The Relic Guild - 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. 

My thoughts:

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. Well that sucks for them.

There was a great war, now magic is gone (and is considered 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.

Conclusion:

A strange dark world on the brink of doom

Cover

Hardcover, 432 pages
Published September 18th 2014 by Gollancz
Fantasy
Review copy