Theft of Swords

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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First Things First

Back in Down the TBR Hole (18 of 24+) (January 2021), I removed a form of this book from my “Want-To-Read” list, despite everyone I’d ever talked to about Sullivan being a fan. In response, Bookstooge did offer a pretty convincing counter-argument, “BECAUSE I SAID SO!!!!” I should have listened. Sorry, Bookstooge! Thankfully, Micah recommended this for the 12 Books Challenge, so my compounded errors (not reading it as soon as I put it on my “Want-To-Read” shelf, removing it from my list, and then ignoring that Bookstooge) were corrected.

It’s pretty obvious already, but let me officially spoil the conclusion of this post: I heartily encourage picking up this book.

What’s Theft of Swords About?

The Riyria are theives—so proficient, so renowned that they might not actually exist. They may be the Fantasy World equivalent of Urban Legends. Except they really do exist—they are Hadrian Blackwater a mercenary fighter who’s about as skilled a swordsman as you’re going to find, and Royce Meborn, a thief who’s probably better at that than Hadrian is with a sword. Together they can steal just about anything. Hadrian has a strong impulse to do the heroic action, he wants to help. Royce is a misanthrope who is only interested in helping himself and a few friends and acquaintances. Except when he’s not.

This book is about two jobs they should not have taken but do. And then all the things they have to do after taking those jobs. At the core, each job is about stealing a sword. That’s pretty much where the similarities end.

The first has them hired to steal a sword from the King’s castle (it doesn’t belong to any member of the royal family, but someone who is visiting there). This job lands them in prison, in the middle of an investigation into the murder of a royal, in an effort to save two other royals, and freeing another prisoner or two.

The second involves them helping a damsel in distress and her family—and it’s Royce’s call to take this job for far less than it’s going to cost them to carry it out. That job lands them in the battle to save a small village, in the middle of a conspiracy to wrest power from the rightful possessor, and in danger of being eaten by a magical lizard.

What will see them through is a very strange assortment of allies and each other. And a whole lot of luck—much of which they have to manufacture or steal from themselves. In the end, it will put the pair on a path that may lead to changes in the broken empire they live in—very unbeknownst to them (or they’d probably run screaming in the other direction).

The Dialogue

As a genre, Fantasy isn’t well-known for having snappy and witty dialogue. Of course, there are exceptions—and I can point to a number of them on my own shelves, you don’t need to point out all the ways I’m wrong. But come on, let’s be real here—from Tolkein on, it’s rare that you read dialogue that really grabs you outside of a line or two. It’s what the characters are and do that attracts you, it’s the stories, it’s the settings, etc.

Put the Riyria Revelations down as one of those exceptions. I was pretty sure of this on page three, and the 646 following pages didn’t change my mind. It’s strongest between Royce and Hadrian—they’re the veterans who’ve seen enough that they can have a wry detachment from danger and drama to joke their way through it. But there’s plenty to get a kick out of in the conversation of others.

The narrative voice that shows us what the characters are thinking and not saying is good, possibly better.

The Politics

In addition to your nobles of various ranks and importance of land-holdings vying for prominence against each other, there are three political movements running around this world—I’m not going to describe them much because I’m afraid I’m going to miss a nuance or two and give a skewed description given my space constraints. I’m not accustomed to seeing something like this in Fantasy—seeing two competing political philosophies/contingents within one Empire/Kingdom, sure—but the way it’s set up here (and we really have only scratched the surface up to this point) seems pretty novel.

On top of that, there are some ecclesiastical machinations and divided camps within the same religion (or one religion with two divergent streams…I’m not one hundred percent sure the fairest way to describe this)—a mix of conviction and connivance for political power. There are a lot of earnest believers within the clergy, some that may believe, but are more convinced they’re right when it comes to affairs of this world, and some that are really good at using the belief of others to get their way.

Adding the ecclesiastical politics into the mix with the wholly secular stuff? Sullivan’s really given us a treat here. In this particular book, it’s largely (but not wholly) a backdrop to the main action—but I doubt it’s going to stay that way for long.

Then there are the relations between races like Dwarves and Elves marked by prejudice and distrust all around. I can’t wait to see how some of this plays out.

The Wizard

There’s a Gandalf/Allanon/Bayaz-ish wizard in the middle of all of this. I really want to like him, and think I do. I really want to distrust him deeply. And I definitely do.

Is he Gandalf or is he Saruman? I’m not sure. He may be a little of both. He may be neither. Don’t know. Don’t care (at least for now). He’s a fantastic character to watch at work.

In retrospect, I guess that makes him more like Bayaz than the rest of the names I’ve tossed around. But Bayaz might be more trustworthy.

So, what did I think about Theft of Swords?

I’ve enjoyed being exposed to works I probably/definitely wouldn’t have gotten around to because of this challenge. Personally, Micah‘s recommendation has solidified a lesson I will definitely learn from. He’s now recommended the DI Eva Harris series, the DC Smith/Kings Lake Investigation series, and this one. I need to start following his recommendations blindly.

Okay, that personal note out of the way, let’s focus on the book—by mid-way through the opening scene, I was hooked—and had basically signed up for the trilogy. While not really being the same kind of scene, it evoked the same kind of feel as the opening of “Our Mrs. Reynolds” (the “if your hand touches metal, I swear, by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you.” scene). That feeling continued to grow through the first book. I don’t think it deepened in the second book, but it didn’t falter.

I’ve already invoked Firefly, and this hit the pleasure center in the brain as that show did—also Kings of the Wyld and The Lies of Locke Lamora. I think the storytelling of this is more straightforward than Lynch’s, but there’s a similar vibe. The relationship between Royce and Hadrian is as tight as you’re going to find in the aforementioned works—they might as well be brothers (they’re closer than, say, the twins Caramon and Rastlin Majere). But they’re quick to add others as friends and allies—or even to their “family” group. Remarkably, this also extends to those they’d planned on killing at the first opportunity. This gives the whole book this warm glow of camaraderie that just augments the likability of all the characters—and the novel as a whole. I fully expect this to continue throughout the series.

The action is great, I loved the sword fights, in particular. We get character deaths that might as well be punches to the gut (when you don’t want to cheer them). The imagination showed in the magic system, the magical creatures, and the politics—between races, within the remnants of the human empire, and the ecclesiastical politics—are really well conceived and effectively portrayed. On that last point, I really want to stress how nicely (not perfectly, but good enough) Sullivan catches us up on hundreds of years of history and backstory without making the infodumps painful and/or dull. These villains are truly foul, and yes, it’s typically pretty clear who’s a White Hat and who’s a Black Hat from the initial meeting—but Sullivan also gives us some characters that could easily go either way before this series ends—possibly bouncing back and forth, too. I relish a good combination like that.

In a very real sense, there’s almost nothing that someone who’s read/watched a handful of fantasy series hasn’t been exposed to before. It’s the way that Sullivan has assembled these tried and true elements that is going to make you happy—that and the characters. Not just Hadrian and Royce, but especially Hadrian and Royce. Their banter alone would be enough to sign me up for two more books.

I think I’m in danger of just finding new ways to say that I really dug this work without adding anything worth reading, so I’m going to cut myself off. If you haven’t read this yet, and you enjoy a good fantasy adventure—this is me adding my voice to your friends who have probably already told you to read this. If you don’t have any friends who’ve given you that advice already, I’ll loan you a couple of mine.

I Ioved the fact that Royce and Hadrian are a collective Geralt of Rivia (they are actually called the Riyria), even taking on monster hunting contracts. I also loved how believable they (and others) are as characters, the good twists and large amount of doubt about the truth and how, RR Martin style, evil characters gradually prove grey. I also liked the clean, if unmemorable, writing style.
I did not love, though, how bland the world is (your typical “15th century medieval England” already read a 1000 times before in fantasy), how straightforward the stories are (each of the 2 books is actually just one linear plot) and how the author tries to keep some fairytale/YA elements up front (especially the princess Arista POV), probably inserted for the younger audience.
All in all, a really good book, recommended; but not complex enough for me to read the rest of the series, even though I'll truly miss the thieving good-hearted couple (but none of the other MCs).

The book didn't start awful. Descent protagonists and writing, promising plot.

A couple of thieves are framed for the murder of the king. While arrested in the dungeon, awaiting their execution, they are visited by the Prince, who describes how he plans to torture them to death. After that, their visited by the Princess, who makes a deal with them: their freedom for the promise of taking her brother north, in order to keep him safe from the ones who murdered the king and also to talk to someone special.

With their new unexpected companion always bickering, they travel to find to find the secret prison which harbors this mysterious man their supost to meet. In the way they stop to rest in a monastery. A monk takes them in and shows them a room for the night. When morning comes they find out that the monastery had been burned out, and the monk is somewhat of a savant, and is oblivious to the fact that he would dir of starvation if he choose to remain there.

The monk provides some clues to their quest, and join them in the adventure. Arriving at the place, we get a LotR rip off mountain door scene, and after a while, they meet the wizard they were send to find, one who has been imprisoned and kep alive though magic for nearly a thousand years.

The man has his demands before agreeing to provide them with the information they seek. They agree to help the man, who was arrested for having supposedly destroyed the realm 900 years.

With the information they need to restore order in the realm, clear their names and get a handsome reward, they go back to the king's castle. But in the way, the Prince finds out his uncle is to blame, and is trying to kill him as well. So they decide to ask for the help of someone who was loyal to the dead King, and know would help them with his army.

And now the come the part I stopped reading. The story wasn't that great, but passable so far. And then the conspirators who murdered the King get together and start spitting out their agenda. At this point the exposition goes out the window, and I couldn't bare it anymore. The plot felt too common, and nothing else (interesting characters, promise of great events to happen, intelligent deeds, etc) made it worth to keep reading.

At best this was just too vanilla for me.

Read 8:23/22:38 37%

While it dragged a little in some places, overall this was a wonderful book. Royce and Hadrian bring back fond memories of characters from past RPGs. That isn't to say that Theft of Swords feels like one of those dreadful “I wrote down what happened in my D&D campaign and called it a novel” things, because that certainly is not the case! It's more that I felt as if I knew these characters, that I was there with them, and I seldom get that from any author.

I really enjoyed this book (two books). Hadrian and Royce make a great duo! I thought this book had easy to pronounce names for a fantasy what with all the Royce and Hadrian and Ezra, and then they went and named book two ‘Avempartha'.

Book one:
- Initially a bit slow.
- Loved when Myron (the monk) showed up and Royce, Hadrian and Ulrich all start telling him stuff because he has never left the Abbey, and had never seen horses, or women

This one was fun and comforting. Also it was my first time listening to a fiction book. It has the old Dungeons & Dragons feeling: cool characters, adventures and lots of talk about swords.
It is not a dark fantasy and at some points the story is predictable because it contains some classic fantasy tropes: good vs evil, chaotic-neutral thieves, elves and dwarves, a really old and powerful mage, a prophecy. But that doesn't spoil it. A good book to read under a blanket.

Ended up really liking it. The story moves along somewhat predictably (the good guys win?!?), but there are enough really cool ideas in the mix to make it more than worthwhile.

I bought the second book in the series right away, if that tells you anything. I like a well done fantasy book and I think this one more than qualifies.

A story with great characters and an interesting writing style. The book is easy to read and relax to though it lacks some of the sophistication apparent in many other great fantasy novels. If you are looking for a pleasant read with intriguing character dynamics, I recommend giving this series a try.

Finished the first book, “The crown conspiracy”, and I'm giving it 4 stars.
I can't wait to read Avempartha to see what Hadrian and Royce are going to do.
I really liked Sullivan's writing for its conciseness and efficiency. Nevertheless it's an introductory book with a simple plot, but very good characterisation and worldbuilding. Since the the first book has around 3oo pages, I'd say he's done a great job. I'm sure we are going to discover more in the second book.

3.75 stars for the second book.
I found the second part more focused on characterization than plot, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

This is old fashioned Epic Fantasy mixed with buddy comedy. To be clear, a lot of it is “paint-by-numbers”, but I've got to say this author paints very well. I recognised an awful lot of tropes, but the way he put them together just somehow worked and (this is important) by the end of the book the author is putting a twist and shine on his world building that is really hooking me.

If this is how a newly published author starts out a series, I have high hopes for the series.

One caution for potential readers: This book was originally written as two novels, because of this there is an awesome hold-your-breath scene in the middle of the book, followed by a major lull in the story pace. The ending however is well worth the wait.

So I'd say, less a “paint-by-numbers”, more an “Awesome Mixtape” with a very interesting demo at the end.

I originally listened to this on audio, and I highly recommend that as a way to read this book. The reader is phenomenal and lends a lot to the series with his voice. On reading it, I definitely felt a huge appreciation for the amount of details and set-up that Sullivan put into his world building. On the surface, this is a wild, high fantasy romp that makes good use of fantasy tropes. The action is fast-paced, the dialogue is snappy, and the characters are all great to spend time with. It also has great female characters, especially for European-based epic fantasy. I would say that this first book is a lot stronger than the second, but the series is worth continuing to the end to see where all the tiny threads eventually lead.

Executive Summary: These stories are a bit trope heavy, and therefore a predictable in places. Despite that I found them to be enjoyable. Like settling into something comfortable and familiar. In the ever increasing abundance of grimdark fantasy, this serves as a nice break.

Audio book: I listened to this in audio after getting a good deal on it through Audible. I was quickly sold on finishing the series in audiobook.

This is the first book I've listened to by Tim Gerald Reynolds. I found him to be an excellent reader. Not only is he clear and easy to understand, he seems to have a variety of voices that greatly increased my enjoyment of the book.


Full Review


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


The Crown Conspiracy


The first story is a bit uneven. We meet thieves Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater, who work under the name of Riyria. Royce is the prototype rogue while Hadrian the oft underestimated fighter. Mr. Sullivan does give them both a great amount of depth and had me greatly liking them by the end of the book.

During the course of the book, we meet a bumbling monk, an arrogant prince, a mysterious wizard, and a treacherous dwarf. The story is a bit lacking on female characters. The princess Arista is a bit interesting, but the focus isn't really on her. We also get the “prostitute with a heart of gold” who is just a minor character.

I found this story a bit uneven. There were some slow and predictable parts that seemed to just write themselves. However there was also some twists and turns that kept me guessing a little bit.

The pair take a job that leads them on an unexpected journey that turns them from thieves to reluctant heroes. There is a good mix of action that gets a bit dark, but nothing like you see in most grimdark these days. So if you're looking for another gritty “realistic” fantasy series, look elsewhere.

Overall this was a fun story and a good first effort from Mr. Sullivan. I probably liked it more than someone looking for something new and original might. It's the type of story I enjoy, especially taking a break from darker novels.

3.5 Stars.


Avempartha


This was the better of the two stories. There are a few slower parts early on, but once the story really got going, it was hard to stop listening.

We gets some insights into both Royce and Hadrian's past. There is some resolution to lingering story lines from the previous story, as well as a humorous nod to it.

We also get some insights into the mysterious wizard and the treacherous dwarf.

Princess Arista has a larger role in this book, although I find her a bit unlikable. Maybe that's simply due to her being raised a spoiled princess. I do think her heart is mostly in the right place even if she comes off like a spoiled brat in places.

The best addition to the cast was the farmer's daughter Thrace, who is the naive farmer's daughter with an abundance of courage. Again a bit tropey, but very likable and it's nice to have another female character at least.

The conspiracies introduced in the first story are explored further and
we get some more insights on the larger scale.

Riyria has been sought out by Thrace at the prompting of an old acquaintance to help her father obtain a magical sword to defeat an evil beast that is plaguing her small village.

I'm most intrigued by the elves, who have always been my favorite fantasy element, who like many other books are elusive. We still don't meet any full-blooded elves, but we do get to experience some of their architecture. I hope we'll get to see something from them soon, maybe in the form of a strong female elf.

I thought this was a lot less predictable than the first story, and really enjoyed the character development of our two protagonists. There is some nice setup for the next books that has me eager to continue on in the series. Not only that, but Mr. Sullivan does a good job of developing many of his supporting characters as well.

This again isn't a story that will appeal to grimdark fans as it's more of a light fantasy where despite the dangers things work out for the best. Mostly.

4 stars.

Both stories are trope heavy, but the plot, characters, and writing are all very good. As such, it feels familiar and yet new at the same time—an enjoyable read. In the overabundance of grimdark fantasy, sometimes we all just need a nice linear story arc with a happy ending, and this book serves nicely for that purpose.

Rating this book is not easy as it's actually two novels in one.
The first one is about Hadrian and Royce being framed for a crime they didn't commit, while having to protect the new king. The other is basically the search for a great hero through a competition of kill-the-monster. I preferred the first one, though the second set up many interesting possible future plot lines that I want to see.

I've actually read this one a couple of years ago, even started the second one, but it was annoying, so I put the whole thing down. Now I couldn't just pick it up again without reading the first one all over again, as I... didn't remember that much. Whoops?

You know, I love bromance. A good story of friends going on an adventure, having to put up with each other, that is my jam. On the other hand, I dislike romance and annoying princesses. I guess we all get my problem with book 2.
Hey, I even really like Hadrian and Royce, because they shouldn't like each other, one is almost completely emotionless and more than willing to do some bad shit, while the other is super nice and just an all around friendly dude you can depend on. That's cool, though, I love their little dynamic and the parts that are about them, doing shit are A+. Do all the hero things, do some... stealing and shit. Have fun, have a good time.

Now the problem, which happens more in the second story is that Arista, the princess is a bitch. Don't get me wrong, her brother, the new king Alric is an annoying, spoilt little shithead, but we see that and everyone agree. Arista, though... she has the whining right for being a woman and we are supposed to just say “yeeeeees, you are a poor victim”. Her issue isn't that she has too little, but that there is someone who has a bit more and we can't accept THAT.
This is so ridiculously pronounced when one of the protagonists in the second story is this extremely poor girl, Thrace, who has nothing. The girl has a super sad life and she doesn't bitch 1% as much as Arista does. Even when Princess MeMeMe gets an important position... she bitches about how she has to DO THINGS NOW.

Now let me return to the fact that so much is being set up in this. I am not sure how much is going to come into fruition, as I've read a good 150 pages of book previously and it was the Arista Being Annoying Show.
There are elves, though. I don't love them in general, they are one of the races that have the biggest chance of becoming cheesy as shit. I don't want beautiful people staring into nothing, being super deep and wise. So I hope we won't have that. Still, it's obvious there is plenty of possible depth for them. Don't disappoint me, please.
We are also before a war of different groups trying to get the power and that can be cool as well. We've seen some of that, some workings and one piece of extremely obvious foreshadowing (we are looking for someone with a necklace, while someone is casually mentioned to have one, how weird). I'm not sure how all that will turn out.

We also have characters I hope are not going to get tossed side for bullshit love interests who are boring as fuck. I want Thrace, Myron, Esrahaddon.

Theft of Swords, aka. Exposition – The Novel?

It is really impressive how much wheel spinning is crammed into this. Just pages and pages of people explaining things to each other – their past, their plans, their motivations, everything. Even the conversations are monologues where people are explaining. Quite a feat.

Sullivan clearly loves these characters, and is very impressed with them, so he uses lots of words to tell us how brilliant they are. Their actions don't really show any of it, but the explanations work overtime.

This could have been a really good book with a strong editor, because the writing style is actually very enjoyable, and there are fun parts and characters throughout. But the plot is weak (especially in the first book, Crown Conspiracy), and the continuous explaining and the hyping up of the main characters gets boring very fast.

Seriously, so much explaining.

An excellent fantasy story. Although the two main characters bear some resemblance to Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, the author assures us that he hasn't read that series. In my opinion, the resemblance of these ‘heroes' is merely superficial. Their personalities are quite different from that earlier series by Fritz Leiber.

CAWPILE score: 7.14/10.
The first part of the book was very strong, but the second had a lot of info dumping witch was taking me out of the story so I would put down the book for days. If I was rating it on goodreads I would round it up to 4, but since here I can use quarter stars I put it at 3.75 because it wasn't quite a 4 starts for me.
But I did love the two main characters and I'll continue to read their story.

In short: A bit unpolished, but very fun.

I enjoyed reading this book and am currently flying through the sequels. I think the characters and relationships are very good, they are very lovable and especially the relationship between Hadrian and Royce is great. I also like the side characters, especially Myron, he's so sweet. The plot is interesting enough to keep me invested, but there's some info-dumping and in some chapters I started skimming a bit, because I didn't care as much about the current characters we were with or they were a bit long-winded (mostly not when we're with Hadrian and Royce, but in some of the other chapters).

A very palate cleanser book

It was fine. Nothing new nothing brilliant. I like the world and the first story in this had me hooked but I was lost a bit toward the second story. I feel as if the author skirted along the edge of what could have been a deeper more meaningful book. There were themes that he touched on but because he didn't delve deeper into them it came across shallow.

I do wish there were more female characters in this. Having read other works by this author I know he does write them well enough but they are lacking in this book.

Crown Conspiracy- 3.25 stars
Avempartha- 3 stars

This book is fine. I'm told they get better and I will be continuing, but from this bindup alone I genuinely do not understand the praise. Not enough focus on Royce and Hadrian and a whole lot of convenient plot threads and villain monologues and info dumps.

The second book of this bind-up was my favourite, but they were both great and I think this book would be brilliant for people who haven't read much adult high fantasy before and want to get into it. It has the wizard and the dwarves and the elves and all you want in your fantasy, but it doesn't bog you down with excessive amounts of worldbuilding and lore.