Book review: Soul Relic by Samuel Hinton

SOUL RELIC is Samuel Hinton novel that follows a young woman who has a disability about her magic. She has anincredible reservoir of aeon power but no way to regenerate it naturally, leaving her forced to live on a diet of pears(it makes sense in context). She intends to apply for the academy in the Big CityTM outside of her village but things go arry when the God of Knowledge kills all the other gods before instituting new requirements for students.

This is a progression fantasy novel while not being a LitRPG, which is a fine hair to split for some but basically amounts to the fact the story is the focus about becoming stronger while not necessarily getting too caught up in the numbers. In simple terms, it's a Rocky-esque kind of story about working to get stronger only with magic.

I really liked this story and the characters involved, Raysha is an adorable heroine who may be a bit whiny about her status but quickly won me over with her snarky can-do attitude. I also liked the supporting cast and am interested in seeing where this story goes. Vashi, Hllaya, and Ocatvian are all a good cast of characters for supporting Raysha and keep her attitude from getting too insufferable.

While sibling relationships can be very hard to capture, particularly if the author doesn't have any of them in real life, I think the relationship between Raysha and her brother is well done. Vashi is a scholarly overachiever but doesn't look down on his sister. He wants her to succeed and is frustrated that he can't help her more. Raysha doesn't want to rely on his charity, though, and envies his natural talent.

I found the magic system to be well-designed and the writing to be entertaining throughout. I liked how our heroes also came into the sights of the Big Bad. Too often, it's destiny or contrived but, no, our heroes ended up killing some of his minions in an encounter and things just sort of snowball from there. I really like that.

There's a surprising environmental message in the book as well with the mages of the region seeking any advantage they can get by hunting down the local magical creatures for boosts. The book subverts your typical moralizing about such things, though, because Raysha realizes that she isn't sure she'd be able to resist the temptation if it was her getting the benefits.

This is a good example of progression fantasy and it starts fairly low stakes before gradually ramping up, which is perfect for the genre. I can't wait to get into the next book. I recommend the audiobook version over the Kindle release but enjoyed both.