Nolyn

Unfortunately this did not work for me. The Rise and Fall has been marketed as a standalone series from Michael Sullivan but I get the impression that this really should have been read after reading his other works - I get the impression the characters and events are eluded to throughout his other series. My main issue was I just did not gel with the main characters here. They felt either a bit too aloof or a bit too helpless and irrational.

I will try re-entering this world through one of the other series as I do here good things about it, I am just hopeful that this was the wrong place to start

I really enjoyed the original Ryria books so I was pretty excited for the First Empire series when it came out. I enjoyed the first few books in that series, but I felt like it lost steam by the end. So when this series was announced, I wasn't as excited.

I did want to read this eventually, but wasn't in a rush. I finally got around to it, and I found it another strong start to a new series. I thought the new characters were interesting, especially the titular character, Nolyn. Some of the supporting characters were reminiscent of characters in Ryria or First Empire, but the main characters felt more flushed out.

Overall I found this a fun listen and will be continuing right on into the second book. As usual, Tim Gerard Reynolds does a fantastic job with the narration. However there was one chapter where there was a lot of repeated text and it made for an agitating listen. If I had been reading the text instead I would have skimmed over that section.

I tried really hard to like this but couldn't. In fact, I'm giving up at 62%... I liked “Legends of the First Empire” and that series' protagonists. I love Michael's Hadrian and Royce.“Nolyn”, though, is a different matter: We're 800 years after the events of “Legends” and some of the old heroes are still around which is one of the issues: All the human protagonists are, of course, long gone; but the elves are still around. Unreasonable lifespans of several thousand (!) years are poor, unconvincing and annoying storytelling devices.Yes, that was made clear in “Legends” and I was worried that might create a problem but it never mattered in that series. Now, Nyphron is still around but - before I DNF'ed - he doesn't appear. He's talked about but we don't get to “see” him.Also, an old nemesis from “Legends” is still around, still conspiring and plotting which is very annoying: Don't reuse old enemies; they had their time and place and 800 years later, they should simply be gone.The adult half-elf children of the heroes of old are, of course, still around but what they think, talk about and do ridicules, deconstructs and belittles their parents. It doesn't help that these children are neither very interesting (Nolyn) nor relatable (Sephryn). Up to 62% very little of consequence has actually happened: We get lots of info-dumps, much bemoaning, and that's pretty much it.I was bored, annoyed, disappointed, and actually avoided reading like the plague in order to not have to deal with this book and not have to write this review.I'm still going to read Michael's other books and - just like with all three books in “The Rise and Fall” - have backed them all on Kickstarter and will continue to do so but I'm going to be more lenient with myself about DNF'ing his books... One sad star out of five.Blog Facebook Twitter Mastodon Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam

DNF - PG 41

Why?

Meh.

Partially because I've had this book borrowed from the library for almost six weeks now, and I started it almost twenty days ago, and still haven't made it further than page 40.

But...Look, I loved this author's Riyria books, and people will probably say that his craft has improved over the years - but over the years, his books have lost what made me love them in the first place. There is no more snappy dialogue, there's too much bouncing back and forth between different stories (that, only hopefully, will meet up in the end) and, possibly the worst of the lot, there is too much extraneous description.

That was a large reason why I got so attached to Riyria (besides Royce and Hadrian, to be fair). I loved how it was to the point, how that was a castle because everyone knows what a castle is, how these are kings and queens because everyone knows what they are. This book is so densely packed with ‘unique' world building and text walls about irrelevant things (do we really need to know that Nolyn doesn't really understand how elephants are seen as ‘normal'?) that by page 40, my eyes were already glazing over.

I had hoped that this would be better than the First Empire series, and it honestly might be, but I also have no desire to keep reading when I am not enjoying what I have read and have no author trust left to give. (Also, I'd take the the ‘you can start with any series' idea with a grain of sand, because I only read the first two books of The Legend of the First Empire series and I feel like I'm missing something and am getting put out with all the callbacks, at turns.)