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.
