Soul Relic starts off strong with a nice dose of deicide. It’s a very dramatic beginning and sets us up well for the rest of the story. That’s just a side plot though. The actual story focuses on Raysha, a normal girl who cannot properly use magic. For, though most people can absorb aeon through their skin to properly fuel their spells, she can only get it from eating aeon rich fruit. It’s a nice handicap for the character to work around and try to overcome and the story that leads from it is interesting and varied.

The magic system itself is flexible and engaging. The practitioner makes runes inside them that each have different meanings, like, say, light. They can then either project those runes outwards, which in this case would cause them to shoot out a beam of light, or integrate it with their body, which would cause their body to glow. Most people just set some runes then forget about it but obviously Raysha isn’t able to do this, as she doesn’t have the aeon to spend on it. So she’s forced to come up with each rune again and again on the fly.

The world is nicely realised and described. I always like deep worldbuilding and this felt like a real, living place. This was a road story so we get to see a fair amount of it but the writer managed the trick of leaving you feeling like you hadn’t seen everything, that there was always something more over the horizon. This is paired nicely with the characters, who are well realised and nicely diverse. They had a good depth to them and, even though the book is done, I know there’s a lot about them that I don’t know. It’s also just written really well. I flew through this book and really enjoyed the turns of phrase, both from the characters and by the writer.

All this adds up to a great first book in what promises to be a great series. I’m looking forward to the next book and can’t wait to read it.