Nyphron Rising Sample

I went to see if there was a solid release date for Michael Sullivan’s third book in the Riyria Revelation, Nyphron Rising and, while the date is still listed as a rather nebulous Octoboer 2009. I found out that there was a sample from chapter 1 posted there as well.  If you’ve yet to give this series a try I highly recommend you head on over and check out samples from the first two books The Crown Conspriacy and Avempartha. If you have had the pleasure of reading the series so far then by all means please check out the Chapter 1 sample from Nyphron Rising!

Review: Avempartha by Michael J. Sullivan

Avempartha
Michael J Sullivan
Ridan Publishing, 2009

Avempartha sees our “heroes” from The Crown Conspiracy back in action and in as fine a form as ever. The opening scenes in the novel, the set-up, is a fantastic intro for readers who read the first book and an excellent and highly entertaining way to recap a bit of back story for new readers. It is a quick little conversation between Royce and Hadrian and a third-party and while it manages to encapsulate parts of The Crown Conspiracy it does an even better job at managing to illuminate the moral complexities of the roguish heroes.

Review: The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan

The Crown Conspiracy
Michael J Sullivan
Aspirations Media Inc., 2008

Yes, I am still working on Open Your Eyes, for all its scant 152 pages it is a surprisingly dense book. In the meantime I flew through Sullivan’s The Crown Conspiracy in just about a day. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay the book and its author is that immediately upon arriving at work I went and grabbed its sequel, Avempartha off the new book shelf. It is my understanding that The Crown Conspiracy is a debut novel and, that being the case, it is a surprisingly mature one with relatively few “new author” stumbles. Part of that maturity is likely a result of the fact that the entire series of books was written before The Crown Conspiracy went to press.

With it’s main duo, a pair of thieves named Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater The Crown Conspiracy will likely draw comparisons to Fritz Leiber’s similarly employed duo. However, other than the professional and physical similarities between the characters (quick small thief, big brawny fighter) it is there any overlap ends. Royce and Hadrian are two well-developed characters shrouded in mystery and written with a delightful dry wit that few veteran authors could emulate. You get hints about the duo’s past, but they are surprisingly small tidbits and yet they are strangely satisfying. Perhaps it is simply that the characters’ presence in the here and now is so fully-realized that everything else is merely secondary; regardless I’m excited to learn more rather than disappointed that I learned so little.