A young time-travelling, magic wielding Priestess and her gifted friends must retrieve an ancient Goth relic before it is used to change history. This isn’t the Priestess Ariela’s first trip through time, but now she has friends along for the journey. When she arrives, she is alone, dressed as a servant, yet surrounded by opulence. Her guide and mentor, the Angel Raziel hasn’t given her a clue … hasn’t given her a clue about her quest and she quickly finds herself serving a deadly enemy from her past.
Ariela realises that keeping her magical powers secret isn’t going to be easy. She is being hunted by a powerful magic wielder who is determined to destroy her and change history forever. In the midst of a violent and intense battle to protect the ancient relic Brísingamen, once worn by the goddess Freya, Ariela calls upon the strengths and powers of her friends and a group of strangers.
As Ariela gathers her allies, she realises her powerful adversary isn’t the only threat. She has been betrayed by someone she thought she could trust.
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Ariela and her friends jump a few hundred years into the future, where Rome is still in power. They have to contend wo ith a healer bent on evil, and an emperor’s son, who’s a bit crazy. With no help from the angel whbrought them there, they must determine what their mission is. Who is the greater threat? Secrets await them that could pull them apart.
This series is shaping up to be an exciting trip through time. Ariela and her friends endure more hardships, love, and loss, but grow in the process. It’s a quick read, but one that keeps you turning the pages. I look forward to more books in the series.
I really enjoyed reading another of Fiona Tarr’s novels, and as always, it was filled with time travel, history, magic and mystery. Relic Seeker is well paced, with wonderful characters and a good balance of adventure, mystery, tender moments, and surprises. Trust is a central issue, with costly betrayals littering the battleground when the characters find out who they can trust, and who they cannot. The stage is so well set and the action so well drawn that I felt like I was right there beside Ariela and Culaan, experiencing their heartaches and adventures. Although it’s not my usual thing, I loved the elements of time travel, magic and history. Highly recommended.
Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over: https://margaretmcgaffeyfisk.com/category/reviews/
In keeping with the first book in The Priestess Chronicles, Relic Seeker has Ariela thrown into a new time and place to uncover her mission. She left with friends, but arrives alone, something that bothers her friends just as much when they discover her absence. Ariela is a servant on the Senator’s estate while the other two find themselves suspected gods, or at least the answer to prayers, in a nearby Goth village. This separation allows our heroes to tackle the problem from both ends as they struggle to figure out who or what they were sent to stop.
This is another adventure where Ariela and her friends must adapt while seeking clues to show why the angel brought them to this place. The Romans and Goths have a tentative alliance built on the need for mercenary troops and a willingness to accept Roman coin. An insidious rumor, whether true or false, is enough to undermine the peace as magic and rational beliefs clash.
Toss in the emperor’s half-mad son, powerful relics from lost cultures, and a villain with a mission cutting a little too close to the heart of our heroes, and this book offers a more nuanced conflict. The view of the Romans, possibly a reflection of when they land, supports this additional complexity. Hints indicate it is the rule of Constantine who became a Christian rather than keeping to the Roman gods.
The separation of main characters allows us to discover the good in Romans and Goths alike, and learn something about both cultures. Our heroes make friends among the villagers and Roman staff who influence the course of their mission as well as expanding the characters we, as readers, come to care about.
The omniscient, rolling point of view (POV) had a few small hiccups where information is withheld to create what I consider false tension, but for the most part, the POV worked well and I never lost track of who held center stage. It allows the reader to follow both sides of a complex situation without a lot of explanation required as it would be if non-POV characters had to reveal what they’ve been doing off screen.
The spare, straightforward writing style, plus a lighter hand with the less appealing aspects of both Roman and Goth life, makes this novel a solid, fun read. It managed to draw my sympathies and endear me to characters new and old as they faced challenges to touch their hearts and minds. Relic Seeker raises interesting questions about the lines where cultures and people meet while exploring human struggles.
I enjoyed the story and spending time with familiar characters along with new ones. The series could easily have fallen into a pattern. Instead, it draws on the characters’ histories, along with changing times, to offer a brand new conflict and challenge our band of time-traveling heroes. It’ll be interesting to see how this is accomplished in the next book.
P.S. I received this ARC from the author in return for an honest review.