I have a confession to make: I unfortunately didn’t really like Relic. The conceit was good and there were some interesting discussions teased out, but I found myself frustrated. Perhaps most frustrating was that I was unable to articulate why the book failed to grab me.
If pressed, I could point to the fact that the sense of time is a bit off (only a few weeks pass, and it was often written in a way which misleadingly suggested months had gone by between interactions), I felt that the interesting questions and worldbuilding to which we were exposed as a reader weren’t adequately followed up in any satisfying way, and I’m not actually sure that I fully understood what drove Kaylan as a character, aside from the desire to protect her family.
But I didn’t dislike it (curious that the absence of a strong emotional response elicited a strong emotional response, but I guess that’s how I roll).
Happily, Riven was much better. After killing Rennard and claiming the Relic as her own, Kaylan flees the city (city-state? I’m still unclear on the scale of this continent and the individual lands, even after finishing the second book) of Eriast to seek safety and answers about the magical item of which she is now the master.
The pace and changes in scenery as Kaylan and her friends travel across the country certainly helped keep my interest sustained, and the questions about the seductiveness of power were ones that I think were better explored in Riven than in the preceding text, although I remain a little unclear on what exactly it is that Kaylan wants. Perhaps the whole point is that Kaylan’s character arc has seen her initially assuming that she will forfeit her life, so she foregoes any desire or plans for what her future could look like, and this trauma carries over into driving her actions in the second book. But I was doing a lot of the mental legwork in order to arrive at that conclusion rather than having it clearly laid out for me on the page.
Perhaps the strongest thread through the story was around the charismatic rebel leader, Bellamy, and Kaylan’s desire to eschew him and his cause in recognition of the fact that he’s the same time of power-hungry, cruel man as the one who would have had her die in service to him in Relic. It’s a nice nuance to point out that just because someone opposes an unjust rule doesn’t mean that they themselves are a nice person, or a preferable alternative.
However, I felt as though I was consistently unclear of what exactly the stakes were – what would happen if Kaylan doesn’t get rid of the relic? What happens if she allows it to insidiously take over her mind? What happens if the status quo remains unchanged? There was neither a time limit on the novel’s ‘big’ issues being resolved (aside from one very specific exception), nor a clear sense of the consequences.
The issue is really that across a series, the author has to spool out the answers to ‘major’ questions gradually so as not to give them all at once, or only in the final book. However, I ended Riven still feeling as though there were too many unanswered questions (for instance, we don’t even learn who tied up the charming privateer who we meet near the novel’s beginning) for me to feel fully satisfied and as though I’d read a disparate novel from a series.
Eley’s actual writing is quite competent as there were no awkward phrases, and no unnecessarily long descriptions (or expository paragraphs!). It shows promise, and given the improvement between books 1 and 2, it means her future work is likely to be quite strong.
Riven is available from Amazon and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Kaylan’s life as she knew it is over. Again.
Hunted by the guards of Edriast and their ruthless captain, Kaylan is forced to flee into a world she’s never seen, armed with a power she never wanted. With her brother Elias by her side, she escapes to the distant city of Stynos, where rumour has it a possible ally is waiting… An ally who might help Kaylan control the violent magic that’s become her burden to bear.
But Kaylan can’t hide forever – not from the forces that surround her, or from the darkness inside herself. Rebel leader Bellamy seeks her help to destroy a regime; Captain Thorn pursues her with a vengeance; and as her power grows, her inner demons begin to seep through the cracks…
Kaylan may be strong, but is she strong enough to resist the Relic?
Riven is the engrossing second instalment in Bronwyn Eley’s dark YA fantasy series, The Relic Trilogy.
