Reviews

Age of Empyre by Michael J. Sullivan

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oberonmallory's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

marvelruinedmyspirit's review against another edition

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3.0

I had a few problems with this series as a whole which I'll summarize in this review, but before then quickly, I felt like this last book's ending was a bit lacking. On the one hand I absolutely loved the very last scene

between Turin and Muriel

and I did tear up when

Turin and Persephone were talking about Royce (and I think Modina?) and when he says that he has to hope that no one is beyond redemption

. On the other hand there were other parts of the series which were barely touched upon, and characters (including pov characters) about whom not even a line is written. On the whole I felt that Riyria wrapped up better.
As for the series, while I liked learning about the mythology as opposed to the transformed story we hear about in Riyria, I think that I would have been content with the legends of Novron and Persephone, because the real story wasn't super compelling (

and given the fact that i still can't understand Raithe's appeal... this romance was a bummer

). As for the rest of the cast, while they all had their moments,

they stayed in the afterlife too long

, at one point I stopped caring.

chlcrc617's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

vespertillio's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

sarahdm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

TL;DR

There was a moment about half way through the book when I realized that the main theme of the series was capital "F" Forgiveness. And it completely soured everything for me. On top of that, there was a complete lack of suspense in this book thanks to a certain character being just a little too involved. This book is still really good, but this is by far the weakest book in the entire Empire series in my personal opinion.

The Forgiven

In the bottom of the Abyss a person is weighed down by anger, regrets, and other emotions of the like that they have gathered from being alive. The team realizes that they need to let go of their burdens to be able to escape the Abyss. And so Roan forgives Iver. Iver who owned Roan and her mother Reanna as slaves and abused them, resulting in Iver killing Reanna. Which resulted in Roan killing Iver. She FORGIVES her ABUSER. An abuser which has been implied to have sexually abused Rowan and/or Reanna. While I don't think this implication is actually intentional by Mr. Sullivan as it is not TEXTUAL but SUB-TEXTUAL, it is still there. And I did ask another person if I was delusional about this subtext, but no they also picked up on the subtext. Even without the sexual assault subtext, this book is still saying that the only way to save your soul from turning into wallowing ooze at the bottom of the abyss is to forgive your abusers. This is ABSOLUTE horse shit.

Then of course there is Tesh. Who is told he needs to forgive the genocidal murderers who wiped out his entire culture and clan. "Let go of your JUSTIFIED anger! Its shackling you down," the book says! Forgive them because one of them ended up being a decent person who didn't see the humans as wild brainless animals. Absolutely wild.

And finally, the grand daddy of all assholes, Turin. Who is manipulating this entire plot of the war so that he can get forgive then from his family. Just doing more shitty things to try and redeem himself and gain forgiveness that he just does not deserve.

So yeah. Forgiveness is a big fucking theme. Forgiveness for people who just don't fucking deserve it. There was a moment where one of Turin's sisters says that she isn't angry at Turin anymore and she let go of her anger because it was useless, pointless, and just wasn't doing her any good. And I don't think she says that she forgives him. Which I can 100% get behind. Yeah, let a guy redeem himself, maybe even let go of your anger for the past, but don't forgive them unless they deserve it. I like this idea of a theme WAY more.

Blind forgiveness just rubbed me the wrong way. It reminded me of sitting in church camp and pastors telling 10-12 year old girls that they needed to forgive their rapists. This last book really smacks of biblical forgiveness: “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” And I'll be honest with you guys, that scene with Roan forgiving Iver and kissing him, it was triggering.

Mr. Sullivan has spoken about his experience with faith. Quote: "I was raised Catholic, but I spent a good portion of my life on a search for my own beliefs, and in so doing, I've borrowed a bit from many religions and philosophies. I do believe that people are basically good, and when we make mistakes we should try to redeem ourselves." Even if Mr. Sullivan is departed from Catholicism, its very obvious that his writing is influenced by it. I mean this book and the last one are inspired by Catholic fanon (Dante's Inferno). I mean, fuck, there are even 3 sections of the after life: Purgatory, Hell, Heaven vs Rel, Nifrel, and Alysin. The more I look the more I see it everywhere in this book. To say that this book is not influenced by biblical forgiveness is moronic. So I better not get comments saying I am bring up faith for no reason.

Look, I have personal beef with faith. I don't like the idea of forgiveness for the sake of spiritual salvation. It just pisses me off. I wouldn't have minded the theme of forgiveness if it was handled in a better way. Especially on Roan's part. When she grabbed Gifford's sword I was ready for some feminine rage. I loved when Tekchin saves Tesh. Tekchin could have asked Tesh for forgiven and then Tesh could have let go of his anger. Turin, well he is a work in progress, maybe I'll have a different opinion of him latter on.

The Suspense Problem

I think finding out that Turin has planned everything from the state and its all going to go his way really took the suspense out of his book. I think its most felt in the fight between Nyphron and Mawyndule. The reader already knew that Nyphron was going to win and spare Mawyndule because Turin already told us that's how it was going to happen. I think this could have been easily fixed if we saw Turin's plans fail and him really stressing out about everything thing a little more. I mean, his forgiveness and redemption is on the line here, bro should have been stressed. And Turin kept SAYING that things could go wrong but I feel like we just really didn't see it or not enough of it go wrong to really believe him and continue to have suspense. Apparently in the other books he has less control on the narrative situation so maybe this isn't a problem outside this book.

Some Positives

This book and the Empire series as a whole still absolutely rocks. I LOVED the scene with the dragons. I was literally kicking my feet and squealing. I loved Brin and Suri in this book so so much. Honestly, was super invested in all the stuff happening with the elves. I think if you are this far in the series you are gonna love this book no matter what.

Really looking forward to The Rise and Fall series next!