{"id":7341,"date":"2011-11-30T01:15:35","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T09:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/?p=7341"},"modified":"2012-03-26T13:12:44","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T21:12:44","slug":"review-theft-of-swords-by-michael-j-sullivan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/reviews\/review-theft-of-swords-by-michael-j-sullivan\/","title":{"rendered":"Review | THEFT OF SWORDS by Michael J. Sullivan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Theft<\/a><\/p>\n
\n

Theft of Swords<\/h2>\n

By<\/strong> Michael J. Sullivan<\/a>
\nPaperback<\/strong>
\nPages:<\/strong> 704 pages
\nPublisher:<\/strong> Orbit Books
\nRelease Date:<\/strong> 23\/11\/11
\nISBN:<\/strong> 0316187747<\/p>\n

EXCERPT<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Michael J. Sullivan has a story that every aspiring writer would love to tell. It\u2019s not about trolls or princesses, vanquishing evil or finding treasure (at least not in the literal sense), but it is a tale of perseverance and personal triumph, of overcoming obstacles that prove impossible for so many others. See, Sullivan\u2019s most interesting story isn\u2019t that of Hadrian Blackwater and Royce Melborn, the protagonists of Theft of Swords<\/em>, which consists of Sullivan\u2019s first two self-published novels, The Crown Conspiracy<\/em> and Avempartha<\/em>, and the eponymous pair behind The Riyria Revelations<\/em>, it\u2019s the story behind his success, of his rocky and self-driven path to publication, first under his own publishing label (ostensibly a self-published writer) and selling several thousand eBooks a month to signing a full-fledged publishing deal with a major New York City publisher (and potentially leaving tens- or hundreds-of-thousands of dollars on the table.) Michael J. Sullivan is a self-made success story and it shows in Theft of Swords<\/em>\u2019 utter disregard for the current trends that are sweeping the Fantasy genre (and are so important in the minds of the major publishers.)<\/p>\n

In this post-GRRM (George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em>) world, popular Epic Fantasy is dominated by so-called \u2018gritty\u2019 writers like Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch or R. Scott Bakker. Even the \u2018good guys,\u2019 like Brandon Sanderson, author of The Alloy of Law<\/em> are known for attempting to subvert the tropes of the genre by taking common building blocks and flipping them on their heads in a way that\u2019s supposed to upend the reader\u2019s expectations. Theft of Swords<\/em>, on the other hand, is a delightful throwback to the Fantasy of the \u201880s and \u201890s that took the concepts and thematic structures first popularized by Tolkien and helped solidify the genre\u2019s place in popular geek culture. These days it\u2019s cool to hate on Terry Brooks, David Eddings and Raymond E. Feist, but Theft of Swords<\/em> proves that the building blocks used by those authors are still effective today when wielded by a careful author.
\n
\nThere\u2019s little in Theft of Swords<\/em> that long-time fans of the genre won\u2019t recognize: the main protagonists are a shifty thief and a battle-hardened soldier-turned-mercenary, both of who have secret-filled pasts; elves hide in forests and dwarfs are curmudgeonly stoneworkers; the several kingdoms of man all struggle to balance peace while under the watchful eyes of the (probably evil) church. Such familiar elements are sure to turn off readers who are sick of seeing Fantasy authors dip their pens too often into the same inkwell, but for readers looking for a kick of nostalgia or a fun barnburner of a novel there\u2019s a lot to love.<\/p>\n

Foremost amongst those are Royce and Hadrian, the two \u2018heroes\u2019 of the series who are both immensely likeable and have a well-drawn chemistry between them. Together they form a thieving band called \u2018Riyria<\/em>\u2019 (just one of Sullivan\u2019s many hard-to-pronounce words, he\u2019s no Tolkien in the language department), who make a living by accepting nefarious and impossible jobs that no other thieves will touch. This, of course, is the key component to kicking off their various adventures and suspension of belief in the reader is absolutely necessary. The beginning of both volumes feature the thieving duo accepting jobs that make no sense from a pragmatic angle of self-preservation (which are<\/em> two paramount traits of both Royce and Hadrian). Of course, they accept them regardless of believability and adventure ensues. Riyria<\/em> has a reputation to maintain and Sullivan does an admirable job of making the reader believe<\/em> that Royce and Hadrian deserve the praise and have the ability to accomplish some of the feats attributed to them. Sure, they\u2019re both too good<\/em> at their given roles and often come out of scraps with more than a small measure of convenient luck, but by the end of the novel Sullivan has dropped enough hints that promise to explain the two thief\u2019s preternatural abilities that it’s easy to buy into.<\/p>\n

Dialogue between the two is always fun, if somewhat safe and predictable in its camaraderie:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThat\u2019s amazing. I was telling Alenda sometimes problems occur during a job, but I had no idea I was telling the truth. We should have charged her extra,\u201d Albert interjected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt crossed my mind,\u201d Royce replied, \u201cbut you know Hadrian. Still, we\u2019ve made a nice profit on both sides of this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut wait, you didn\u2019t explain how you got the rope off the side of the tower if my releases didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Royce sighed. \u201cDon\u2019t ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d The smith looked from one to the other. \u201cIs it a secret?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to know, Royce,\u201d Hadrian said with a wide grin.<\/p>\n

Royce frowned. \u201cHe shot it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did what?\u201d Albert asked, sitting up so abruptly his feet hit the floor with a clap.<\/p>\n

\u201cHadrian used another arrow to cut the rope at the roofline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s impossible,\u201d Albert declared. \u201cNo man can shoot the width of a rope at\u2014what was it?\u2014two hundred feet maybe, in total darkness!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a moon,\u201d Royce said, correcting him. \u201cLet\u2019s not make more out of this than it already is. You forget I have to work with him. Besides, it\u2019s not like he did it in a single shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many arrows?\u201d Emerald inquired.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s that, sweetie?\u201d Hadrian asked, wiping foam from his mouth with his sleeve.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many arrows did it take for you to cut the rope, silly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBe honest,\u201d Royce told him.<\/p>\n

Hadrian scowled. \u201cFour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFour?\u201d Albert said. \u201cIt was much more impressive when I imagined it as one lone shot, but still\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It can all be a little buddy-cop, but ultimately it helps the reader connect with the pair and believe in their relationship. Like any good duo, Royce and Hadrian play off of each other\u2019s faults and weaknesses while sharing enough similarities (mainly in their ambitions and respect for each other\u2019s shrouded pasts) that there\u2019s a nice balance. They\u2019re easily recognizable for the tropes they play off of, but Sullivan writes the pair so naturally that they step just to the side of being flat cardboard characters. There\u2019s little in terms of character progression through the two novels, but given the structure of the series, the length of the novels and some of the events at the end of Avempartha<\/em>, Sullivan earns himself some slack; things need to pick up in the subsequent novels. The supporting cast around Hadrian and Royce are somewhat bland and do less to differentiate themselves than the thieves, but they play their roles well enough to keep the plot moving forward.<\/p>\n

The world is simple and easily recognized and Sullivan injects just enough world building to provide Hadrian and Royce a playground without overwhelming readers with endless infodumps and needless explorations of social structures, currency and the like that often bog down other Epic Fantasies. Through the two volumes of Theft of Swords<\/em>, Sullivan does a fine job of doling out the necessary information to his readers and expertly pulling back the curtain on the millennium old war between the Elves and Man.<\/p>\n

Sullivan\u2019s prose is plain and unobtrusive, a point the author touches upon in an interview provided at the back of the collection:<\/p>\n

\n

The idea is to make the story pop off the page and make the writing disappear. Neither awkward prose nor eloquent phrases should distract the reader from immersion in the action and the world unfolding before them. I have needed on many occasions to rewrite passages that were too pretty, too sophisticated, for fear the reader would notice them and pause to reflect. I have other works that do this. For the Riyria Revelations I wanted to keep it simple. The result, I have discovered\u2014much to my delight\u2014is a book that reads like a movie in the reader\u2019s mind. As you can tell, a lot of my references have been from television and movies, and I think that also sets the tone and pace in these books. I\u2019m not so much trying to create another Lord of the Rings so much as a good old-fashioned Errol Flynn movie or sixties Western.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He\u2019s unapologetic about the simpleness of the prose, and for good reason: much of Sullivan\u2019s success as a self-published author is backed by the fact that his novels are easily accessible to readers of all ages and interest levels. Many are turned off by the door-stopper nature of the majority of novels in the Epic Fantasy genre and Sullivan\u2019s slim, quick reads are the perfect type of novel to gain attention through word-of-mouth among fans, and most especially, lapsed fans who don\u2019t feel that they have the time to read 800+ page monstrosities. Most admirably, Sullivan is committed to writing self-contained stories in each volume, something that has long since become a rarity within the genre. Each novel consists of an adventure that has a properly defined beginning, middle and end but also contributes to an overall narrative spanning the entirety of the six volumes. It\u2019s a wonderful way to tell a story and Sullivan utilizes the technique well.<\/p>\n

The \u2018novel\u2019 actually being comprised of two novels does pose a bit of a predicament when the first volume ends, the second begins and the the pace crashes to a stumbling halt about half-way through the door-stopper; when read as single novels, it\u2019s a natural process, but given the illusion of one book, it might be somewhat disconcerting for those readers expecting something akin to other novels of such length (Jordan, Goodkind or Sanderson, for instance), to find the somewhat abrupt shift in the middle pages. Despite the novels both being somewhat short, Theft of Swords<\/em> is a thick book, something that may be somewhat counter-intuitive to appealing to the aforementioned type of reader that first helped Sullivan find success in the eBook market. Still, these are both issues of publication and Sullivan can\u2019t really be held accountable. As it stands, paying the cost of one novel for two rollicking adventures is a great deal for readers.<\/p>\n

Michael J. Sullivan\u2019s success as a self-published author is a story to be admired by aspiring writers the world over, but don\u2019t neglect to recognize the stories that helped him become beloved to so many fans of Fantasy. One doesn\u2019t read Sullivan for subversive context, labyrinthine prose or gritty realism but for blazing pace, fun encounters, lovable characters and a commitment to telling full stories in a single volume and fans of Terry Brooks, David Eddings and even Brandon Sanderson will find a lot to love about The Riyria Revelations<\/em>. Theft of Swords<\/em> is an ode to adventurous \u201890s Fantasy and it\u2019s hard not to enjoy your time alongside Hadrian Blackwater and Royce Melborn, the two nefarious and charming thieves who, like their author, overcome so much adversity to get hold the ultimate prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theft of Swords By Michael J. Sullivan Paperback Pages: 704 pages Publisher: Orbit Books Release Date: 23\/11\/11 ISBN: 0316187747 EXCERPT Michael J. Sullivan has a story that every aspiring writer would love to tell. It\u2019s not about trolls or princesses, vanquishing evil or finding treasure (at least not in the literal sense), but it is… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[38,113,107,76,114],"class_list":["post-7341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-fantasy","tag-michael-j-sullivan","tag-orbit-books","tag-review","tag-the-riyira-revelations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n