The Crown Conspiracy & Avempartha The Riyria Revelations, #1-2
Paperback, 649 pages
English language
Published Sept. 4, 2011 by Orbit.
Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles -- until they are hired to pilfer a famed sword. What appears to be just a simple job finds them framed for the murder of the king and trapped in a conspiracy that uncovers a plot far greater than the mere overthrow of a tiny kingdom.
(Actual rating: 4.5) I became very fond of this series and look forward to continuing it. It's nice to see high fantasy that's not grimdark because sometimes all you need is bromance, magic, and a good time.
Just a darn good fantasy yarn. An accessible and fun page turner. I'm tempted to say it'd be good for younger readers as well.
A wonderful buddy fantasy read. Very entertaining and engaging, I just finished the audiobook which was voiced perfectly by Tim Reynolds. Enough intrigue to keep me interested without getting lost in arcane political manipulations. Great characters, I'm ready to read the further adventures of Royce and Hadrian.
Finished the first book, "The crown conspiracy", and I'm giving it 4 stars.
I can't wait to read Avempartha to see what Hadrian and Royce are going to do.
I really liked Sullivan's writing for its conciseness and efficiency. Nevertheless it's an introductory book with a simple plot, but very good characterisation and worldbuilding. Since the the first book has around 3oo pages, I'd say he's done a great job. I'm sure we are going to discover more in the second book.
3.75 stars for the second book.
I found the second part more focused on characterization than plot, but I enjoy it nonetheless.
I've read many reviews and recommendations that praise the book for its skilled use of fantasy tropes, but I'm hard pressed to find anything that Riyria does better than someone else. The much-hyped Royce and Hadrian are a less interesting Locke and Jean. Esrahaddon is a discount Bayaz. I can see the appeal of a lighter fantasy with the prevalence of gritty, post-GoT fantasy out there, but compared to Prince of Thorns or The Blade Itself, Theft of Swords is just not very good. I could compare the writing to the similar fantasy pastiche of House of Blades, but that was even slightly better in doling out information.
The constant exposition is also unbearable. "I'm a royalist, I believe xyz. You must be one of those nationalists, who believe abc. At least we're not those 123 following imperialists!". It's terrible. That's the whole first quarter of the book. Half the …
I've read many reviews and recommendations that praise the book for its skilled use of fantasy tropes, but I'm hard pressed to find anything that Riyria does better than someone else. The much-hyped Royce and Hadrian are a less interesting Locke and Jean. Esrahaddon is a discount Bayaz. I can see the appeal of a lighter fantasy with the prevalence of gritty, post-GoT fantasy out there, but compared to Prince of Thorns or The Blade Itself, Theft of Swords is just not very good. I could compare the writing to the similar fantasy pastiche of House of Blades, but that was even slightly better in doling out information.
The constant exposition is also unbearable. "I'm a royalist, I believe xyz. You must be one of those nationalists, who believe abc. At least we're not those 123 following imperialists!". It's terrible. That's the whole first quarter of the book. Half the text needs to be moved to an appendix. The one monk character is a walking encyclopedia who seems to serve no other purpose than to tell other characters what is going on. Every instance with Thrace's father is unnecessary. I skimmed through half of Avempartha.
Avempartha was a slight improvement because there is an interesting g story starting to form with the Church and the Heir and the elves, etc. But it makes the first book even more of a painfully extended prologue than it felt like already. I think the real cardinal sin of these books is that they're just glacially slow. If the plot were faster, we could skip 90% of the exposition and get to the interesting plot points. There's just no excuse to having the main plot points show up in the tail end of the second book with everything before it being fluff.
The book is worth the $2 I paid for it. I'm told the subsequent novels are an improvement, but not ones I'm in a rush to discover.
God, I enjoyed this book (which is really two books in one). It has a mix of likable characters, humor and a nice story that just works for me. I wouldn't call it the best series ever written and I fear that it might not hold up on a second reading, but at least while you're reading it for the first time it's really entertaining.
I first heard about Michael J Sullivan in an online discussion of indie authors who made the jump to traditional publishing. Sullivan originally self-published the Riyria books, and then after they had gained quite a following, was picked up by Orbit. Theft of Swords is an omnibus containing the first two books in the series, The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha.
Our protagonists are Royce and Hadrian, a thief and a fighter respectively, who are framed for the murder of a king. Of course things only get more complicated for them after that development, as they try to get out of one predicament only to find themselves in increasingly more complicated situations. Sullivan gives us thieves’ guilds, wizards, elves, dwarves, magical artifacts, lost towers, dragons, and more.
While Sullivan seems to get all the toys out of the fantasy box here, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s easy to forget …
I first heard about Michael J Sullivan in an online discussion of indie authors who made the jump to traditional publishing. Sullivan originally self-published the Riyria books, and then after they had gained quite a following, was picked up by Orbit. Theft of Swords is an omnibus containing the first two books in the series, The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha.
Our protagonists are Royce and Hadrian, a thief and a fighter respectively, who are framed for the murder of a king. Of course things only get more complicated for them after that development, as they try to get out of one predicament only to find themselves in increasingly more complicated situations. Sullivan gives us thieves’ guilds, wizards, elves, dwarves, magical artifacts, lost towers, dragons, and more.
While Sullivan seems to get all the toys out of the fantasy box here, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s easy to forget that there’s a reason why certain tropes became tropes in the first place. Usually it’s because they were a fun and effective idea. Sullivan embraces them without irony and in the process reminds you of why you liked the trope in the first place.
The plotting is first rate, and for the most part the reader is propelled through the story, as Royce and Hadrian go from one problematic situation to another. There are vast underlying mysteries and conspiracies, but rather than dominate the storyline, they are referenced and hinted at, providing more mysteries to keep the reader intrigued.
Theft of Swords does seem to stumble in a couple of areas. First, at times Sullivan is a bit too eager to tell not show, and falls victim to largish infodumps. While the information is needed, I can’t help but wonder if there would have been a more nuanced means of transmitting that information. Second, the supporting characters are not well developed. The sequences not involving Royce and Hadrian seem to come to a crawl, as the characters are not strong enough to support the narrative. These sections seem to drag, especially as compared to the breakneck pace of the Royce/Hadrian portion of the narrative.
Sullivan has said that the Riyria books were written as the sort of escapist fantasy that he wanted to read. As such, they are very successful. There’s nothing here that is attempting to expand the genre, or be particularly challenging, but that’s OK. Every novel doesn’t have to be provocative and challenging. Theft of Swords is comfort food, and when viewed as such is very enjoyable indeed.
