Thursday, June 18, 2015

Theft of Swords



Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan starts with two “heroes”, one an idealistic swordsman tired of killing and the other a thief with no qualms with murder, hired to steal a sword from a chapel.  They trip over the dead king and realize they were set up.  Now the duo must run from the law as well as start a quest that will either destroy a kingdom or save the world. There are six titles in the series and two prequels that explain how the heroes meet and how their friendship blossoms. There is an amazing sense of humor and real character growth over the series as well. At points Royce will even ask for permission from Hadrian instead of just murdering someone whom happens to be in his way. The Princess Arista is also awesome as she grows into her spell casting potential. Of all the characters Myron is my favorite because we have a similar interest... reading! He is a monk that remembers every book he has ever read and is in the process of rewriting every book that belonged in his lost library, also when Hadrian and Royce need information they turn to Myron, he has knowledge on everything from lost civilizations, dwarven customs, architecture, to random esoteric facts. I can relate to that too well.

When I first read these, I started with Theft of Swords which contains The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha, continued with Rise of Empire, which contained Nyphron Rising and The Emerald Storm, and finally Heir of Novron which contained Wintertide and Percepliquis. It was a new fantasy series to me, one of my friends (Josh) left in my mailbox at work and within the first few chapters I had to buy it. After a bit, Sullivan published Crown Tower and Rose and the Thorn which took place before the other titles and we get to see how the heroes meet and learn more about Gwen, a character that is very important to the plot that we hardly get to see in the main story. He changes the roles of many of the typical fantasy races we usually see running around these days, dwarves are relatively few in number and we only see one throughout the series, elves live in their sacred realms across the river beyond the reach of humans, and goblins are terrifying and massive.  It was awesome. If you are new to the series start with Crown Tower, some of the later events will mean more to you if you read Crown Tower and Rose and the Thorn first and in the later stories they talk about the events that take place in the prequels.

He is now working on a new series about the earlier times in his world as well as a new Hadrian and Royce novel. Here is his current Kickstarter for The Death of Dulgath!
And here is his website.