Theft of Swords: Riyria Revelations, Book 1

If there were a way, I'd have given the story 3.5 stars. It says it in the description, but in case you missed it - this audio is two books combined into one audiobook. Which is good choice on the part of the audio publishers. If I'd listened to just the first book, I may not have continued. It's not bad, it's just not something that would inspire me to listen to 5 more books. I didn't really care about the characters and it seemed like a pretty cookie cutter sword and sorcery.
HOWEVER - in the second book, the story really hits it's stride. It's nothing revolutionary, just solid writing with fun characters and an enjoyable storyline. Which, in my opinion, is more than we're getting from a lot of fantasy writers of late. By the time I got to the end of all three audio books I was hoping to find more by this author.
To quote from the author himself about this series: "The Riyria Revelations, especially in the beginning, is little more than fast-paced light fantasy. As the series progresses, I think you'll see more depth both in the world of Elan and the characters. This was a purposeful decision and a dangerous one. It means that by design the first book is the weakest of the set, but enables me to end it with a resounding bang."
And he absolutely did.

This story has a potential to become a very high quality epic fantasy. One of the great things about the book is that events take place at a very rapid pace and story moves very fast. I thought that author would spend a lot of time at certain points, but story moved on to next chain of events which was surprising.

Narrator did a great job, and I hope the same narrator is used for future books by same author.

Author builds the world carefully, and provides a lot of details. One of the interesting aspect of the story is the handling of elf which are pretty much are second class citizen in human society.

I didnt enjoy a story about thieves as much since 'lies of locke lamora'. Book has pretty good sense of humor and just the right amount of dark.

The struggle between wizard and a religious order is very interesting and it is not entirely clearly which one is less brutal.

I highly recommend this book for reader looking for good epic fantasy.

Sullivan is a fan of the Traditional Tolkienian Fantasy and it shows. There are dwarves, elves, and wizards. If you're like me, that doesn't bother you when the mood strikes to read familiar or predictable mythologies. Just don't anticipate Sullivan breaking any new ground in Fantasy story telling like an Abercrombie or Rothfuss.

That said, the story is fast paced and action packed. The characters are believable and likeable. The main characters feel familiar, a brotherhood of thieves that follow a conveniently honorable code of ethics a la Steven Lynch. There is an occasional chapter that is full of mythology--necessary, but extremely boring.

Tim Reynolds projects his voice well and is intelligible. He has above average accents and character voicing. However, a couple of his character are so similar, there are times it is difficult to tell which character said what.

Theft of Swords is a compilation of the first two books of this series, "The Crown Conspiracy", and "Avempatha". "Crown" is a nice introduction to our main characters, Royce and Hadrian, the best thieves in the realm, Princess Arista, who is clever in some ways, but very naive in others, and Ezra Hardin, the mysterious ancient wizard bent on finding a mysterious missin heir to a long-gone Empire. There is also a powerful Church, also seeking this heir, for reasons of their own. Mainly the first book is a fast, fun romp.

"Avempatha" starts giving the characters and the situation more complexity. We learn some things about Royce's and Hadrian's pasts, and more about the Church's plans. The plot revolving around Thrace and her father and the monster destroying her village is less interesting and a bit predictable, except for the end.

I hope Audible gets the rest of the series up soon! I want to know what happens next!

The first two installments of Riyria Revelations are found in this volume: "The Crown Conspiracy" and "Avempartha." I find it's easier to recall some of the plot later on in the series if you remember what book it's in. It's easy to get over the cliche characterization of the main characters (what fantasy novel doesn't have the good-natured, under-estimated fighter and his sullen-yet-clever, secretive sidekick?) because they are so well portrayed. They have pasts that are alluded to with just enough detail to make the story progress, but not so much that you have to wade through unnecessary history. No character in this series is a mere device to move along a scene. Every character comes back later in the series with an important role to play. I rather like that. This is an epic fantasy, so it is intended to be escapist entertainment. So long as you keep that in mind, this series is a lot of fun!

I liked how the characters stayed within their characters from start to finish and did not wander from their mannerisms in order to get around potential road blocks. I also liked the depth of the main characters.

Hadrian because he has that cocky swagger of knowing he is better than everyone else with a sword and only shows it if necessary. Royce is his straight man through the entire novel.

Heck no. Way too long.

Story drifts at times and doesn't leave a lot of intrigue as the author pops in and out of the minds of secondary characters to let the reader know all the nuances of the politics going on in the world. Often I wished that much of this was left out but what can you do?

Its in my all time favorite list which includes: Wheel of Time Series, Shadow Prowler Series and Warded Man Series.

The part when we see exactly how good Hadrian is with his swords.

the way he reads the story makes it feel like it was a part of history and not fantasy. Very well done.

I don't listen to books in one sitting. However I could not wait to get on the train to listen to this book. I even volunteer to do the dishes more so i can listen to the book. :)

This book develops the characters in a way I'm not used to. This approach to character development felt wierd even flawed in the beginning however you get to know the characters well as the story progresses.

Its refreshing and fun. I love the characters and can't wait for the next book to become available on audio.

Riyira Revelations was undoubtedly my favorite Fantasy series from 2012. Sullivan clearly has a firm grasp on the series and where everyone's headed from the first pages of the novel. The result is a deeply engrossing tale with fleshed-out characters, a rich, imaginative setting, and plenty of swashbuckling roguery. It's a satisfying story from beginning to end.

I'm reminded of a notion from The Princess Bride by William Goldman. The frame of the Princess Bride is that it's actually an abridgment of a much longer, much more boring story. Goldman later discovered that his grandpa cut out a lot of this boring stuff when reading it to him as a kid. The version he heard was just the action, adventure, and fun stuff. You know, "the good parts". Well, Theft of Swords is very much a "just the good parts" novel.

I would recommend this book to a friend because it is a good story and the characters are ones that you can enjoy. There is enough comic relief that it doesn't become to dry and you can actually like the characters. It was a fun listen.

Any classic thief become hero's book.

He does a good job fleshing out the characters and adding nuances that you wouldn't get from reading the book.

Swashbuckling adventure

As an avid listener of books, I enjoyed this one a lot more than I did other ones, it doesn't take long to get into it and you can guess the bad guys but the writer has done such a good job that it really doesn't matter. I look forward to audible getting the next book or books in the series.

This book spends quite a bit of time talking about magic, but almost none is ever shown. It's a good book overall, but not great. For me, the narration brings it down a notch. I can normally get past most narration, but the narrator has an odd way of highlighting sentences that are meaningless and giving a deadpan delivery to the exciting bits which serves to remind you that someone is "reading" this book to you. Most narrators fall into the background and become the voices of the book, that didn't happen for me.

My biggest impression is that the book is just not that smart. Not many surprises, the characters are fairly standard for a fantasy book, they have one or two dimensions at most, and at the end I was left with the feeling that the author left many things out on purpose because he knew he was writing another book. Characters are introduced, not fully fleshed out, and some even go away (when they logically would not). Overall, the characters, plot, narration, and lack of detail left everything feeling a bit contrived.

I'm not a literary snob by any means, but I do have two fully function brain hemispheres that I like to have engaged when reading. This book was good enough so that I have purchased the second book, so there is plenty to enjoy here, just not as much as I wanted. What I really wanted was less talk about magic and a little more actual magic.