Customer Reviews

Reliquary Ring

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3 star:		(1)
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Cherith Baldry has turned from King Arthur and his round table to Venice. At last she has written a book for the adults to follow her successful books for younger readers.

The story works on different levels.

It vividly describes an alternative society in Venice. It works as a straight forward adventure story building to an exciting climax.

It works as a mannered romance in a Jane Austen manner.

It works as a description of how societies work.

But there is also a hidden sub-text in the story where wry parallels and comments are made with wit and insight about our modern society. Points are gently made about exploitation, inequality, the nature of romantic love and religion without any intrusion of the writer's own opinions.

Read it once as a story then reread it again for the subtler points.

The first thing I have to say about this book is that one of the major revelations, and key storylines is revealed on the inside of the front cover. When I buy a book I read every inch of the back and front pages before delving into the novel itself, I did so with this book, but was fortunate enough to miss (or forget) this important detail--fortunately. The people who write these snippets should be more careful.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was an unexpected surprise. It was very easy to get into, and has a storyline that simply kept you interested, even if it was a bit weak. There was a good story here just waiting to get out. As the author matures, this would have been better written at a later date.

I won't go into the premise of the book, except to say that (apart from good versus evil), there are 'genics' - genetically engineered people 'coveted' by the wealthy yet shunned by society at the same time. The story revolves around everyday discrimination that seemingly goes unnoticed, as a city is in the brink of turmoil. Is the person that packs your groceries any less than the person who sells you the latest BMW?

The two main weaknesses I found were that a lot of the story revolved around the church, and their acceptance of 'genics'. On the word of one priest, a miracle is announced and all of a sudden 'genics' are kosher. And the bad guy, he has all this fancy hi-tech gadgetry, is about to take over the city when at the turn of a dime he ends up looking like Dick Dastardly trying to `stop the pigeon'. You could almost picture him in your mind dancing a little tantrum when things go awry.