Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations #1-2)

This review is actually for the entire 6 book (3 volume) series as a whole. I can not imagine separating them as they all flow well into each other. In general they are just fun, easy to read fantasy books. You will not have all of the intrigue and characters of a George RR Martin book. You also will not have the humongous amount of background lore of a trilogy like Lord of the Rings. However I found that I just simply enjoyed reading the books as much as I did either of those authors. There was no one thing that the author did so well that it made me take notice. But everything was solid and fit well to make for a series that I had never heard of suddenly being one of my top 5 series of all time now. Foundation. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Wheel of Time. Riyria Revelations. The 5th spot will have to go to either Martin or Rothfuss, whoever actually manages to *bleeping* finish their series.

I won’t go into any details but I will point out one thing that this author did better than any I have ever read. That is write an ending. Like holy crap on a cracker that is the best ending I have ever read. I had chills, literal chills. Just finished it an hour ago and still amazed at what he managed to do. You want an author to tie up loose ends at the end of a series. Oh he certainly did that. And then once I was satisfied he started tying up loose ends that I didn’t even realize were loose. I can’t give anything away. It would literally be cruel to rob you of the feeling you will get at the end of this series. So yeah you should probably read this series.

I really have to stop doing that.
Doing what?
Lying.
Thats not lying. You just didnt correct him.
It amounts to the same thing. The abbot once told me that lying was a betrayal to ones self. Its evidence of self-loathing. When you are so ashamed of your actions, thoughts, or intentions, you lie rather than accepting yourself for who you really areor, in this case, pretend something happened when it didnt.

This type psychological insight occurs throughout. Cleverly included and always revealing!

The idea of how others see you becomes more important than the reality of you. Its like when a man would rather die than be thought of as a coward. His life is not as important to him as his reputation. In the end, who is braver? The man who dies rather than be thought of as a coward or the man who lives willing to face who he really is?

What insight!

This dialogue illustrates the ideas presented. This is almost a philosophical drama to draw the reader into historical understanding/analysis of European political/religious/commercial development.

Great!

The background is loosely connected to real European history. Imperials (Holy Roman Empire), Royalist (France), Nationalism (Italian city states), Church (Pope), are all here!

Another connection to Judeo/Christian culture is the underlying search for the promised heir of the kingdom. Clear adaptation of the promise of the biblical messiah. This underlying goal drives the story.

This is just the background. However, the focus is on two honorable thieves, whose deep friendship, unbreakable bond, deep personal commitment, provides the heartwarming drama.

Heartwarming!

Make no mistake, this is not an intellectual, philosophical essay. The characters are vivid, touching and real!

Nevertheless, the action is so well blended with the cultural, historical, ideological challenges of this world that this work provides more than just superficial entertainment.

Anticipating reading the continuing story!

I seem to be in the minority here, but I could not get into this book. The author clearly put in effort to craft an epic story, but the writing in these novels is utilitarian at best, and more specifically lacks the artistry necessary to create a seamless narrative. In essence the characters, plot, and setting are there for a compelling story, but the way the descriptions, dialogue and thoughts of the characters are presented is done without full authenticity and genuineness. When I read the story I didn’t imagine Royce and Hadrian actually existing in some far off land, going through these intrigues and adventures. All I could see was some author somewhere sitting at a laptop typing up this book. The author’s voice outshone any of the character’s voices, and all the other elements–from the ecology to the buildings to the political machinations to the theology of the regions–seemed made up rather than discovered. I will be just as happy going to read the synopsis of the rest of the books to find out what happens, because I was never pulled into the pages enough to live in the scenes. It’s a shame, because I really wanted to like this book.

I didn’t realise until I was well into this that it was two books in an omnibus edition. I read the first, The Crown Conspiracy, so this is only a review of that one. I was looking for some fantasy or science-fictional heist books and this was on someone’s ten-best-heist books list. Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater are thieves, successful enough that they haven’t been caught yet. Royce is the lock-picker and Hadrian the brilliant swordsman from a good family (and we only get hints of what brought him to thieving for a living). They are careful to plan out every heist carefully, but they get into a spot of bother when they fall for a sob story and unwisely take on a job to steal a sword from the king’s chapel. It’s a set up. What they find in the chapel is the body of the king and they are framed for the murder. It’s looking bleak when the king’s daughter makes them an offer. She’ll let them out of the dungeon if they will steal something else for her. She wants them to steal the prince, the new heir to the throne. Their kidnap job turns into a rescue and they face a plot to take over the throne. It’s a straightforward read with a simple plot and a cast of engaging characters. (Yes I will read the second one, but not right now.)

Alright, but nothing special. The story felt half-baked and rushed. The characters are bland and the plot is a bit simple, with far too convenient and neat endings. I didn’t feel any connection to Hadrian or Royce or know anything about them. Were they supposed to be funny? The writing was clunky, veering from paragraph long information dumps that the characters already know, to not telling us enough to keep us connected.

But worst of all is the amount of cliches. For some reason the book is promoted as subverting tropes, but this isn’t true at all. There is a host of the usual cliches you’ve read in so many other fantasy novels. Secret heir, rescuing the princess (twice), evil schemes for world domination, poor damsels in distress, dwarves who work with stone and elves who live long lives in the forest, basically the same medieval Europe world-building in all other fantasy.

The depiction of women is particularly lazy, they basically don’t do anything in the story except look pretty (in fact their only characteristic is their beauty) and get rescued by men. I was sick of Thrace constantly doing nothing except crying for her Daddy and the completely unnecessary rape scene (that is immediately forgotten because it served no purpose) was stupid. What was the point of Arista, especially in the second book? She sat around, acted like an idiot and then got rescued. Rescuing the princess is a lazy cliche, even worse when it’s done twice.

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