Rise of Empire

Like the first book, Rise of Empire has a good and fun plot built on standard fantasy tropes. The overarching narrative arc is more pronounced in this book as well, and is very intriguing. I'm excited to see how it all plays out in the final book. I was glad to see that Arista became a main character. A fun read!

4.5 stars.

What a ride for our main characters! This a super “worthy” sequel to the first book, as it adds a lot of background information about the characters, but still leaves some matters open to be answered, hopefully, in the next and final book.

I must admit that sometimes I got lost among all the direction changes and tricks taken by the characters, and I had to go back and see again what was happening, but overall I am very satisfied by the story, its unpredictability and its development.

I am very curious about how all the arc stories are going to end.

There is a story going on here that I would love, but the series seems to consistently miss it. Some parts are really fun. Genuinely. But I also have issues with the series that stop me from being a fan of it.

Again, we have two books in one, about the imperialists and nationalists having fights for the power and our characters being tangled in all of this.
This is where my issue starts; we spend too much time on boring or annoying characters. Royce and Hadrian are still fun, they truly work well together. We also have Esrahaddon, Myron (who isn't even in this book at all), but we get ridiculous doses of Arista, the special snowflake princess and Modina, who used to be nice before, but is boring as shit now. Hell, we get brand new people who either die or don't even shop up despite being someone extremely important.
My bigger problem is Arista. Nothing is ever good enough for her, she is literally a princess revolutionary who is the strongest witch ever and she is still never happy about anything and we have to feel for her. I bet she will become Empress or some shit at one point, where we”ll be told she is still saaaaaad. I can't stand her. She makes bad decisions all the time, still manages to fall upwards every time and never understands her luck. It's impossible to please her.

Another thing I don't like is sailing in fantasy books. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing with the whole sea aesthetic, but I don't know shit about sailing. I don't know what the words mean, I don't know anything about the technicalities. When the only enjoyable point of view turns into a ship extravaganza.... I'm not having a good time.

I genuinely think I will like the prequel series more. No Princess Snowflake at least.
Yes, I will finish this series, even though this one was too long, but I don't believe it will be too satisfying to me. It's just fine.

Executive Summary: I think both stories in this omnibus are an improvement over the first two. Both the writing and the character development is better. Can't wait to finish the series.

Audio book: Mr. Reynolds again does an excellent job as a narrator. It wasn't quite as good as the last omnibus, maybe for lack of his dwarven voice. Still, audiobook is the way to go with the series.

Full Review
Since this is an omnibus, I'm going to opt to review each story individually.

Nyphron Rising

So once again Arista plays the damsel in distress. I was really getting fed up with her character. For someone so smart, she tends to always find herself in trouble. I guess that's supposed to be due to being noble-born and therefore naive about the ways of the world.

I really thought I wasn't going to like this story, but things turned out differently.

Finally in this book, Arista becomes much more likable. Away from the comforts she was used to, instead of whining and complaining, she adapts.

This has easily been my favorite of the series thus far. Not only has Arista developed but we're introduced to another great character in Emelia. Once a simple kitchen worker, she finds herself suddenly in the middle of plotting and politics.

And of course Royce and Hadrian are back. We get some great insights into the backstory of both.

Mr. Sullivan seems to have a knack for writing good episodic stories that build on the overarching story. Things are wrapped up nicely while still leaving you wanting to continue on in the series.

4.5 Stars.

The Emerald Storm

This one started kind of slow, especially after how much I enjoyed the last one, but the second half was much better.

I could have done without the pity party and the “I'm retired” bit, because we all know Royce and Hadrian are going to instrumental to the rest of the series at this point.

So it turns out the Emerald Storm is a ship, but the story ended up taking a much different turn than I expected. I figured there was going be a lot more pirates and high sea action, but the real story was more about the crew of the ship itself.

I really enjoyed the supporting cast in this book more than probably the previous three. There are a lot of shady characters, and some down right despicable ones that add a lot to story.

There is a lot more setup in this story than the rest, and the path to the finale seems clear now.

4 Stars.

The first book in this bind-up was a 5 star for me, but the second book had a lot more info dumps and the plot of it made sense after the 90% mark. Because I felt the plot meandered, it made me lose a bit of interest and I kept putting the book down several times. But the characters were engaging enough to keep me reading. And the last 10% were satisfying enough.

A wonderful sequel to first book. The style remains the same and the relationship between the two lead protagonists continues to intrigue. If the writing style of ‘Theft of Swords' did not fit your fancy, then it won't in this book either. But I highly recommend this book if you enjoyed the first installment of the series.

One of my complaints about Theft Of Swords was that the story and the characters sometimes felt a bit shallow, and I wish we had gone deeper into what they felt or thought or just in general. I do not have that complaint about Rise Of Empire.

This book builds upon the previous one (in worldbuilding, characters, even writing) and is a direct continuation. Royce and Hadrian are as wonderful as ever, but we also get tons more on Arista and Thrace and a few new characters. As always, these books just scream “Fun!” while still maintaining a serious story.

Unlike Theft Of Swords, I listened to this one as an audiobook (I did finish the short stories inbetween some of the novels as audiobooks as well) and I think that's my preferred way of reading this series. Tim Gerard Reynolds really brings these guys to life. I had to get a bit used to Hadrian speaking in a sort of “posh” way, but now I can't even imagine him sounding different. A lot of the humor also comes from the delivery of the dialogue, and he absolutely excelled at that. He makes the entire thing just feel like “hanging out with Royce and Hadrian for a while”, and it's so worth it.

We join Royce and Hadrian again, but this time they're far deeper in Averyn politics than before. Additionally, we start to see Royce's hard facade crack a bit and he's a bit more human (something that has me worried for the fifth and sixth books). Of the two books in this omnibus, I definitely enjoyed the fourth book, The Emerald Storm, more because I'm a sucker for a nautical setting in fantasy books. Royce and Hadrian flounder onboard the ship for the first few days and eventually get better, with Royce using his accumulated talents for the good of the ship, while Hadrian enjoys a rather sedate job as cook. Meanwhile, we continue to see the New Empire grow, shift, and change as they work on binding everyone to their rule with the Essendons (in particular Arista) and Degan being some of the few willing to challenge them.

The fourth book leaves you without a clear ending, a gray area much like most of the characters, and it has me frothing at the mouth to start the third, and final, omnibus.

A good second book, though part one dragged slightly. It took me 3 week to finish it, while part two I read within 2 days. I liked how much deeper the story got and how the author managed to pull some quite obscure characters into the main action and make them stand out. It's truly a skill to navigate such a big cast of characters.
There were a few things that I didn't particularly approve of. Like why did Royse and Handrian use their real names on the ship, for example? It didn't make sense.
And the lightning speed pacing of some rather important events. The main battle of part one took all of 2 pages. The final battle of part two was done off page.
And the endless sea jargon in part 2 which made it all but impossible to understand what's going on. Kudos to the author for doing his homework on the matter, but I don't appreciate having to become a sailor myself to understand the narrative.
Other than that, good plot twists, and a fun plot in general, as well as decent character work. Though I think the author lacks the patience and timing that would've made this book a masterpiece.

This volume contains books 3 and 4 of the Riyria Revelations. They follow the adventures of Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater. But they've largely moved on from their previous pursuits and are fully caught up in the political intrigue enveloping their world. Three factions are angling for power. I read book 3 (the first half of this volume) months ago and then returned to finish it this month. Sometimes the story doesn't quite grab me but then it always gets better as I continue. By and large it's light-hearted adventure stuff that is easy and fun reading.