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- Dante narrates for the most part especially in the first half, but there are interludes from Anne that eventually grow in length and we even read Portier’s thoughts once again and Ilario for the first time, so all the main series characters narrate at least a little.

- the transitions are handled well though there is this tiny lack of smoothness in places as opposed to the one narrator earlier books.

- the novel has a lot of magic, way too much for me and the story becomes a very traditional one with a lot of stuff I’ve seen in countless novels to date, so again the originality of the first two books is somewhat lacking.

- the extraordinary characters, beautiful prose and superb ending more than make up for the above; I cannot emphasize how hard is to end series well and this novel does it pitch perfect imho with literally a final scene that is quite memorable.

Overall a top 25 book for me and one that should satisfy the fans of the series to date, while being quite accessible to people who have not read the earlier two volumes – though of course I highly recommend them to do it – as the necessary back story is recounted, while here the action moves in very different places with generally very different secondary characters than in the first two books.

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INTRODUCTION: While we have reviewed the two books that form this omnibus close to their original small press publication, I am re-posting the reviews below. The official (US) publication date of the novel is December 14 but the book is available in stores today as I’ve just seen it in our local B&N here in Ann Arbor, while Amazon also lists it as available.

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Original 2010 Review of Nyphron Rising:

INTRODUCTION: In the space of a short year and a half, Michael Sullivan has moved from a small press debut author that featured in one of my first “Indie Spotlight Reviews” to a “name” in the fantasy field who sold-out his first novel and is getting both critical acclaim and fan appreciation.

So much so, that when I was doing my “2009 Remarkable Small Press Reads”, I never even thought of including his superb novels there despite that they technically qualified. Instead in my end-of-the-year rankings, Avempartha went head to head against the “big names” and made both my Top 2009 Books list and Cindy’s Top 2009 Book list, while The Crown Conspiracy made Mihir’s Top 2009 Reads too. If you have not done so, read the series to date in order to see why, while Nyphron Rising is another great addition to it.

FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: “Nyphron Rising” stands at about 350 pages divided into 17 named chapters that mainly follow our four main POV’s: Royce, Hadrian, Arista and Thrace aka Modina. The novel starts with two detailed maps of the world and ends with a line that will only heighten the interest for what’s next. While The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha were mostly standalone adventure, though they started putting in place the elements of the “big-picture”, “Nyphron Rising” gets into the heart of the main story of the series, starting three main threads that presumably will converge later on.

After the more adventure-like first two installments, the series moves firmly into epic territory here and while the building block nature of the novel means that it will be fully appreciated only together with at least the next installment “The Emerald Storm”, “Nyphron Rising” moves the series toward the top-line of current fantasy offerings.

ANALYSIS/Cindy: Something about Michael Sullivan’s writing has intrigued me from the start. I have been captivated with this series ever since the first two books came out. Nyphron Rising was something I was looking forward to for a while. I had really high expectations for this book, however it’s a bit “out of the box” from the other two novels in this series.

Michael Sullivan is a masterful storyteller. The world and action that he has build up in his series is amazing. What’s even more amazing is that it was done without having to make the book 600+ pages. Like all great storytellers at some point there has to be a step back from all the action and quest hopping to focus on a major key element in a series: the characters. Nyphron Rising is that book in the series that steps back and develops characterization in favor of a bunch of action sequences.

At first glance it might appear a bit odd that a middle novel would focus upon going back and looking at where the main characters come from and look further into the background that was hinted at within the first two novels, but it oddly fits with the series. If the series focused on non stop action there would be a lack of characterization. if characterization was focused on there would be a lack of action. It seems appropriate that after two up front novels there would be a calmer setting to the third book.

I look at Nyphron Rising almost like a bridge to the other novels to come in this series. It’s a bit more toned down as far as action but very important to the series. It builds up the characters, yet at the same time starts paving the way for the future novels. While at first glance it might not seem important without it the series wouldn’t hold up as well as it does without this type of novel.

Sullivan does an excellent job of fleshing out the characters from the information readers were presented with in the first two novels, yet is able to move the story along without it appearing the plot is growing stale. In a way this approach has made me even more attracted to this series as I can truly say this has all the elements to make it an epic fantasy series.

Although the Riyria Revelations is built up as a group of stand alone novels with common threads. It really is best to have read the first two novels as I don’t feel a reader can fully appreciate what is going on or the build up for some of the plots. There are thread lines that have just started and are not resolved so in my eyes it’s at the point where it could no longer be a stand alone.

Since the bar was set so high with the first two books it might appear as though Nyphron Rising doesn’t match up to the previous two books, but that isn’t the case at all. It just takes a different approach then the previous novels. This novel is still just as much of a page turner and attention grabbing as the other two. The events in this book have set me up to wait anxiously for the next book. I can’t wait to see what happens and where Michael Sullivan will take his readers.

Liviu’s short take: In hindsight I realize that I failed to fully appreciate Nyphron Rising the first time because it took the series to a different place than I expected after Avempartha which now reads more like a standalone as The Crown Conspiracy was; Nyphron Rising finally starts the maneuvers at the heart of the big-picture in the series and on re-read, a lot is much clearer; while the Thrace/Modina thread is not fully formed and Royce and Hadrian have more of an exploratory/back-story role here, though of course they have an adventure or two, the one following Arista is just superb and the ending line of the novel is for the ages.

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Original 2010 Review of The Emerald Storm:

INTRODUCTION:In the space of a short year and a half, Michael Sullivan has moved from a small press debut author that featured in one of my first “Indie Spotlight Reviews” to a “name” in the fantasy field who sold-out his first novel and is getting both critical acclaim and fan appreciation. In my 2009 end-of-the-year rankings, Avempartha went head to head against the “big names” and made both my Top 2009 Books list and Cindy’s Top 2009 Book list, while The Crown Conspiracy made Mihir’s Top 2009 Reads too.

“Nyphron Rising” started the epic part of the series which had a lot of ground prepared in The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha which were mostly standalone adventures, but here in “The Emerald Storm” the series ramps up considerably and “Wintertide” became of of my top five titles of the second part of the year.

FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: “The Emerald Storm” stands at about 400 pages divided into 26 named chapters that mainly follow our four main POV’s: Royce, Hadrian, Arista and Thrace aka Modina, alternating between the adventures of Royce and Hadrian and the ones of Arista and Thrace. The novel starts with two detailed maps of the world and ends with a chapter that by itself shows how the series evolved to fulfill its early promise.

While “Nyphron Rising” started getting into the heart of the main story of the series, here the plot thickens, the world expands and we have action from the high seas, to the jungle, to the den of a barbarian warlord with allies in unexpected places and of course to the palace of the “Empress” where the main movers and shakers plot their takeover.

ANALYSIS: Cindy:
When setting out to write a series as Michael Sullivan has it can be quite an undertaking. The ability to keep the momentum going and not lose interest in the process can be very hard. Luckily Sullivan has done just that. In the fourth installment of the Riyria Revelations, the series is still running strong, possibly stronger now then when it first started.

When I read Crown Conspiracy I was amazed at this debut novel. Readers are now on the fourth title, and Sullivan still knows how to amaze readers with every twist and turn of the series. Every element that makes up an epic series is manifesting itself within these novels. After reading Nyphron Rising which gave everyone a bit more background and fleshed out the characters I was prepared to jump into Emerald Storm.

Emerald Storm has the gripping qualities that made me first enjoy this series. It’s quick moving, action packed, but also character driven. There’s a hard balance between action and character development, but Sullivan finds out to balance the two and not drag down the novel with lengthy paragraphs or time consuming character development. The main appeal to this whole series is just how natural the characters are developing, and really how each character grows as the series moves on. The bit of a darker approach to some of the aspects in the series was a nice touch. All threads that have been developing in the past 2 books are starting to really form and take shape, and that it what makes Emerald Storm so spectacular.

Every time I finish a book in this series it makes me want the next one instantly. As stated in Nyphron Rising review, the novels could be read as each individual book really doesn’t properly show the whole picture without reading the series together. Emerald Storm would be a rough read if one didn’t know the background, not an impossible read but it’d be a bit rough if you hadn’t read the other books.

For those that are veteran readers of fantasy there is a little plot twist that will spice up a bit of the novels and makes the next novel something that readers will be waiting in anticipation for.

Michael Sullivan shows that he isn’t just a one book wonder, or that his other novels were random hits. His Riyria Revelations series is taking shape very nicely, and it’ll be amazing to watch where he takes the other novels after this because with each novel there is a new surprise or approach to his writing.

Liviu: “The Emerald Storm” was awesome and it finally realizes the strong potential of the Ryria series; it also made me reconsider Nyphron Rising which sets this one up and reads much more fulfilling once we can continue the story started there.

The part cliffhanger ending makes Wintertide a big asap, but “The Emerald Storm” sits well on its own and lots of things happen, while we have great, great stuff in opening more the world and exploring stranger parts of it, duels, magic, suspense and even the weaker Modina thread started getting much better; the super-twist at the end left me stunned since I really did not see it coming; also the novel is considerably darker than the rest and while it’s no spoiler to know that the main characters (Royce, Arista, Hadrian) survive, the body count including secondary but interesting characters is rising.

“The Emerald Storm” is an A++ and a top fantasy of 2010.

INTRODUCTION: In the space of two years, Michael Sullivan has moved from a small press debut author who was featured in one of my first “Indie Spotlight Reviews” to a “name” in the fantasy field whose wonderful Ryria Revelations is being published by Orbit Books in three consecutive omnibuses starting with Theft of Swords which is already out in stores as I saw last Sunday in my local B&N.

While I have reviewed the two books that form this omnibus close to their original small press publication, I am re-posting the reviews below with some additional thoughts about how the Orbit edition differs and how the series has gained by the tighter editing.

The most important difference is that the series debut, The Crown Conspiracy, has gotten a new first half-chapter that introduces the main two protagonists Hadrian and Royce outright.

But do not worry, even if you read the original edition and do not want to buy the omnibus, you can read this chapter for free as it is bundled with The Viscount and the Witch short story that functions as a series prequel set some 10 years earlier. Click on the link above and get the story and the first revised chapter of The Crown Conspiracy from the author’s site!

However there are more little touches that the new Orbit edition adds by a really close editing. When I got an advanced copy of Theft of Swords some months ago, I opened it just to take a look and read the revised first chapter as I have heard about that earlier. But once I started reading I could not put the book down despite that I have read both included novels a few times before and I ended up with a full read of the omnibus while in the process I started noticing that there were places where it flowed much better than the originals.

Went and checked with my 2008/09 copies and sure enough there were little differences here and there – most notably when the main heroes meet a character who for the obvious reason of being locked up in time stasis for close to a millennium, talks archaic – in the original the author mostly kept the archaic language consistent, but there were a few slips to modern and while they were minor, they still broke a little the narrative flow; in the omnibus everything is consistent.

Overall though the differences are minor in the 700 pages scheme of things, so go and enjoy the “mainstream” debut of this superb series!

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Original 2008 Review of The Crown Conspiracy:

INTRODUCTION: Michael Sullivan’s debut novel, “The Crown Conspiracy”—the first in a planned six-volume epic fantasy series called The Riyria Revelations—has attracted a growing following since its recent publication by indie publisher, Aspirations Media Inc. After reading an excerpt on Mr. Sullivan’s website, I decided to give the book a try and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun and page turning “The Crown Conspiracy” turned out to be…

SETTING: On the alternate Earth-like planet of Elan, the Novronian Empire of legend has sundered centuries ago into many different states. This was supposedly due to the machinations of the dastardly wizard and traitor Esrahaddon. The imperial Nyphron Church and its various loyalist nobles and knight orders have been looking for the mythical “Heir” to the Empire for almost a thousand years now. In the meantime, the kingdoms that coalesced on the Empire’s territory developed Nationalist movements of their own opposed to the Imperialist goals and the monks dedicated to the god Maribor that predated Empire and Church.

One such kingdom is Melegar, and when its ruling king is murdered, the young Crown Prince Alric and his older sister Arista—who would be Queen if her brother should die—are thrust into the limelight and a brutal struggle for power that may have much greater implications for the “big picture” than whoever governs a minor kingdom.

Archibald Ballentyne is a very ambitious second-tier noble from the neighboring kingdom of Ghent—not that he harbors any particular loyalty to “his” king—and is willing to do whatever shady deals he can to advance.

Royce and Hadrian are a freelance “object/documents” acquisition and recovery team. In other words, Royce is a skilled thief with a mysterious past while Hadrian is a very good fighter who excels with the sword and bow. Using an impoverished noble as a front man, they peddle their trade to the high & mighty and anyone that can pay, outside of the Protection/Underground Guilds extant in most towns.

Lastly, Myron is a noble born “nerdish” monk of Maribor whose abbey has the misfortune of incurring the wrath of powerful enemies…

FORMAT/INFO: “The Crown Conspiracy” stands at 296 pages divided over ten named parts, each subdivided into several numbered chapters. Included at the beginning of the book is a map which is also available on the author’s website, as well as a table of contents. The action takes place mostly in the novel’s present-tense and is narrated in the third-person via several POVs, most notably Royce and Hadrian, with Archibald, Myron, Alric and Arista having good chunks of face time too. The ending is very good, wrapping up the main threads of the novel, but as with any opening volume in a series, the big-picture events are just now starting to impact our heroes.

October 1, 2008 marks the Paperback Publication of “The Crown Conspiracy” via Aspirations Media Inc. Cover art is provided by the author himself, Michael Sullivan.

PLOT HINTS AND ANALYSIS: “The Crown Conspiracy” starts with a caper in Archibald Ballentyne’s castle and stays on a roll from there to the end. We first meet Royce and Hadrian when they frustrate one of Archibald’s machinations—which they originally helped get started by stealing some letters—but what’s better than getting paid again even more handsomely to restore those very same letters to their rightful owner?

Of course this kind of double-cross dealing with the high & mighty comes with a risk as Royce and Hadrian find themselves framed and imprisoned to be tortured and executed for the death of the King of Melegar, which they believed was a lucrative “mercy” job for an endangered noble. Luckily, Princess Arista—for reasons of her own which may or may not be the selfless ones she claims—helps them escape with the new King Alric in tow as a hostage/protégée.

Embarking on a journey to find the mythical wizard Esrahaddon—who supposedly still lives after almost a thousand years imprisoned in a hidden prison built by dwarves and is the only one who can help Alric—Royce, Hadrian and the new king hooks up with Myron whose knowledge of arcane rituals and ancient text is important to their quest, while Arista remains behind as Queen Regent of Melegar. Or perhaps, she plans on killing them all in secret and becoming the rightful Queen of Melegar…

While Royce and Hadrian start off as stereotypical fantasy characters—a thief and a fighter—that we see in so many genre novels, as we slowly get to know them, they start to develop a distinctive identity of their own. And that is also true of the other main characters Alric, Arista and Myron who all grow with the unfolding events, while the rogue Archimbald is great fun in all of his appearances. There are several other notable characters as well, but I don’t want to give out any more spoilers…

In conclusion, “The Crown Conspiracy” is great fun and a romp end to end. It’s a very fast read and I finished it in one sitting. Its characters grow on you and the series has great potential to develop since Book One only explores a relatively small part of the wonderful imagined world of Michael Sullivan, and I am really looking forward to reading Book Two, “Avempartha”, out in April 2009.

Highly recommended and another positive surprise for 2008, I hope Mr. Sullivan enjoys the success he deserves and that we get to see all of the planned volumes in The Riyria Revelations…

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Original 2009 Review of Avempartha

INTRODUCTION: Michael Sullivan’s debut novel, “The Crown Conspiracy”—the first in a planned six-volume epic fantasy series called The Riyria Revelations—has attracted a growing following. I read and reviewed the book last November:

“In conclusion, “The Crown Conspiracy” is great fun and a romp end to end. It’s a very fast read and I finished it in one sitting. Its characters grow on you and the series has great potential to develop since Book One only explores a relatively small part of the wonderful imagined world of Michael Sullivan”.

Needless to say, when I received an ARC of “Avempartha”, I was quite eager to see if the book would live up to the expectations raised by Mr. Sullivan’s marvelous debut. I am happy to report that not only did “Avempartha” meet expectations, but it took the series to another level, ensuring that the future installments will be must-reads…

“The Crown Conspiracy” was essentially a standalone with hints of the larger picture, while “Avempartha” goes straight into the deeper issues of Mr. Sullivan’s richly imagined universe and reads more like a series opener than a second volume. The following review is mostly independent of “The Crown Conspiracy” one and contains very few series spoilers.

SETTING: On the alternate Earth-like planet of Elan, the Novronian Empire of legend has sundered centuries ago into many different states, supposedly due to the machinations of the dastardly wizard and traitor Esrahaddon. For almost a thousand years now, the imperial Nyphron Church and its various loyalist nobles and knight orders have been looking for the mythical “Heir” to the Empire, a person of Novron’s bloodline and supposedly the only one capable of passing secret tests jealously guarded by the Church.

In the meantime, the kingdoms that coalesced on the Empire’s territory developed Nationalist movements of their own opposed to the Imperialist goals and the monks dedicated to the god Maribor that predated Empire and Church. One such kingdom is Melegar and young King Alric has a problem: his older sister Arista is restless, does not want to marry and settle down, and has developed a reputation as a ‘witch’ for being a student of Esra. Since Arista helped save Melegar from the clutches of usurpers, Alric owes her his life, and sends her on an important mission. But he also sends the high ranking Bishop Saldur as an “advisor” who has designs of his own.

Royce and Hadrian are a freelance “object/documents” acquisition and recovery team. In other words, Royce is a skilled thief with a mysterious past while Hadrian is a very good fighter who excels with a sword and bow. Using an impoverished noble as a front man, they peddle their trade to the high & mighty and anyone that can pay. But because they have now attracted the attention of the powerful, they are thrown into the middle of the “great game”.

On the edge of empire, the long-lived but slow-reproducing elves are watching. While the elvish mixed-blood population living in human territory are stereotyped, oppressed and mistreated, the pure-blooded elves retreated millenia ago beyond the border river Nidwalden, and only the abandoned castle of Avempartha remains as a reminder that they are still there, waiting for any sign of human weakness.

The village of Dhalgren technically breaks the human-elvish treaty by being too close to Nidwalden, but it has not been bothered for many years. However, a monstrous being has recently started terrorizing the village and killing its inhabitants indiscriminately.

When a strange armless man called Esra shows up at the village followed by tragedy, Theron’s surviving daughter Thrace is sent to the main city of Colnora to enlist the help of Royce and Hadrian…

FORMAT/INFO: “Avempartha” stands at 332 pages divided over fifteen titled chapters. The narration is in the third person and takes place into the present of the novel. The main POVs are Royce, Hadrian, Arista and Thrace with Esra stealing the show whenever he makes an appearance. There are other secondary returning characters from the first novel, most notably the dwarf Magnus and the brothers Pickering, Mauvin and Fanen, but the foppish villain I loved to hate, Count Archimbald, is missing. Instead, we get the chilling “Sentinel” Guy. The ending is excellent and solves the main issue of the plot, but this time there is a huge ‘To Be Continued’ sign, so I eagerly await the next installment. April 1, 2009 marks the Paperback Publication of “Avempartha” via Aspirations Media Inc. Cover art is provided by the author himself, Michael Sullivan.

PLOT HINTS AND ANALYSIS: One thing I really loved about “Avempartha” were the superb naming conventions. Quite a few times in sff novels, the names are grating or at best annoying or silly-sounding, and usually I’m happy if they are not too noticeable. In “Avempartha” though, I truly loved how the names sounded with Thrace and Arista pairing very nicely with Royce and Hadrien, while Guy, Saldur, Thomas, Theron and Gilarabrywn are names that evoke both wonder and terror. The names of places like Colnora, Dhalgren, and Nidwalden also roll nicely off the tongue and add to the novel’s depth…

After a superb re-acquittance with Royce and Hadrian in the first several pages, “Avempartha” actually continues more as a series opener with a ton of build-up in the first half of the novel, while the second half is just superb non-stop action, especially when the two threads following Royce, Hadrian and Princess Arista respectively converge at the elven castle…

Meanwhile, the slow unfolding of secrets and tapestries weaved over the centuries since the fall of the Empire—and possibly even before—is very well timed, and there are some unexpected twists and turns, though we also start seeing a little bit of the big-picture outline. In particular, the Imperial succession which clearly dates back to the murder of the last emperor and the possible elvish threat that goes back to the times of legend well before the Empire even existed.

Of the main POVs, Arista, Hadrien and Royce stay in character from “The Crown Conspiracy”, but are written with much more detail and depth, while Thrace is a great addition, bringing an “innocent, regular girl” perspective that contrasts nicely with the other characters. I particularly liked the reintroduction of Magnus and his cynical dialogue and wordplay with Royce who still wants his head for obvious reasons.

Overall, I really loved “Avempartha”. In fact, I immediately re-read “The Crown Conspiracy” the next day to try and catch any little details I might have missed the first time, and I definitely recommend reading the first book again for added depth. In short, “Avempartha” is highly, highly recommended and a novel that raises Michael Sullivan’s The Riyria Revelations to “major league” status…