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songwind's review against another edition
4.0
This was an enjoyable fantasy adventure that I never would have encountered if I was not a user here on GoodReads.
The book centers around a pair of self-named thieves (though mercenary trouble-shooters might be a better description) who are framed for the murder of the king of the realm. Their only recourse is to accept the aid of the crown princess, who knew of the plot to kill her father and further knows that the two criminals are scapegoats. The kidnap the new king to protect him from the conspirators, and embark upon a journey that sees them tangled up in politics and struggles ancient and new.
The characters are likable and not too heavily steeped in fantasy cliche. The local power structure is nicely complex, which creates a believable political and historical landscape.
There are a few points that disappointed me, but for the most part they are minor. Esrahaddon's dialogue, for instance, was quite clumsy. Verb and subject agreement in the archaic form was haphazard, as was Esrahaddon's mastery of modern idiom. (Quite aside from the fact that after 1000 years, a living language's descendants are practically a whole new language rather than a different dialect.) The timeline for the burning of the Wind abbey was too rushed. 2 days after a fire big enough to burn everything in an abbey not made of stone, without the benefit of modern firefighting techniques, the site would still be too hot to walk around in, much less find things. There were a few more that stuck out to me at the time, but were not important enough to remain in my memory in any detail. All in all, though, these were minor quibbles and more than made up for by the rest of the book.
Hadrian and Royce remind me somewhat forcefully of another pair of thieves whose adventures I enjoy - Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser. The friends from Crown Conspiracy are considerably more moral and prone to acts of kindness than Lankmar's famous pair.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. In particular, I look forward to seeing what Sullivan does with the wizard Esrahaddon, the earl of Chadwick, and the monk Myron.
The book centers around a pair of self-named thieves (though mercenary trouble-shooters might be a better description) who are framed for the murder of the king of the realm. Their only recourse is to accept the aid of the crown princess, who knew of the plot to kill her father and further knows that the two criminals are scapegoats. The kidnap the new king to protect him from the conspirators, and embark upon a journey that sees them tangled up in politics and struggles ancient and new.
The characters are likable and not too heavily steeped in fantasy cliche. The local power structure is nicely complex, which creates a believable political and historical landscape.
There are a few points that disappointed me, but for the most part they are minor. Esrahaddon's dialogue, for instance, was quite clumsy. Verb and subject agreement in the archaic form was haphazard, as was Esrahaddon's mastery of modern idiom. (Quite aside from the fact that after 1000 years, a living language's descendants are practically a whole new language rather than a different dialect.) The timeline for the burning of the Wind abbey was too rushed. 2 days after a fire big enough to burn everything in an abbey not made of stone, without the benefit of modern firefighting techniques, the site would still be too hot to walk around in, much less find things. There were a few more that stuck out to me at the time, but were not important enough to remain in my memory in any detail. All in all, though, these were minor quibbles and more than made up for by the rest of the book.
Hadrian and Royce remind me somewhat forcefully of another pair of thieves whose adventures I enjoy - Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser. The friends from Crown Conspiracy are considerably more moral and prone to acts of kindness than Lankmar's famous pair.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. In particular, I look forward to seeing what Sullivan does with the wizard Esrahaddon, the earl of Chadwick, and the monk Myron.
is_book_loring's review against another edition
4.0
Delightful. There is just something so entertaining from stories wrote by Michael J. Sullivan. Even though the general idea is nothing sort of spectacular, but somehow the idea of two thieves as protagonists of the stories instead of usual heroes type just work out really good for me. Their characters that complimented each other created in such a wonderful way. I had such a fun read.
csdaley's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
ktloureads's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
An adventurous ye olden buddy cop tale that is fun but lacks depth, especially with the main characters. I imagine we will learn more about Royce and Hadrian's backstories in later installments and I would be interested to see how they handle failure or loss. Having read most of the Legends of the First Empire series it was fun trying to pick out how those character's stories are told centuries later.
sazzyrazzy's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
felipeheld's review against another edition
5.0
What a beautiful start to this series! It's a short and such wholesome and warm book! I loved every word in it! So excited to read more about the Riyria Revelations!
kyceshep's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
julia_reads_more_now's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
3.5
The first book in the Riyria Revelations, this book does start slow, but the series is definitely worth reading. The biggest draw of the series are the characters and cozy fantasy setting which are all-consuming and lovable. It takes a few chapters to get fully immersed (which is why I took some points off for the first book), but when you do, it's well worth it. The series does have a decent amount of political intrigue which can get slow if that's not your thing, but I find myself thinking about the characters and setting often when I'm not reading, which in my opinion is the mark of a good book!
ladyethyme's review against another edition
4.0
I was actually really pleasantly surprised by this book. A perfectly good light hearted fantasy, with elements of drama but nothing over the top gory, or scenes of rape or sexual violence, which seem to be so common these days in fantasy books.
Maybe the ‘trial’ chapter could’ve been condensed-because rehashing an event we as the readers already lived through was a teeny bit tedious. Buuuut that’s ok.
Although there are some issues with a few minor plot holes and issues a person well-versed about horses and medieval life might pick up on, I don’t think that they are enough to ruin this story for anyone. (Although the little worth put on gold and silver was a bit extreme….I mean honestly-most peasants wouldn’t SEE silver in their entire lives….but here it’s like ten silver for a low end coat? The amount of gold you’d need to buy a horse would weigh twenty pounds or more-much less anything else you wanted to purchase….sadly it’s a real irritation-as this world must SWIM in gold and silver for it to be so devalued)
I really enjoyed the humor, and the elements of mystery and tantalizing bits of clues that indicate a much bigger and wider story for each of the characters.
I particularly like that the characters are thieves, not afraid of violence, murder or acting in self-interest-but still have a sense of honor, and it is not at all grim dark-which seems to be the fashion these days, making everything as miserable and horrible as possible… It’s actually hard to find books that are not like this, but still are adult and not childish or full of romance which I hate.
Really looking forward to the next book, and I’m starting it now, I recommend this for anyone who wants a good fantasy read that is not as intense or complicated as, say, Brandon Sanderson‘s Way of Kings, but generally far and above most of the fantasy out there imo.
Maybe the ‘trial’ chapter could’ve been condensed-because rehashing an event we as the readers already lived through was a teeny bit tedious. Buuuut that’s ok.
Although there are some issues with a few minor plot holes and issues a person well-versed about horses and medieval life might pick up on, I don’t think that they are enough to ruin this story for anyone. (Although the little worth put on gold and silver was a bit extreme….I mean honestly-most peasants wouldn’t SEE silver in their entire lives….but here it’s like ten silver for a low end coat? The amount of gold you’d need to buy a horse would weigh twenty pounds or more-much less anything else you wanted to purchase….sadly it’s a real irritation-as this world must SWIM in gold and silver for it to be so devalued)
I really enjoyed the humor, and the elements of mystery and tantalizing bits of clues that indicate a much bigger and wider story for each of the characters.
I particularly like that the characters are thieves, not afraid of violence, murder or acting in self-interest-but still have a sense of honor, and it is not at all grim dark-which seems to be the fashion these days, making everything as miserable and horrible as possible… It’s actually hard to find books that are not like this, but still are adult and not childish or full of romance which I hate.
Really looking forward to the next book, and I’m starting it now, I recommend this for anyone who wants a good fantasy read that is not as intense or complicated as, say, Brandon Sanderson‘s Way of Kings, but generally far and above most of the fantasy out there imo.
solange's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0