This one was recommended to me as being very like Gideon the Ninth, which I was all over.
So, thank you to the author and Saga Press via NetGalley for the review copy!
The Devoted Lands was once home to many gods: Salt, Stone, Storm, Green, Shadow. Now, after centuries of devastating wars, only Tempestra-Innara, the Eternal Flame, remains.
Conscripted as a child, Lys, potentiate of the Dawn Cloister, is outwardly a loyal servant to her goddess. If she harbors impossible dreams of deicide, that’s her business. But when a routine heretical execution erupts into a near-fatal assassination attempt on Tempestra-Innara, Lys sees a glimmer of hope for her freedom.
Lys is chosen to hunt down the heretics and find an ancient reliquary that holds the power to kill a god. Annoyingly, she’s not alone. Paired with Nolan, a potentiate from a rival cloister who is as pious as he is determined, Lys must feign devotion if she hopes to keep her own heretical thoughts hidden and god-killing ambitions within reach.
As they pursue a dangerous network of heretics linked to the assassination, Lys uncovers a world brimming with more possibility—and peril—than she ever anticipated.
The Lost Reliquary is the story of Lys. Lys lives in a world where gods and goddesses exist, and she serves the last existing goddess, Tempestra-Innara. She was conscripted as a child, raised to be a warrior for the goddess, and is more or less a slave. Tempestra-Innara can’t read her mind, thankfully, because Lys absolutely loathes her, and while she has to follow orders, she can think of killing the goddess as much as she’d like.
Tempestra-Innara tasks Lys and Nolan, her rival with finding a reliquary that is pretty much the only thing that could kill the goddess. As they travel, they meet all kinds of heretics that are dedicated to killing the goddess, and Lys finds herself wondering whether she should help or not.
I enjoyed this story, but it admittedly took me a little while to get into it. Once I hit about one third, I found it harder and harder to put this one down.
I liked how the relationship between Lys and Nolan changes as they travel. They are rivals for the same exalted position and so they start out as enemies for sure. It was interesting to see how that changed over the course of their quest.
The Lost Reliquary had some twists and turns I didn’t see coming, and once I got into it, it was a fun ride. 4/5 stars!~
superstardrifter 
Leave a comment