I've been a bit behind on my reviews, but here are a couple:
First up, I read
Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan (hm, that name seems familiar for some reason
), though I read "The Crown Conspiracy", then set it down for awhile before continuing on to "Avempartha".
Last month, Tim Marquitz wrote about
Theft of Swords...
I'm really enjoying these books. There's an intentional simplicity to them that keeps the story from getting bogged down, but there's still plenty of historical and background information spread out to make the world feel full.
I thought that a good description and would pretty much agree. In my case though, I felt like "The Crown Conspiracy" was a bit too simplistic for my tastes and might not have continued on if I had purchased only the first of these stories. Fortunately though, I had bought both, and so did. Some credit for that goes to the omnibus format that the current publisher used. I do not at all care for the art that they decided on, but in all other ways I'm quite happy with the presentation.
In continuing on to the second story, I felt like there was noticeable growth in the writing and a better balance between the complexity of the characterization and dialogue and the fun, quick pacing of the story. At this point, my impression is that most people here have read/tried this series already, but if anyone hasn't, I would recommend it.
The one thing that was strange for me was seeing the name "Duster" used, as I'm quite used to associating it with several of Michelle Wests' series. I'm sure that it happens from time to time that more than one writer would make use of the same name, but still, it couldn't help being something of a distraction that pulled me out of the book each time I read it.
Second, I read
The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick. In some ways this reminded me of
Theft of Swords, though part of that could just be that I read them so close together. This was another story that was a bit less serious and complex than is my normal preference, though I know that such a style appeals to some others. There was a decent amount of world-building, and the pace of the story seemed to proceed briskly, with a good number of events, discussions and plot developments packed into the tale.
I found the early story to not always be as clear as I would have liked, but that ceased to be an issue after a few chapters. The book features several characters from some very different walks of life, but most resolves around Pazel Pathkendle, a young scholar proficient with languages, who has lost his previous life due to war, and now survives as best he can as a sailor. As the plot evolves, the reader discovers that he is involved in some extraordinary events and quickly becomes swept up in multiple intrigues with consequences ranging from the mundane to those that hold the potential to be quite serious. This is very much the first part of what I understand to be a trilogy, but I believe that the author breaks it at a good point, leaving some plot threads resolved while others are still outstanding.
Third, I read
Farlander by Col Buchanan. I found this to be the least enjoyable of those that I've read recently and more than once had to nudge myself into picking it up again. It tells the story of a boy who lives in a city at siege, and what happens to him as he struggles to survive and encounters an elite order of assassins. Despite the potential inherent in such concepts, I don't think that the author did a good job of developing them or capitalizing on them. To some extent the book reminded me of a "Big-Budget Summer Movie" in which hinting at, or even just having, a "cool" idea is thought to be "good enough". The level of characterization was definitely not up to what I was looking for, and while that can be more easily overlooked for me if a book excels in other areas, I can't really say that I thought that there was anything that it
did excel in. I think that the best I might say of this is that I was uninspired.
On the other end of the spectrum, "uninspired" is in no way a word that I would use to describe
Among Thieves: A Tale of the Kin by Douglas Hulick. At the very beginning I was concerned that this would be a rather generic story of assassins, but after the first chapter or two that was no longer a concern. The main character and his world were well-developed and distinctive. The plot seems original and contains a fair number of twists, intrigues and competing factions. There was no chance that I would be able to figure out in advance how it might end. In some (very positive) ways I was much reminded of Scott Lynch. I might have hoped to have seen a few situations/characters developed in a bit more depth, but I would guess that the author weighed the advantages of that versus the disadvantages of it slowing the plot down. Overall, I think that this was a very solid debut, and am looking forward to the next story, due June 5th (at least in the U.S.).
