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books_with_benghis_kahn 's review for:
The Rose and the Thorn
by Michael J. Sullivan
This felt like being in Riyria Revelations again, unlike the last one which felt like a mostly unnecessary prequel. Indeed, a character in this book summarized the whole plot thread from Gwen's POV which made those chapters from the Crown Tower doubly unnecessary.
We get a new POV in this one who I grew pretty attached to, and that is Reuben Hilfred -- and I loved how Sullivan withheld the Hilfred name for a little while so we got to see this bumbling, depressed youth for a little bit and not know who he would become later. I loved Reuben's arc in this one, and I'll always be sap for the earnest, shy, unconfident youth who acts heroically. Much of his POV was quite touching, as was Rose's brief POV as she fell for Reuben in her innocent way.
I very much enjoyed seeing the origin of how Albert Winslow came to work for Riyria, and I liked being back from the start in a comfortable friendship between Hadrian and Royce--but Sullivan still had them feel like new friends still learning each other, so that was very well done.
I have a pretty strong personal preference against knowing who the plotting villains are as we follow their secret scheming play out, so the prequel format hurt my enjoyment of a chunk of this one around Saldur/Braga and the conspiracy to kill the king. That being said, I think with that strike against the book by default, it beat my expectations coming out of the last book and had me itching to pick the book up and continue whenever I wasn't reading.
We get a new POV in this one who I grew pretty attached to, and that is Reuben Hilfred -- and I loved how Sullivan withheld the Hilfred name for a little while so we got to see this bumbling, depressed youth for a little bit and not know who he would become later. I loved Reuben's arc in this one, and I'll always be sap for the earnest, shy, unconfident youth who acts heroically. Much of his POV was quite touching, as was Rose's brief POV as she fell for Reuben in her innocent way.
I very much enjoyed seeing the origin of how Albert Winslow came to work for Riyria, and I liked being back from the start in a comfortable friendship between Hadrian and Royce--but Sullivan still had them feel like new friends still learning each other, so that was very well done.
I have a pretty strong personal preference against knowing who the plotting villains are as we follow their secret scheming play out, so the prequel format hurt my enjoyment of a chunk of this one around Saldur/Braga and the conspiracy to kill the king. That being said, I think with that strike against the book by default, it beat my expectations coming out of the last book and had me itching to pick the book up and continue whenever I wasn't reading.