Capture The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations, #1) Authored By Michael J. Sullivan In PDF
review here: sitelink be/bhkvCalgI
I loved this, If you want to nitpick, we can say,because of how RIDICULOUS it can be, but this book owns it and wears it like a badge of honor.
So much fun.
Snobs beware: you will hate it,
/stars
Michael Sullivan does it again! The first installment of the 'Riyria Revelations', is as much as fun as one can get in the 'fantasy genre'!
The book is the first ever written book in the 'Riyria series', and Sullivan does a brilliant job in creating a fast read, with meaningful characters and an engaging enough plot that will leave the reader coming back for more!
In 'The Crown Conspiracy ', we see the creation of one of the most devilishly fun pair of thieves, in 'Hadrian Blackwater' and 'Royce Melbourne'! The book is established in a typical fantasy world, where medieval castles, kings, dukes and earls represent nobility and horses and carriages are your favorite means of transportation.
Royce a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian are two enterprising rogues who end up running for their lives when they're framed for the murder of the king.
Ultimately what makes 'The Crown Tower' a real 'gem' is how the book blends two characters that are so polar opporsites, yet they complement each other beautifully! Sullivan really want to prove the point that opposites do indeed attract!
Hadrian is righteous in every way.
He's an ex soldier with great brute power and amazing sword fighting skills, Despite his size and dexterity, he's gentle in nature and tend to believe in people despite their shortcomings.
He's a true 'gentle giant', Royce on the other hand is a dirty scoundrel of an assassin, with a much smaller physique, yet he is extremely agile and cunning.
Royce always has a dark hood on, bringing an eerie sense of mystique and danger, Together, both characters are almost like 'oil' and 'water', and despite their fundamental differences, we see them form an organic yet quite counter intuitive union that will propel them into both 'Chronicle' and 'Revelation' series!
For a fun, well written fantasy series, with an incredibly well connected linear plot and engaging characters, 'The Riyria Revelation' series is a must read! The first book 'The Crown Conspiracy' will not disappoint!
/Stars
Really liked it but just a little too neatly wrapped up at the end.
Straight forward fantasy without the Grimdark, I expected more from the friendship between the two main characters but mainly because many reviews said they enjoyed this aspect of the book, so I was looking out for it.
It was a fairly light story told with humour and I m looking forward to the rest of the series.
I originally started reading Theft of Swords but quickly changed my goal to a more manageable one.
This review is not going to be popular, It might even cause some hurt, for which I am sorry, Usually I give my overall impression first, but this time I want to say that this isn't meant to be a personal attack on anyone.
From my limited interaction with Michael, he seems a pleasant, conscientious person, And I have many friends who found honest enjoyment in this book, I am not suggesting anything about the character of anyone who enjoyed thisGod knows I have problematic things that I just adore, pip, core, bigotry and all.
If you loved this and don't want to hear someone rage about the state of the world and what this book demonstrates regarding it, I don't blame you.
Come back later, I havebooks I'm reading next that I think will get much more levelheaded responses!
If you want a rant, though, grab some popcorn.
Now that that's out of the way, I hated this, I found reasons not to read it, like paying bills, skimmed when I could and winced when I couldn't.
This is an epic example of how characters like our antiheroes can be "good" but also perpetuate the absolutely disgusting mindsets about people which characterizes "the nice guy.
" You know the one, the guy who would never hit a woman, opens doors with a slight bow to "m'lady" and then calls her a bitch when she doesn't blush and smile gratefully and wonders why that woman would go for someone else when he's over here, holding doors and bowing and all he wants is a little bit of simpering or sex.
Also, one of his best friends is a person of color who allows him to use slurs, so it's okay if he says it.
For me, this book was those interactions over and over and over,
CONTENT WARNING:
Things I'd stop skimming to read:
Hadrian and Royce.
They were your typical plucky duo, there was sufficient witty banter to be entertaining,
Myron, Up until he met a girl, he was very cute, albeit unbelievable in just about all regards.
Any woman talking, I kept hoping they'd do something that put someone in their place, No such luck, but I got my hopes up a few times,
Okay, buckle up, this is where I trash things:
This is what casual sexism looks like.
There are no women who are respected and have both agency and purpose in this story, I thought I'd met one, and then got angry this wasn't her story as it sounded way more interesting.
But then, as usual, any woman with an air of competence must be rescued and/or doted upon.
But wait! This time there's
even a rape joke! Hur hur, bet the five male gods and their raped daughter/sister/wife who is the only divine woman in their mythology have awkward family dinners! Seriously, every woman mentioned was literally one of the archetypes of whore, mother, virgin, and witch, and all of them were either aghast at each other or suddenly forgot how to be humans the second a man looked at them.
And let's not forget to reeeeally commit to the "love what you loathe" mentality and take wild potshots at sex workers, too.
This is the kind of thing I thought had died by the time Polgara took the stage, but apparently we're in that phase of readership where women being a compilation if hips, lips, and quips for the benefit of their manly companions is now "classic" or "nostalgic" or "cute.
" I am probably about as upset with the response as I am with the set up, to be quite frank.
It shows me how far we have yet to go, and, my friends, we have so far to go.
Take a little more bigotry, too, This suffers from the classic fantasy genocide, Where are the brown people The main characters are called humans, they're diurnal and their planet orbits a single star, so it stands to reason they'd have the same pigmentation variation as any other humans.
As there is not, I assume something happened to all of them, and if we're being "historically accurate" as I'm guessing this was intended to be, the thing that happened likely wasn't good.
Boo. Hiss. Furthermore, where are anyone who isn't a virile male intent on proving how durntootin' big his dick is There's subtle queer antagonism or misogyny, depending on how you want to view it, I support the argument that it's both in the forms of mocking men who are not in competition with other men and even the quintessential "yew 'it loik a girl!" type comments.
Want more How about evil dwarves who are just obviously maniacal because, . . well because! And elves who were enslaved, And like, our good guys must be good because they give one of the abused half elves a horse.
I mean, they also casually discuss the difference between slavery and indentured servitude while that half elf is trying to buy food in the face of imminent danger to his safety, but c'mon, I watched the first third of American Psycho and that Patrick fella really stood up for marginalized people at dinner, so I'm sure he was a great human who followed through on his convictions whenever he had a spare horse to give.
Well that was longer than I intended, but this is my review space and those are my thoughts.
I don't find this appealing, I find it hard to accept in this digital age when we can see in real time the plight of actual people who are different from us, and have so many tools we can use to help.
In a fantasy setting, when there are no real consequences for being a Big Damn Hero, having "help the wretched" not be part of the power fantasy is a huge turn off for me.
If you're gonna have slavery in your book, let's be real about that, too, and then get bigger than life about the payback, too.
As purple as any YA, It takes a master for me to get swept away in seas of adjectives, I could and did skim most of the scenery here as easily as I did girls talking about their heaps of precious gowns and whatever manly smell we like in books these daysleather and soap I think Anyways, it felt like stock imagery for the most part and aside from knowing who was present and roughly where they were, the rest felt like it could have been trimmed down or made a lot more interesting.
I have thoughts on why this book didn't get slammed like those books do, but I'm in a pretty vehemently Ani DiFranco headspace right now so I'll keep that to myself until I've returned this book to the library and have nothing in my line of sight that reminds me of my rage.
The wizard, Holy crap this was annoying, He talked like Yoda if Yoda was also a drunk failure of a Shakespearean wannabe, There are rules to thee and thou and sentence structure from older English, They weren't followed, let alone any explanation given for its use now, Dude's been talking to an erudite woman competent enough to learn what he can teach for over a year, I think he's seen how things go.
Caricatures, not characters, You'll know whodunnit almost instantly, and you'll know more or less how they'll undo it about as quick.
Make sure you look out for your favorite trope, be it Ignorant Villager, Sheltered Monk, Devious Wizard, Whore With A Heart of Gold, Man with a Past etc.
etc. They're all there, wave as you drive by,
The MCs weren't even that cool!!! Tragedy of tragedy, our extra competent heroes aren't actually super competent.
They continuously need people to point out things to them, get caught in ridiculous traps, take actions that even basic education via other books in the genre would point out as bad ideas, and miraculously land on their feet.
We're supposed to be in awe of their wherewithal, but I spent most of the time going "so their real power is an author who loves them.
" And that last line. Oy. I can see them both scrawling that and then turning to the camera, backs together, arms crossed, flatbrimmed ball caps and plastic sunglasses tilted just so.
I can't finish Theft of Swords, I did my best to finish one book to give it a fair shake and I'm so mad I don't think I should talk to anyone for awhile.
This is everything that sets my teeth on edge in fantasy and I guess in that, well done.
I'm quite ready to snarl if anyone would like a good glance at a girl gone mad.
.