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literarylamentations's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
2treads's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
As much as I like the story andnhow it is progressing, my favourite Parr of this series will always be the characters. How they are coming together to build their own supportive family unit within which we see young romance budding and the move towards forging new intimate relationships even as we look back at past important ones.
I do feel as if the move towards the big bad making his way onto the page is taking a while as this is book 2 but as long as everything is developed in book 3 without too much of a rush, I will be fine. As long as I have my gang of archivists and their adopted vigilant.
I do feel as if the move towards the big bad making his way onto the page is taking a while as this is book 2 but as long as everything is developed in book 3 without too much of a rush, I will be fine. As long as I have my gang of archivists and their adopted vigilant.
inamerata's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
leopardsummer8's review against another edition
4.0
Most of my annotations for this book are "no no no no no no go away"...
Relics of Ruin was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and I am so glad that I got to read it early. I loved the first book and I was super excited to return to the archives and mysteries. While I still enjoyed this one, I will admit that I think I liked the first one better.
While the first book focused on a murder mystery, this one is about theft (which isn't as fun of a crime, in my opinion). The mystery was good and I really liked the additional POVs that we got this time. I also think it will make more sense when I inevitably reread it because some of the dots didn't connect right away. I didn't call the main "plot twist," but I did enjoy just riding along with the flow of the books. I think my favorite parts were probably the scenes with Richa, Amadea, and Ibramo at about the 85% mark, just because they were the closest to the danger from the end of the previous book.
This series excels at making me care more about characters than I should. I'm still not sold on Ibramo, but I think he was the only main character I didn't like. I had issues with Tunuk at first but he grew on me. Quill is still my favorite, and I was kind of sad we didn't get as much of him as in the first book, but it looks like that might change in book three? Yinii and the other archivists are still very interesting to be and I love their dynamic. But Richa and Amadea? I love them so much, mostly Richa. We got more of his backstory and let me just say that if Stellano Zezurin shows his nasty little face again, I will personally find a way to enter the book and punch him so hard. I hate him.
Even though I found it to be a little less fast-paced than Empire of Exiles, Relics of Ruin still packs a great mystery with lots of twists and some really great found family dynamics. I don't want to wait for book three.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!
4/5
Relics of Ruin was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and I am so glad that I got to read it early. I loved the first book and I was super excited to return to the archives and mysteries. While I still enjoyed this one, I will admit that I think I liked the first one better.
While the first book focused on a murder mystery, this one is about theft (which isn't as fun of a crime, in my opinion). The mystery was good and I really liked the additional POVs that we got this time. I also think it will make more sense when I inevitably reread it because some of the dots didn't connect right away. I didn't call the main "plot twist," but I did enjoy just riding along with the flow of the books. I think my favorite parts were probably the scenes with Richa, Amadea, and Ibramo at about the 85% mark, just because they were the closest to the danger from the end of the previous book.
This series excels at making me care more about characters than I should. I'm still not sold on Ibramo, but I think he was the only main character I didn't like. I had issues with Tunuk at first but he grew on me. Quill is still my favorite, and I was kind of sad we didn't get as much of him as in the first book, but it looks like that might change in book three? Yinii and the other archivists are still very interesting to be and I love their dynamic. But Richa and Amadea? I love them so much, mostly Richa. We got more of his backstory and let me just say that if Stellano Zezurin shows his nasty little face again, I will personally find a way to enter the book and punch him so hard. I hate him.
Even though I found it to be a little less fast-paced than Empire of Exiles, Relics of Ruin still packs a great mystery with lots of twists and some really great found family dynamics. I don't want to wait for book three.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!
4/5
fadingapple's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!
3.5/5 stars
My tastes have definitely changed and refined since I got back into reading as an adult, and I can tell because of how differently I felt about this book compared to the first in the series, Empire of Exiles.
That said - I did still very much enjoy this book. But, the pacing felt off and the cast of characters and former-nations and cultures and religions and naming conventions and all of it….it was too much. The book went too many directions to truly follow what was happening which I think is intended, to keep you guessing….but nobody enjoys feeling truly confused all the time do they? I couldn’t even tell you if there were true breadcrumbs because they could have been lost in the weeds.
But, I do have great admiration for Evans writing - it was compelling and kept me engaged, even when I was confused or some parts dragged. I think this is a fantasy that will appeal to a very specific subset of fantasy-readers, it definitely isn’t for everyone. But I did still enjoy it and am invested in how it plays out - I am excited for book 3. We saw some great character development that I’m excited to see payout in the finale!
3.5/5 stars
My tastes have definitely changed and refined since I got back into reading as an adult, and I can tell because of how differently I felt about this book compared to the first in the series, Empire of Exiles.
That said - I did still very much enjoy this book. But, the pacing felt off and the cast of characters and former-nations and cultures and religions and naming conventions and all of it….it was too much. The book went too many directions to truly follow what was happening which I think is intended, to keep you guessing….but nobody enjoys feeling truly confused all the time do they? I couldn’t even tell you if there were true breadcrumbs because they could have been lost in the weeds.
But, I do have great admiration for Evans writing - it was compelling and kept me engaged, even when I was confused or some parts dragged. I think this is a fantasy that will appeal to a very specific subset of fantasy-readers, it definitely isn’t for everyone. But I did still enjoy it and am invested in how it plays out - I am excited for book 3. We saw some great character development that I’m excited to see payout in the finale!
fouroffivewits's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
realmsofmymind's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
Uncovering a chilling conspiracy at the edges of the empire was incredibly unnerving for Amadea and the other archivists, but the silence that followed might be even worse. Imperial agents have found no further sign of incursion, and the archivists themselves have been sworn to secrecy by the empress herself about the events that happened near the wall. That order is made more difficult when the skeleton of a holy saint is discovered missing, replaced by the bones of an unknown person. Suddenly the Imperial Archives are in the middle of a heated political conflict, as ducal representatives question if the empire is still capable of leading and protecting its people. And while the archivists try to dig to the bottom of the mystery, one of their own confronts the fact that her own magical affinity may be growing too powerful for her to control.
RELICS OF RUIN is a fantastic sequel to EMPIRE OF EXILES, poking into new facets of the world while returning to old friends. Here's the easy version of this review: if you liked the first book, you should thoroughly enjoy the sequel. It was lovely to be back in the Imperial Archives, with its idiosyncratic archivists and stalwart Amadea trying to hold everything together. There's more conspiracy, more fallout from the events of book one, more people with hidden backstory. But even while I was enjoying everything that was "more," I did bump slightly against the feeling of "same."
Let's start with the good stuff: I really enjoyed exploring new corners of the world the author has created. I wrote in my last review that it felt like we'd barely scraped the surface of getting to know this world, and RELICS OF RUIN proves my point. We get to see more of the political structure in this outing, as the disappearance of the saint's body stirs up no end of political turmoil that politicians are eager to capitalize on. Meanwhile, Tunuk, who had previously been a secondary character, becomes a full POV character, allowing us to see more of the Alojan people and their culture. And lastly, we finally get to learn more about Richa's backstory, which had been previously hinted at but never fully explored.
I also really appreciated the way the third person POVs really captured the internal thoughts of characters who are struggling with various aspects of mental health. Amadea may appear to have things under control on the outside, but inside she is barely hanging on as one person after another burdens her with a weighty task or secret that she can't share with anyone else. Her grounding trick of noticing textures and colors around her is a signifier of how much she is trying to not completely spin out. Meanwhile Tunuk seems to suffer from a form of depression, always internally voicing thoughts that bitterly contemplate people's ulterior motives or dismiss the idea that anyone could simply want to just be his friend.
And then of course, there's Yinni, a character who is coming to grips with the fact that she may have more power than she's able to control. But her desire to seek help is countered by the fear that in doing so, all autonomy will be taken away from her, that she'll become a ward of the state with no say in any part of her life. All these very real concerns of our various characters really flesh them out and make for some great heartbreaking conflict as characters make assumptions about the motives of others; the readers know why certain characters are behaving the way they are, but nobody else in the room does.
I did have a few small issues with the book. One is that it's very easy to feel like the plotting of this book is in some ways repetitive. We have an archivist who has a friend implicated in a murder, and they are driven to investigate to prove their friend's innocence, much as Quill did in the first book. It makes for some familiar beats that I wish the author had steered away from.
The other issue is that I had been hoping this book would start to explore more of what's going on on the other side of the wall that divides the empire from the ruins of their homeland. (Why that matters should be familiar to readers of EMPIRE OF EXILES.) We popped open that question at the end of book one, but the focus on RELICS OF RUIN remains squarely on the drama playing out in the current empire, with brief interludes to events that happened twenty years in the past. Those interludes raise a whole host of questions without actually answering them, serving to set up stakes for book three without giving me any of the answers I so desperately crave. My only hope is that the ending point of book two means I will FINALLY get those answers in the third and final book.
Overall, RELICS OF RUIN was a welcome return to a world I have grown very fond of. While some of my questions remain unanswered (for now), it was another twisty mystery that delved into the complicated politics and history of the empire, as echoes of a past coup still cause strife in the present day. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the sequel and eagerly look forward to the finale and perhaps finally seeing what is really happening on the other side of that wall.
I was given a free ARC by the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.
RELICS OF RUIN is a fantastic sequel to EMPIRE OF EXILES, poking into new facets of the world while returning to old friends. Here's the easy version of this review: if you liked the first book, you should thoroughly enjoy the sequel. It was lovely to be back in the Imperial Archives, with its idiosyncratic archivists and stalwart Amadea trying to hold everything together. There's more conspiracy, more fallout from the events of book one, more people with hidden backstory. But even while I was enjoying everything that was "more," I did bump slightly against the feeling of "same."
Let's start with the good stuff: I really enjoyed exploring new corners of the world the author has created. I wrote in my last review that it felt like we'd barely scraped the surface of getting to know this world, and RELICS OF RUIN proves my point. We get to see more of the political structure in this outing, as the disappearance of the saint's body stirs up no end of political turmoil that politicians are eager to capitalize on. Meanwhile, Tunuk, who had previously been a secondary character, becomes a full POV character, allowing us to see more of the Alojan people and their culture. And lastly, we finally get to learn more about Richa's backstory, which had been previously hinted at but never fully explored.
I also really appreciated the way the third person POVs really captured the internal thoughts of characters who are struggling with various aspects of mental health. Amadea may appear to have things under control on the outside, but inside she is barely hanging on as one person after another burdens her with a weighty task or secret that she can't share with anyone else. Her grounding trick of noticing textures and colors around her is a signifier of how much she is trying to not completely spin out. Meanwhile Tunuk seems to suffer from a form of depression, always internally voicing thoughts that bitterly contemplate people's ulterior motives or dismiss the idea that anyone could simply want to just be his friend.
And then of course, there's Yinni, a character who is coming to grips with the fact that she may have more power than she's able to control. But her desire to seek help is countered by the fear that in doing so, all autonomy will be taken away from her, that she'll become a ward of the state with no say in any part of her life. All these very real concerns of our various characters really flesh them out and make for some great heartbreaking conflict as characters make assumptions about the motives of others; the readers know why certain characters are behaving the way they are, but nobody else in the room does.
I did have a few small issues with the book. One is that it's very easy to feel like the plotting of this book is in some ways repetitive. We have an archivist who has a friend implicated in a murder, and they are driven to investigate to prove their friend's innocence, much as Quill did in the first book. It makes for some familiar beats that I wish the author had steered away from.
The other issue is that I had been hoping this book would start to explore more of what's going on on the other side of the wall that divides the empire from the ruins of their homeland. (Why that matters should be familiar to readers of EMPIRE OF EXILES.) We popped open that question at the end of book one, but the focus on RELICS OF RUIN remains squarely on the drama playing out in the current empire, with brief interludes to events that happened twenty years in the past. Those interludes raise a whole host of questions without actually answering them, serving to set up stakes for book three without giving me any of the answers I so desperately crave. My only hope is that the ending point of book two means I will FINALLY get those answers in the third and final book.
Overall, RELICS OF RUIN was a welcome return to a world I have grown very fond of. While some of my questions remain unanswered (for now), it was another twisty mystery that delved into the complicated politics and history of the empire, as echoes of a past coup still cause strife in the present day. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the sequel and eagerly look forward to the finale and perhaps finally seeing what is really happening on the other side of that wall.
I was given a free ARC by the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.
nathans_fantasy_reviews's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The tl;dr: Relics of Ruin has a very different vibe from its predecessor, Empire of Exiles. This means that it takes a bit to warm up to the slower paced, thoughtful, and more character-driven stylings of this sequel. However, once you settle into the rhythms of Relics, you are rewarded with a book that is more interested in exploring the characters of this world than a fast-paced, frantic solving of its mysteries. The second half of the book puts things into overdrive as the many pieces start to fall into place. Sometimes the plot and mystery are a bit convoluted, but I love this world and don’t want to see it end in the next book!
My full review:
Relics of Ruin was one of my most anticipated books of 2024 after Empires of Exile knocked my socks off and became one of my top reads of 2023. I couldn’t wait to return to this world of shape-shifting changelings, social turmoil, political conflicts, dangerous magic, and clever mystery/fantasy genre mashups. While Relics of Ruin did not quite reach my lofty expectations, it is still an exciting and profoundly satisfying read that only works to confirm that this series should be near the top of your TBR.
Relics of Ruin had a tough job in front of it. As the second book in a trilogy, it has the responsibility of raising the stakes of the over-arching narrative without spinning its own wheels, and it also has to introduce a brand new mystery that somehow matches the mysterious fun of Empire of Exile‘s gruesome murder. It does both of these admirably, if a tad imperfectly.
The main impetus for the conflict in Relics of Ruin is the theft of a sacred wooden replica of the bones of a culturally significant saint. This mystery didn’t grab me as immediately as Empire’s murder, and I think this came down to a couple of things. A theft is not as “hooky” as a murder, and this problem was slightly exacerbated by the fact that the stakes of the theft were not immediately made apparent to the reader. I don’t know if this was a slight worldbuilding issue or just me forgetting things from the first book, but it took a bit too long for Evans to clearly convey what these wooden bones are, who they represented, and why the theft was significant to the plot. This had a bit of the unintended consequence of making the the first half of Relics feel insular; the connection of the theft to the larger over-arching plot was not apparent and the theft for a long section of the book felt a bit like a side-quest. This was all made slightly worse by how complicated and convoluted the mystery actually was, but luckily Evans takes a step back many times in the narrative to “sum up” all of the clues and revelations.
Because the mystery in relics is more complicated than the murder in the first book, the book does move at a much slower pace. It took me a bit to match Evans’ rhythm, but once I did I really enjoyed the slower and more assured pacing of this book. I loved Empires of Exiles because it moved – introducing new characters, magics, mysteries, and more at a runaway pace. I liked Relics because it was able to slow down and sit a bit with the characters. The characters came alive and felt more well-rounded this time around, and their individual motivations, histories, and personalities felt more real and vibrant than ever before. I realized when starting with Relics of Ruin that the mystery and worldbuilding of Empire of Exiles really stuck with me, but that the characters didn’t penetrate my mind. However, after this second outing I was more fully invested with these people, and this time around the characters are what are sticking with me much more than any of the plot. The more character-oriented rhythm ultimately worked for me, but it does mean that Relics of Ruin has quite a different vibe from Empire.
Once you cross approximately the halfway point of the book, it starts to feel a bit more like Empire as well. The larger plot machinations start to take center stage once again, the it becomes clearer how the individual mystery here starts to fit into the larger narrative that Evans is weaving throughout the entire trilogy. In many ways this series is structured like a three season TV series, where each season is relatively self-contained, and you only get glimpses of how everything fits together until you approach the climax, and everything starts to fall into place. While the first half of the book may seem like this is an episodic adventure, there are some MAJOR ramifications for what is coming later!
I will always want to spend more time in this world, and now that we have settled into the magic systems, politics, and more, I am eagerly anticipating the grand conclusion of this series (which I think is scheduled for later this year in November?). As Relics of Ruin ends, it simultaneously feels like we are crashing into the conclusion and that there is so much of this universe and these characters to explore. Evans has a tendency to zag when I think they are going to zig, and so I have no clue what is coming next!
alexiab's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
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