16 July, 2016

REVIEW: THEFT OF SWORDS by Michael. J. Sullivan

Title: Theft of Swords
Author: Michael J. Sullivan
Series: The Riyria Revelations #1-2
Genres: High Fantasy, Adventure
Publisher: Orbit
Source: Library physical book
Pages: 681


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BLURB:
There's no ancient evil to defeat or orphan destined for greatness, just unlikely heroes and classic adventure. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are two enterprising rogues who end up running for their lives when they're framed for the murder of the king. Trapped in a conspiracy that goes beyond the overthrow of a tiny kingdom, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery before it's too late.

 
I was looking for good and interesting high fantasy when I came upon this book. So after I googled it I ended up of course taking it because it turns out that The Riyria Revelations is a legendary series.


 
First of all, this book is actually a bind up of two first books The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha.

THE WORLD: The world is in a way what we call normal high fantasy world. There is a kingdom ruled by the king, there is a town surrounding this palace. Additionally there is war with other kingdoms, magic and just simple life of lower people. That pretty much sums up this book too. Do not get me wrong, I loved the world in this book but more High Fantasy you read more it gets similar.

CHARACTERS: So our main characters in this series are Hadrian and Royce. They are hired criminals, pretty much they can do anything for the right money. So one day they are hired to steal a sword from the castle but instead they are set up for the murder of the kind. This is where the prince  Alric and the princess Arista come in as Arista hires then Hadrian and Royce further to abduct her brother in the way in order to protect him. I know it sounds a little bit weird but in the book it is much nicer than I can possibly describe. So yeah, Hadrian and Royce are like this couples you see in older movies, they are literary perfect partners. Hadrian is a fighter and Royce is more of a brainiac and they always go on craziest missions. It is actually a little bit hard for me to write down my feels towards them as all I can mainly say that I love them. It is just hard to describe really, you have to read to understand what I mean :) Arista on the hand is my absolutely favorite character of the series, she is a princess that does not want to be married off, she wants to learn and well yes she did go to university actually...so that is already a huge plus. But in general, she always questions everything and goes to the bottom of things which I think makes her a kickass female character. Additionally we also have Esrahaddon, basically a most powerful magician with a fancy name. Now here I cannot really say anything without spoiling the book for you so you just going to have to take my word that he is a very fancy character and in most cases might be a little even annoying but in the end he is inseparable part of the story. Oh and I almost forgot to mention Myron, a monk who remembers everything he has ever read. Like word to word! So so jealous!

LOVE: One of the reasons I love High Fantasy books is because there are no YA type of romance thingies going on. Yes of course there is love, but is it essential? No, it is a small side story that just warms this book even more.

PLUS: I love so many things about this series, the magic, the history, the adventure. Normally I am not a big fan of adventure books but this book just proved to me that I was wrong, I was not a fan of general adventure books. Give me a story as epic as this and I am gone from the real world till the last page is done.

MINUS: The only minus I can think of is the involvement of church in the second book, I am not a big fan of church politics so that kinda got on my nerves sometimes. But that was nothing major really.

OVERALL: I just cannot wait to get my hand on the next book!


 


What did you think of THEFT OF SWORDS?