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

2.0

Entertaining fantasy story that did not wow me, but was light popcorn reading inbetween more meaty books. Our two main protagonists are Hadrian and Royce, who call themselves Riyria, and are thieves for hire. When they get an easy-looking job that brings them to the royal palace, they end up as scapegoats for the assassination of the king. There's a conspiracy afoot, and they are in the middle of it all.

There's not a ton of characters in this book, and even so, there's not a lot of characterization going on. I couldn't really tell you any discerning feature of Hadrian and Royce, other than Royce being the more altruistic one. I did enjoy Myron, a monk who gets to experience life outside the abbey with them for the first time in his life.

If this was a movie, it'd be a fantasy heist movie, light fluff with great scenes of swordfights. If light fantasy fluff is your thing, and you don't need well-rounded characters (there's a whopping number of one female character, Princess Arista, e.g., who loses a lot of agency after seemingly being powerful early on), it might just float your boat. I won't delve deeper into this series.