A review by ngallion
The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan

3.0

This is certainly not a bad book, but it’s one that has problems. The main characters are clearly supposed to be cool archetypes, but we’re told very little about them so much of what they do feels hollow. Lots of exposition dumping happens - often in the form or lectures about the history of the world - and it’s hard to tell if the exposition is important or if it’s an attempt to worldbuild. Minor characters (and even a few major ones) show up without sufficient introduction for the reader to feel like they really know who these characters are, and some have relatively similar names. Who are these people? Which faction are they aligned with? By the end I really wasn’t sure. In addition, the story feels very much like a book in which characters move from one predetermined setpiece to another rather than one that flows naturally.

Despite all of that, I really got a kick out of this book. If you can get around some clunky storytelling/writing, the core story is interesting and there are some genuinely fun, clever things going on here. I’m going to keep reading this series because there’s plenty of potential for better things ahead. I may ultimately be disappointed, but the writing style is so easy to breeze through that it seems worth at least a second visit to this world.