Age of Empyre

By: Michael J. Sullivan

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

A door opens. An army of dragons advance. And the fate of the living rests with the dead.

After obtaining the secret to creating dragons, the leader of the Fhrey has turned the tide of war once more - but gaining the advantage has come at a terrible price. While Imaly plots to overthrow the fane for transgressions against his people, a mystic and a keeper are the only hope for the Rhunes. Time is short, and the future of both races hangs in the balance. In this exciting conclusion to the Legends of the First Empire series, the Great War finally comes to a climactic end, and with it dawns a new era in the Age of Empyre. 

From the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Michael J. Sullivan comes the concluding installment of his six-book epic fantasy. This series chronicles a pivotal point in Elan's history when humans and those they once saw as gods warred until a new world order was born. Set 3,000 years before the Riyria tales, Legends is a stand-alone fantasy series that is independent of the Riyria novels. But for those who do listen to both series, Legends will unmask lies and reveal the truth about Elan's history and the men and women who shaped what the world became.

©2020 Michael J. Sullivan (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

This entire series is a failure

Simply awful series. I was so excited after the first book too. Book 2 was tedious with characters discovering something basic like how to make shoes. Then someone says, what are those? I call them shh
ooos.. Shooos. Shoes! The author did that over and over. The third book was ok but book 4 & 5 were simply awful. The story progresses at a snail's pace and both books end on a cliff hanger. Michael makes the reader slog through 2 entire books and offers no reward. Atrocious story telling.
But I am invested and now here is the final book. It's terrible. I haven't finished it and I'm going to expand this review when I do (I finally finished it and amended my review at the end). Right now I'm listening to it at a sped up pace just to get it over with.
The writing is so simplistic. There is one part where it's basically: I love you person, other person: I love you too. How can you love me? I just do love you. I'm glad you love me, love is great. And everyone has a love interest. There's like 5 or 6 different pairs of people falling in love. It's half the dang book. Just shoot me instead!
I am a huge fan of the Riyria series but this one sucks. The entire series could be condensed into 2 books, maybe three. It's not a complicated story when you take out the nonsensical, needless.. I don't know what to call it. Just wasted words that make listening to this a chore.
Terrible. I'll have more when I finally finish this thing but I'm not that excited about the prospect.
Such a shame.

Some spoilers below
Well, I finally finished it. What an awful book. It was like an "After School Special" movie where everything had a moral at the end. "The secret is you have to believe in yourself" type of nonsense. I can't properly explain how terrible this book is.

There's a saying in writing "show, don't tell". This book does the opposite; it doesn't show anything, it just tells you. Like Brin is so pure all the sudden. Over and over they say how important she is, she's the only thing that matters. Ok, why? And the Book of Brin which was mentioned probably 200 times in the series doesn't matter at all? And Minna coming back from the dead just to have a feel good moment? Awful! The wolf dying was the defining characteristic of a main character and the author just reverses it for the feels? Garbage.

I could go on and on, there's so many things I dislike about this book. I won't though because it was exhausting enough just listening to it. There's no energy left for me to complain, only to walk away saddened and disappointed.

Michael J. Sullivan has lost credibility as an author to me. This surface deep drivel he has produced has left me with zero interest in discovering what else he has in store for his readers. What an absolute mess.

Disappointing conclusion

This is the most disappointed I have been finishing a series since I read Stephen King's The Dark Tower.
the first three books of this series are fantastic, but book 4 details and goes into a deep and long stretch of absolute stupidity that ruins the entire series. The events of Age of Legends plague all the books moving forward. The ending is full of loose ends and pointless actions.

*****SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON****


Age of Legends is the begining of the end for this series, and Persephone is the downfall. At this point, the runes are safe. They have beaten the fhrey out of their lands, and have an invincible dragon safeguarding them. the have been in camp for years now,in a stalemate. The elves have no hope of defeating the dragon that Suri has created. They could build a civilization on that hill and be safeguarded forever. There is no reason to seek peace with the fhrey. they could have stayed there, separate from the fhrey and lived in peace. But....
All of a sudden, Persephone gets the bright idea to send their MOST VALUABLE ASSET FOR THEIR DEFENSE, ALONE, TO THE FHREY. THIS IS INCOMPREHENSIBLY, IRREDEEMABLY, ATROCIOUSLY STUPID. There is absolutely no need whatsoever to do this. The one person that can create dragons, the WMD of their age, should be guarded ferociously, as it is the key to winning and keeping peace. Nope, sent her alone, to the people waging a war of genocide against their entire race. This comparable to sending the only person with full knowledge of atomic secrets to the Germans in the early forties, alone, to negotiate a cease fire. It is such a ridiculously pointless, stupid, thoughtless act that I couldn't believe that Sullivan, or his editors, or anyone else that read the drafts didn't make him rewrite this. Then the stupidity continues.
Suri, having gone on this fools errand for some unbelievable reason, lets the people waging genocidal war on her people put a collar on her that negates her powers. Willingly. This is also COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLY STUPID. She knows she can't trust them, that they want what she knows, that they will kill her entire race. You may think 'well, Suri has always been a bit naive' and you would be correct in the first novels, but this 8 or so years that have passed between the first novel and this one. Suri is in her twenties at this point, speaks two languages, mastered the art, and lived in society for a decade now. She has spent the entirety of that period struggling and learning exactly how horrible people can act. She's not naive, this is just uncharacteristically stupid for her character.
Of course the fhrey spend the next year or so torturing her to learn how to make dragons. I kept thinking, "well Suri knows that giving them the secret to making dragons would be absolute horrific to her people. It would be better for her to die than to betray her entire race like that. I'm sure she'll keep it under wraps." NOPE. She gives the secrets up after, having been tortured for years, they change tactics and try to minipulate her into being sympathetic to their cause. It doesn't work until one of the fhrey is nice to her and has the faces of mice on her shoes. That's right. Suri decides to spill the beans, betray her entire race, because her new fhrey friend has hello kitty shoes. Again, this is so stupid I can't get over it.
Suri and Persephone are the biggest traitors in the history of their world. Not only does Suri realize how powerful and dangerous this is, she actually coaches them on how to make them until they get it right. I just..... can't. It's soooooooooooooo STUPID.
These acts just plague the series from then on. the last two books should have been one book, but I guess Sullivan decided to do a cash grab by splitting them up into two books figuring the readers are invested now so they may complain but they'll still buy it.
The ending is so disappointing. The two civilizations end up being split and separated anyways. the events of the last two books have no dicernable effect on either of their civilizations that wasn't accomplished in Age of War. The last book is slow and boring and filled with people sitting in a pit complaining for the first half. Two main characters remain in the pit to wallow in self pity, and that's how their story ends. I'm serious. That's their end.
The actions of the other characters are made pointless at the end, especially Brin's ending. Spend so long making that book important just to have it taken away at the end. And then there's Nefron...
I don't understand why all of these people are working so hard to put a crown on Nefron. Why? He's a murderous, genocidal, treacherous, conniving, immoral, petty man using the runes as a means to an end. They for some reason still line up to lick his boots. But why? At first it was because they needed his advice and protection from the rest of the fhrey. After Age of War though, this is no longer an issue. At all. They have a DRAGON now. They could have told Nefron to take himself and his murderous little band to get to the other side of the midwalden river, and stay there. What need did they have of him after that? Runes are figuring out how to use the art, they reproduce far quicker than the elves, are winning the war absolutely at this point, they have a WMD, they have a whole continent to themselves. Why are they still pursuing anything at all with the fhrey? Yes the dragon has a range, but the fhrey don't know that. They are all working so incredibly hard to put themselves into shackles.

I'm not sure if I will read another book in this series. After reading every single novel and short story of the Rhyiria Revelations &Chronicles, I don't think I can handle more insanely stupid plot devices that plague both series. It's a real shame, because the world building, characters, mythology are really good. I wouldn't be this upset about the ending if I didn't like the first three books so much. Once the banter between Wraith and Malcomb is gone, Persephone becomes subservient, Suri's horrible life of misery and horrible treatment continues, Tesch's story just flat out ends (seriously, nothing happens with him that is at all relevant to the plot after Age of Legends), the really dumb plot devices being used, there just wasn't anything to look forward to. This book was 20hrs of Timothy Gerard Reynolds (as wonderful and talented of a narrator as always) letting you down by telling you a disappointing story.

Terrible ending...

Sooo many loose ends with this ending.
Robin said a certain someone didn’t come back because it would have caused issues for Nefron. That just tells me they couldn’t come up with a good way to fix the mess Michael creates by writing that character as he did.

So many other terrible loose ends. Both of the deaths at the end were to.... casual. Awful. I will be returning this book and sadly, I will not complete my hardcover collection.

Total let down

Tim is always the Best. I found the story to be just a total let down.

What happened?

A struggle to finish. It is essentially an insult to the original Ryira series.

Very disappointing

I am compelled to write my first review here because of what a let down the last two books were. After the previous book where the characters meandered around in the underworld, I was excited for great deeds from the characters I loved. Instead, one by one, all of them faded off the pages. Suri had far more potential, hadn’t she? Mondulay ( probably incorrect spelling) who was showing some character growth before this, devolved very quickly. Nefron deserved to be held accountable for his cruelty and deviousness, and Persephone deserved some happiness. The ending was too little, too late for me. So many loose ends. This book underscores how even good authors lose sight of their storylines.

Sigh..

I was so invested with the characters in book 1,2 and 3! Then all of of sudden the story takes a sudden sharp turn into despair!
Don’t get me wrong the narration is amazing like always! There are cool scenes here and there but by the time everything gets wrapped up your just shocked by the loss of the potential in the characters!!
Books 1 through 3 your like .. yes! I know these characters are going to do great things! But when it’s all said and done they only end up playing a small part and then that’s it... sad.
So unfortunately I was disappointed with the the last three books in the series, left a empty hole in me.

Awesome Conclusion to a great series

I loved every minute. Defiantly would recommend this story and all of Michaels other books.

Deep thought

Michael did a great job with some of the lessons he shared through his stories. That being said measured against his original work this was far below expectations as a series. I just started reading the originals again and this book sounds nothing like Michael. Bring back the old Michael for the next series! This story was just all over the place. I really wanted to like it, and in part I did but overall I realized I really don't.

Nearly ruined the series, last minute redemption

Minor spoilers, no exact details below

I have one star for the story for me liking most of the beginning. Another star for it not entirely demolishing the story and characters I’ve loved.
I’m pretty upset with how the series ended, he could have done better, but there were no major loose ends.
I. Have. Loved. This. Series. One of my favorites. This book came *this close* to ruining it, though.
My favorite character was Mawyndulë—I’m a sucker for the “misguided character is villain” type. But the author didn’t do enough with him! After the death of some people close to him, I was really looking forward to Insane Mawyndulë... ( does that make me insane?) I’m pretty sure he snapped some, but nothing interesting! The thing I hate most about this book is he kinda just.. was left there. Not hanging, but not done either.
Also, a Frey (probably spelling it wrong sorry) who had murdered died, and you see them in the entrance to Pyre, unable to head in. But it mentions that there were wars—why were they alone? Shouldn’t there be thousands? I think maybe that rule was made after the war, but NOT ONE FREY MURDERED? What??
I feel like Neffron did not get the punishment me deserved. I know it doesn’t fit with the plot, but I’m still upset. He was a cruel, manipulative, DISGUSTING character, and in my opinion the true villain—way too much was his fault because of his want for power.
My second favorite character (1st after Mawyndulë was dumped in the gutter) also seemed... incomplete. I feel like they had a good reason to go back to Elan but never did. (Talking about the grumpy character, not giving names because no spoilers)
Ugh, I hated Tesh. No reason, just boring.
I love Malcolm! He was wonderful, I also love “Villain tries really hard to be good” types. In my opinion, seems a tad more realistic. I like the way he tied in to rieria a lot, and how the in world story got mangled over 2000 years!
Persephone was... anticlimactic. Favorite character in the first book, then slow decline until I didn’t even care. Her ending was boring.
BRIN. Oh, how annoying she is. Seemed like a bit of a Mary Sue. Never liked her and strongly dislike how she was the “secret main character.” I feel like the books (besides this one) wouldn’t be too much different if it was Roan who made reading.
Suri’s chapters were mildly uninteresting in this book, I liked them, but not the best. I liked her.
Michael is TERRIBLE at writing deaths. One of my least favorite parts. A character I like dies— I want to be sad! Not bored! He does a good job with gore, though. Descriptive enough to give a good mental image but not making it too violent. I, being a very picky book reader, appreciate the gore aspect.

This book made me angry on numerous occasions, but I liked it. A lot, actually! At 3/4 done I wanted to give it one star but it got better. I will be reading other books by him. This isn’t one of my favorite series anymore, but I can greatly appreciate it. Thanks for reading my ramble, and despite how much “bored bored bored” I wrote about, the action scenes were good.

Different, interesting and great fun

Really enjoyed the series, lots of twists and turns and plenty of humour. I warmed to most of the characters and enjoyed their roles and development. Heartily recommended

Excellent

Excellent series of books and the narrator is Amazing. These are worthy of being made into films!

Loved it

One of the best series I have ever read maybe even the best so exciting and good

fantastic

a fantastic end to this series can't wait till the next series to start on

stonkingly good

the way the author has Weved this book together is a masterpiece. it has many entertaining theams as well the main plot that keeps you guessing all through the book series

it was perfect...

the only fault I had with is book was it had to come to an end... absolutely loved the whole trilogy...

A great tale.

Had me hooked. some great cat and mouse manoeuvring amongst the main characters and a great trip into the afterlife. Battles a plenty and lovable characters.

It's good to get the strings tied up, but

The problem I have with this last book in the series is that, unlike most of the others the plot line conclusions are more transparent than I like. Surprisingly there are also some major characters that don't seem to tie at all... Don't get me wrong, there are a few neat little twists, but not as many as we have gotten used to. Still worth finishing though!

Stunning

If you like good fantasy.. Just get it.. You won't be disappointed.. Also Tim doing the reading.. Enough said

Winners and Losers

A Difficult One.

I listened to these books back to front really, with Riyria first. However, pretty much all the loose ends were tied up, with some twists and some sadness. I wasn't particularly fond of the sections spent in the underworld, which I felt went on too long.

As with all stories, not all the characters will make it through. Brin, in my opinion, got a rough deal, as did Persephone. I actually found myself having sympathy with Malcolm. How screwed up is that! And Minna was something else.

Almost forgot: Narration all through was brilliant, as I've come to expect from Tim Gerard Reynolds.