A fan of Michael J. Sullivan’s work, Nila embarks on yet another (hopefully) long journey into the First Empire.
Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan
Kindle Edition
Published June 2016 by Del Rey
Review by N. E. White.
Age of Myth is the first book of a series titled The Legends of the First Empire. For those of you familiar with Michael J. Sullivan’s work, this series is set in the same world as his Riyria series (The Riyria Chronicles and The Riyria Revelations). But the events in Age of Myth happen thousands of years before the events of those books.
This story starts with a man killing a god.
An auspicious start, wouldn’t you say?
But nothing in Age of Myth is what it seems. Raithe, our hero, manages to kill a god, but he had a little help and as he runs from the inevitable fallout, he learns there’s more to the gods than he ever thought possible.
With his sidekick, Malcolm, in tow, Raithe goes south with the deadly Instarya, a tribe of the god-like Fhrey, hot on his heels. Together they inadvertently bolster the story of Raithe’s killing of a god and thus their reputation begins to grow and outpaces them to a sizeable Rhune (man) village at the edge of the Crescent Forest.
Here we meet the other main characters of Age of Myth, and where I think, the story takes on a different tone. We are immersed in the local politics of this new clan. The chieftain has just died at the hands of a vicious, man-eating bear. His widow, Persephone, reeling from the recent loss of her son, must now mourn for her husband and navigate the tricky politics of their village. She soon finds out that she didn’t really know much about what was going on in her walled village. To top it off, a young mystic, Suri, with her pet wolf, visits to inform them their world is about to end. Or, at least, get very bloody.
At the same time, at the heart of Fhrey, the Miralyith, a tribe of Fhrey who wield “the Art” (i.e. magic) are conniving for and wrestling power from their brethren. Arion, a teacher of the Art, is sent to bring in a rogue Instarya upstart, Nyphron, who aims to avenge his father who had been brutally murdered by the current Fhrey king. But Nyphron has gone to find the god-killer, and soon enough they all converge at this one village in the middle of a forest where nothing is as it seems.
That’s one thing to keep in mind when reading this book of myths. Nothing is truly as it seems. By the end of the book, every characters’ closely-held belief is turned on its head.
Mr. Sullivan likes to play with his characters beliefs as well as his readers. He has a habit of setting up a situation and allowing his characters (and us) to make assumptions that invariably come out to be untrue. And that’s what makes me a fan of his books. I’m never quite sure how the story will end, and I love to keep guessing.
Despite that, I do have gripes about Age of Myth. Foremost being that it felt uneven. I didn’t feel I got enough of Nyphron’s story. If Mr. Sullivan wrote an entire book about the Instarya’s plight, it would not be a bad thing (hint hint). And I didn’t quite buy the easy relationship Malcolm and Raithe develop. It felt a little rushed, a little too chummy right off the bat. Though the two shared in the murder of a god, I couldn’t get past that they should be complete strangers from completely different background that probably wouldn’t like each other.
However, overall, Age of Myth is an entertaining traditional fantasy action adventure epic with a few twists. His characters exhibit warmness that seems genuine; aspects of Mr. Sullivan’s work that will have me pre-ordering the next volume in this series. If you like elves (Fhrey), giants, and mystics battling it out among determine men and women, and being surprised, then feel free to start this epic series. Though the next release won’t be until sometime in 2017, Mr. Sullivan has written the story to its conclusion so we’ll know we won’t have to wait too long to continue Raithe, Persephone, and Nyphron’s stories.
N.E. White, July, 2016.
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Great point about the myths and expectations. That never occurred to me, but you’re absolutely right!
Aren’t I always? (Joking, of course. 🙂 )