjoyed. The inclusion of Thaumaturgists, the Timewatcher, the idea of magic in this world and how it worked. The one other realm we visit in the book was definitely fantastical.

Many of the characters I enjoyed - different personalities, different abilities. The Relic Guild is the main protagonists in the novel. It was confusing to me how a group that started out handling black market transactions turned into the ones expected to save the day against the world's most powerful magic users - but I guess I was able to dispend that belief to be OK. However, Clara I just couldn't get on the same page with. Some of it I understand how she may have reacted, but by the end of the book she comes across as prideful with no reason to be, and made decisions that didn't seem to have much of a reason. I was simply annoyed by her, and I don't think I was supposed to be.

The writing is probably where I felt disconnected the most. This book is not an easy book to get into. The writing is very descriptive and dense, at times I thought overly so. I don't mind dense and descriptive (hello Tolkien) but it needs to have a reason to be there and space to make the story better. I personally did not feel like the writing here did that all the time. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs and missing nothing. There is a lot of name dropping at the beginning, and it took me until probably page 80 or so before I was able to get into the rhythm of the writing. The book goes back and forth between present day and 40 years ago - I was super confused at first because I didn't realize, but after I figured it out I actually liked the differing timelines. As this is the first book of a trilogy, there was almost no ending, and we are left with many questions. Overall, I liked the middle of the book the best (which is pretty weird for me!).

For the setting and general plot, this book was fine. I liked the darker edge to it, but there are a lot of questions still to be answered. Be prepared for dense writing and some confusion in the beginning, and a very open "ending." I am still wondering if I am invested enough to read the other two books in the series, but I am afraid with the way this first book went the next books may be drawn out more than necessary.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Relic Guild is the imaginative debut from Edward Cox, where alone and isolated is a labyrinth by the name of Labrys Town. The Genii, the usurpers and traitors that wrought havoc and devastation when they betrayed the Time Watcher. Defeated by the Relic Guild forty years ago, they were thought dead - relics of the past. Only they're not dead, and they have come to take back that which they have lost.

The Relic Guild is a fantasy story that questions how the character's pasts affect their future and that time is the enemy that you cannot defeat.

I heartily recommend the Audible version read by Imogen Church.

[Ben A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this off the back of reading The Song of the Sycamore and I was not at all let down by this debut novel.
The Relic Guild is a great story of a secret group protecting society from magic and demons, we are introduced to the likes of Marney, Clara, Van Bam (thank you ma’am) and my personal favourite Samuel.
A linked story spanning 40 years that tells us of an epic struggle that is seemingly coming but has been played out before.
I am hoping that the Necromancer is the key to both stories.
Can’t wait to get into the second book.
I want a voice in my head calling me their idiot...

[Kath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would give it 3.5 stars but apparently I can only give 3 or 4.

The Relic Guild is a good first book with a lot of world building and getting to know characters. However it is a bit slow in the beginning and kind of confusing. As the story progresses everything makes more sense and the story begins to move at a faster pace.
A really good story with lots to offer and I can't wait to begin with the second book.
One small criticism is that the characters aren't really described much in detail to begin with and when they are it is a bit too late since I had already made up a look for them in my own head.

[Jamie Bowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The war between the Thaumaturgists, humans and Aelfir is over, the war is never over! Dark forces are rising again and seek ultimate power and revenge. Only the Relic Guild stands between them, but they are not what they once were and the odds are stacked against them. With the war ramping up again, what has a mysterious whore got to do with it all?

I like the world created here and the story promises so much. The book itself flips between the present and the past, the past helps put more flesh on the bones of the back story.

[sullen girl]

dnf @ page 122 because i still didn't know what was going on

unfortunately, this just wasn't for me for multiple reasons:

- there was too much exposition and info dumping (lots of overly complex terminology and names in one chunk that made it hard to digest and remember)
- the writing style was too impersonal and dry which made the story bland
- none of the characters showed any semblance of personality till about 100 pages in (it's 3rd person following multiple characters but they weren't particularly distinctive from one another so i couldn't remember who was who half the time)

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another gem, the story as labyrinthine as the location, a joy to read. It was almost worth the insomnia to be able to spend time with the characters in this book as they fought a hidden war to save the denizens of the labyrinth and the wider universe. Full of rich characters, driven by a destiny beyond their control, the story is tightly written and full of rich descriptions, my only gripe is that it finished a tad too soon. Looking forward to the next instalment.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book a difficult read. It didn't flow. I felt the story or style had no cohesion.

I also struggled with the heirachy the author tried to establish. I found it unclear and somewhat poorly thought out.

This was my second attempt at reading this book as the premise really does sound interesting, it is just not written in a style that works for me and I can enjoy.

So all in all a disappointment.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darkly atmospheric, with an intriguing blend of Sci-Fi, fantasy elements and plenty of action that works. The narration by Imogen Church, a spinetingling foray into the forgotten twists and turns of the Great Labyrinth as well as the minds of some of its denizens. I'd recommend it.,
This was a 3.5 stars for me, I liked it.