Michael J. Sullivan (1)Resenhas

Decent short story set 5 years after The Crown Tower. It begins with Hadrian and Royce in the middle of a job involving a cave full of deadly traps.

I do wish that the story showed more of their journey through the cave instead of just showing the characters talking about it, though.

Excellent short story! A young noblewoman hires Royce and Hadrian to kidnap her, but the job is more complicated than it seems.

Found in the "Blackguards" anthology.

I loved reading this book. The Crown Tower is part of The Riyria Chronicles (a prequel series to The Riyria Revelations, which I read early last year). It shows Royce and Hadrian when they first met and how they became partners. I completely adore the characters in these books, and this story held my interest the whole way through.

I love the world that the author created and I like that he's published so many books in it. There are two other prequel series set in this world (which I haven't tried yet). "The Rise and Fall", which is set a thousand years before this one, and "The Legends of the First Empire", which is set a thousand years before that.

The narrator for the audiobooks, Tim Gerald Reynolds, is amazing.

This (along with the Riyria Revelations) is definitely one of my favorite series of all time.

I liked reading this book. It's a good part of the series and I loved seeing Hadrian and Royce. I didn't love this book as much as The Crown Tower though.

Theft of Swords is two books in one volume, The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha. Both follow the adventures of Hadrian, a mercenary, and Royce, a thief, as they are hired for various jobs.

The Crown Conspiracy

This is a pretty good book. The story is interesting. The characters are very likable, but I think they needed more depth to make them really shine. There is some magic and mythology, some elves and dwarves, although not as much as I would expect in a fantasy book. All in all, I liked it.

Avempartha

A good part of the beginning was painfully slow, but it got better and I ended up really liking the story. Hadrian and Royce really grew on me with this book. They are great characters and the secondary characters are good, too. I'm excited to continue the series.

Rise of empire is two books in one volume, Nyohron Rising and The Empire Storm. Both follow the continued adventures of Hadrian and Royce.

Nyphron Rising

Arista hires Hadrian and Royce on a diplomatic mission that has unexpected results and a new character's perspective is introduced. I enjoyed reading this book and was never bored, even though parts of it move at a leisurely pace.

The Emerald Storm

A large part of the story with Hadrian and Royce takes place on a ship, which is a nice change of pace. There are a lot of new characters and some interesting turns in the multiple stories that are taking place. I'm excited to start the next book to see where the series ends up.

Heir of Novron is two books in one volume, Wintertide and Percepliquis.

Wintertide

This book is great. It really held my interest and it's probably my favorite book in the Riyria Revelations.

Percepliquis

This was a good story, but it dragged on too much for my taste. It took me almost a month to finish it because I just didn't feel the need to pick it up. I really like how the series ended though.

The best of the 4 so far! Solid series, as I mentioned earlier

Meh. Series got better, but this one wasn't impressive.

An improvement on the last book. Still cliched, but much less so than the previous book, and the plot grew more interesting in this book as well.

The best of the series thus far - I'm certainly happy to see the series improving. Still not phenomenal, but a good story and one with what looks to be a well-worked climax.

The anticipation I had for this title was quite high and probably led to me feeling a certain way after I was done with it.
Sullivan's follow-up to Theft of Swords (book 1 in the Riyria Revelations) was high on my radar after I was totally enamored by the first entry in the series. In Rise of Empire, we are again thrown into the world of Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater, two highwaymen who are much more that what they appear to be and the ladies that we were introduced to in the first Arista, and Modina, and we are introduced to Amilia this time around. To give you a 2 cent summary it is almost the plot of the Empire Strikes Back with a slight twist and a few more female characters. There are reviews that I have read which rave about the character development and I agree, there was a lot of that. My major complaint is that is all it really was, I didn't see much originality, I thought it was all character development and little story development. It was predictable and slow and (I listened to the audiobook version) I wanted to turn it off so many times that I lost count. It got to be a slog, like the late/middle volumes of the Wheel of Time books.
I am not saying this is compete garbage as Michael J Sullivan is an awesome writer and I love 90% of what he puts out, but this really didn't do it for me. I don't know, maybe he was spreading things too thin. Too many story lines not enough time to everything squeeze in...too many irons in the fire so to speak.
Just disappointed. The first book of the series was SO GOOD, maybe I was just destined to be disappointed. At best this is a three star for me.
Hopefully volume 3 will right the ship again.

I tried really hard to like this but couldn’t. In fact, I’m giving up at 62%... I liked “Legends of the First Empire” and that series’ protagonists. I love Michael’s Hadrian and Royce.

“Nolyn”, though, is a different matter: We’re 800 years after the events of “Legends” and some of the old heroes are still around which is one of the issues: All the human protagonists are, of course, long gone; but the elves are still around. Unreasonable lifespans of several thousand (!) years are poor, unconvincing and annoying storytelling devices.

Yes, that was made clear in “Legends” and I was worried that might create a problem but it never mattered in that series. Now, Nyphron is still around but - before I DNF’ed - he doesn’t appear. He’s talked about but we don’t get to “see” him.

Also, an old nemesis from “Legends” is still around, still conspiring and plotting which is very annoying: Don’t reuse old enemies; they had their time and place and 800 years later, they should simply be gone.

The adult half-elf children of the heroes of old are, of course, still around but what they think, talk about and do ridicules, deconstructs and belittles their parents. It doesn’t help that these children are neither very interesting (Nolyn) nor relatable (Sephryn).

Up to 62% very little of consequence has actually happened: We get lots of info-dumps, much bemoaning, and that’s pretty much it.

I was bored, annoyed, disappointed, and actually avoided reading like the plague in order to not have to deal with this book and not have to write this review.

I’m still going to read Michael’s other books and - just like with all three books in “The Rise and Fall” - have backed them all on Kickstarter and will continue to do so but I’m going to be more lenient with myself about DNF’ing his books…

One sad star out of five.

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The Crown Conspiracy is an upgrade to the prequels (The Riyria Chronicles) as it is a little more complex and has a nice buildup. More things seem to happen than in the prequels. However, it is still a very light-hearted buddy fantasy. Reading this almost feels like watching those funny D&D parodies on YouTube. Many characters are like caricatures; the dwarf, the wizard, the prince... There was not much tension and everything ended quite predictably.
As long as you don't take it too seriously it is still a fun book, esp. if you like Ryce and Hadrian as characters. But, I'm not really sold on this series.

This was a fun book. It's been a long time since I read something like this so I was a little surprised at how light this felt, very episodic. Almost like a comic book.

I picked this up expecting it was a fantasy novel, but there were very few fantasy elements in it, even less than in e.g. G.R.R. Martin's books. I hope this will change in the sequels.

Even though I appreciate the lightness of the approach (esp. after reading [b:Gardens of the Moon|55399|Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)|Steven Erikson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548497031l/55399._SY75_.jpg|2646042] recently), I feel like this series needs more of everything (magic, action, characters etc.). Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Hadrian and Royce are a great duo, and the world building is good - obviously a lot of places he could go with the world he's set up. Part of the plot rests on characters grabbing the stupid ball, which is a little disappointing. Overall good, though

Great series! I've found a new author!

First book - It's ok, but boring. Stilted writing, repetitive at times, flat characters. The female characters aren't even two dimensional
Second book is much better. Characters are more fully fleshed out, dialogue is better. Fight scenes are still a little stilted½

This was a slow starting series for me, but now I'm hooked on the story and the characters. Immediately went and bought the next one, which is a great sign.

The protagonists were incredibly incompetent in the first half of this book. Worse, one particular aspect of the setting's mythology was very disturbing and out of keeping with the tone of the series. I find it difficult to believe that the otherwise excellent female characters would not only accept that particular myth, but even retell it to young girls.

I would highly recommend this entire series to anyone. This is an exceptional fantasy series that is not only ridiculously fun and addictive, but also stands out above the crowd for multiple reasons: first are the strong female characters who all feature prominently, are not simply damsels in distress for the heroes to rescue and actually have their own character arcs that differ greatly from each other. Written by a male author no less! Second, while the general idea of elves, dwarves and humans has been repeated in fantasy over and over, this is still a fresh take on an old trope that manages to surprise. Third, it is wonderful to find a fantasy tale that does not rely on heroic battles and wars to fill chapters. Instead there is exciting plot, rich history and great banter. I recommend reading the Riyria Revelations first and then the Chronicles (publication order) as there are a lot of Easter eggs in the newer books that you can only really appreciate if you read the Revelations.

Sullivan shines in his conclusion to the Riyria series. His writing is the perfect mix of character and plot without bogging the reader down in either. The pace is quick and light on its feet, making you want more and more. I recommend this book to anyone! (I am also thankful for Orbit as they lured me into the series with a special $2.99 sale on the first book). This is a series that will stick with me for a while. Thank you, Mr Sullivan!!!!!

The first book was really engaging, but I found the second book to be much slower, and harder to get through. Royce and Hadrian are great characters, and I'm interested to see what happens in the next books.

Simply put: there is something special about a series where the characters experiences can bring you to tears, either good or bad. Few authors have ever done that in my life. First Sanderson, now Sullivan. How grand. Waiting with baited breath for book 3.

Amazing as always.