Relics

I picked this book up on a whim because I thought the blurb was pretty interesting. Seriously, when a blurb opens with “underground black market for arcane things” that's almost an insta-buy for me. But it turns out that, though the premise is absolutely fascinating, the execution leaves something to be desired. The action was pretty good and the worldbuilding was...functional, but the story itself lacked oomph. It was a lot of running around and humans and supernatural entities getting into trouble and getting horrifically injured and/or horrifically dying, but it was actually kind of blah. I think it's that the characters lack personality; they're all very bland. They're interesting when they're taking action, but in and of themselves they're not all that intriguing. Maybe that will improve in the later books in the series (yes, it's a series).