Genre: Fantasy
Series: Riyria Chronicles #3
Page Count: 448
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Riyria Enterprises
Summary: Royce and Hadrian are hired to find a way to assassinate a noble.
It’s always good to be back in the Riyria world; these books are an excellent example of how a good story can hold together average characters and writing style.
The thing I learned early in my Sullivan reading is that his stories (for me) are his strength and his plot twists are some of the best I’ve encountered. And even though I don’t particularly like his rather pedestrian style, I know I’ll always get a good story.
However, there’s something off about this story. They go to the town, encounter resistance and mystery, have some troubles and eventually succeed. That’s fine for a plot. I think the problem is there’s not enough of…whatever it is that’s missing.
I’m gonna chalk it up to one of the main themes: seeing and accepting your true inner self. Those of you who’ve read the Riyria Revelations won’t be shocked by the inner self that is examined. So since I know where this person is going, I quickly had the uncharitable thought of, “Just get over it.” Inner struggles are mostly going to have no impact on me and, while I don’t need to see myself in characters, if I don’t care about what this person is going through, it’ll negatively affect my reading experience.
The other negative is the plot not having enough stuff to engage itself with. At a certain point I wondered what else would occupy the remaining pages as it didn’t seem the resolution could take so long to arrive. I wasn’t tempted to quit, it just felt a bit empty.
I spotted quite a few Easter eggs for his other series, Legends of the First Empire. I haven’t yet read any of those books so I couldn’t enjoy those references, but I appreciate that he plans and weaves his different works together as an added bonus for the fans.
There are a couple unexpected moments I quite enjoyed. Not as amazing as the ending of Heir of Novron, but still good.
Let’s go to my boys Royce and Hadrian. I’ve always loved the dynamics of the pessimist vs. the optimist. The grumpy vs. the friendly. Royce vs. Hadrian. It never fails to produce enjoyment. Take these exchanges:
“So you [Hadrian] have been paying attention.”
“I’m not as stupid as you think I am.”
“You have no idea how stupid I think you are, and honestly, we don’t have time for that conversation.”
“Would you [Royce] have killed him? If he’d refused—if they had grabbed me?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“Not sure if I should feel touched or terrified.”
“That’s your problem.”
Yes, you could say that Royce is so mean and unjustly cuts down Hadrian. And that’s sorta true. But by this point, (and it’s shown in this book) we know that Royce does care. He just has an odd way of showing it. Their bromance is a big draw for this series but I wish they worked more together in this book.
The secondary characters aren’t particularly groundbreaking or memorable. There’s this one girl who pulls out the, “Because I’m a woman you think I can’t do this?” line and man, did that make me dislike her even more. No one mentioned her femininity but she just had to bring it up. And she also thinks that a guy trying to protect her is so offensive. OR she could be appreciative of that fact that he doesn’t want her dead. For me, it is a major annoyance when female characters can’t accept the reality that they aren’t that good. Why is it always an outrage for fictional women to accept help and protection?
Moving on…
I think I’ve mentioned before how I really can’t stand modern lingo in fantasy worlds. The phrases, “Seriously?” and “Are you serious?” are used here several times too many. If the conversations are peppered with modernisms, it bothers me no end. I think it’s grating me more after just finishing A Conspiracy of Paper (my review), which is blissfully old fashioned. There are clever lines in this book, but I’m sure it could be better.
The description is fine. I could never detect a strong style in his writing, and it seems like almost everything except the plot is set to default.
I know it sounds like I’m bashing this book. But it isn’t that bad. I just know he can do better.
Check out my rating here.
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