Heir Of Novron: The Riyria Revelations

Surprisingly Epic!When you read Theft of Swords, it isn't necessarily the writing or the world, or even the plot, that will hook you, but the characters. Rise of Empire upped the stakes, grounded the reader in the beginnings of a larger plot, and told an incredible adventure.Heir of Novron is where things get truly epic!The first book in the volume, Wintertide, is a relatively short book (only 30% of the whole volume), but it packs a punch. It was in this book I realised that these characters and this world started to mean something special to me. To see tragedy befall them, and an overwhelming opposition on the horizon, I gritted my teeth and set to work on the final book in the series.Percepliquis is a masterpiece! It balances the atmosphere of brotherhood I loved from Theft of Swords and Rise of Empire, with a surprisingly epic tale of the world coming to an end.If you like cozy fantasy with low stakes, you would love Theft of Swords, but that volume fools the reader into thinking this is just a story about two guys going on adventures together. The Riyria Revelations is an epic narrative with massive scope.However, those of us who enjoyed the cozy feel of that first volume are not forgotten, as there is still an atmosphere of low-stakes in places, and the characters and writing style make for a comfortable, relaxing read.Brilliant PayoffAll Michael J. Sullivan’s hard work on characterisation, foreshadowing, and worldbuilding come together at the end of The Riyria Revelations to create something amazing. Sullivan weaves mystery upon mystery throughout the series and gives the reader that satisfying cascade of reveals towards the end.All reveals feel earned, with plenty of hints throughout the books. My only complaint is a spoiler, so I won’t mention it in this review of Heir of Novron, but it is minor and not something likely to bother anyone enough to make them dislike this book - I have given it five stars over on Goodreads, after all!Final ThoughtsYou need to read The Riyria Revelations if you haven’t already! This series has become a firm favourite, and I cannot wait to dive into the three other series set in this world; especially The Legends of the First Empire.

Once again, I will put a plot summary with spoilers at the bottom and do my best to avoid them in the excessively vague review itself.Michael J Sullivan concludes his brilliant saga in this volume of two books with all of his usual swagger, style and ever so slightly over the top characters. In book 6 everything comes together and there are some fantastic plot twists.The characters reactions to and with each other are fantastic and despite both the relationships getting grittier and darker, particularly in book 5 and the earlier parts of book 6, in order to match the grittier story as the plot gets thicker and is coming to a conclusion. Everything is however written so well, the relationships are magnificent and you can engage with all of the characters so easily and so well.There's never a dull moment either, there are times where it isn't all action, but you will never have a reason to want to put the book down because Sullivan plays with your emotions so well.***PLOT SUMMARY (CONTAINS SPOILERS)***Book 5: This starts from the perspective of Mince, a little street urchin/pickpocket from a small group of thieves that pick on a pair of incoming unwitting travellers as targets to steal from, the downside, these travellers are Hadrian and Royce, with their usual humour they expose the would be thieves and hire them to help them find Merrick and Gaunt in the Capital and to stable their horses, with some comically gruesome threats.Royce hears that a load of refugees have come from Melgnar so goes off to investigate and leaves Hardian to try and infiltrate the keep for more information. What better way than to try and join the ever growing town guard? The answer is that just after being recruited he walks right into his old enemy Luis Guy and a hundred of his Knights, oops, he surrenders and is taken into custody, in the meantime Royce finds Melgnar to have been sacked, Alric has fled to the Pickering's fortress and his fiancee Gwen has fled to Myron's Abbey, before returning to the capital with Myron to find that Sir Hadrian is jousting in the tourney (he's being set up to help dispose of (Sir Breckton) an embarrassing and potentially dangerous opponent to the regents' regime. Royce continues his research in town and finds that Arista and Gaunt (the Heir) are in an impregnable prison, whilst meeting up with his old enemy Merrick. As Hadrian is trying and failing to learn the ropes of being a nobleman (so a corrupt and unpleasant bastard) which is one of the most entertaining parts of the whole saga.In the final joust both Hadrian and Sir Breckton are arrested for refusing to kill one another with their rigged "safe" lances. They are sentenced to death the next day with Gaunt and Arrista, for the celebration of the Empresses wedding to a political puppet of the Church.That night Royce and Magnus try to bust them out of the prison, Royce finds Magnus has once again left him in a trap, only the city is in uproar and Merrick has managed to get word to King Alrick and the Pickerings, with the Imperial Field Army on their doorstep just in time to get them to unite against the regents in the Empresses name, and charge back to the capital in time to save everyone and arrest the regents.That is followed by one small bloodbath for the final cliffhanger.Book 6: The final instalment starts with the invasion of the Elves of the North and the threat of invasion by the Southern Goblins, they are unstoppable and the evacuees are fleeing to the capitol amongst them, in the midst of this a single child is fleeing Sentinel Thrask on one side and the elven army on the other side, and finds the refugee camp. She ends up protected by Lenare Pickering, who slays the sentinel in a rather entertaining but all too easy duel. They all reach the capital to find Lenare's last bother Mauvin, Alric, Arista, Hadrian, Royce, Myron and almost the whole cast is united. Almost everyone is then hired or press-ganged by the Empress into joining a team to help find a legendary artefact, once wielded by Novron himself, which was the only way to stop the elves the last time they invaded.Arista, Hadrian, Royce, Magnus, Wyatt and a member of his old crew, Alric, Mauvin, Myron, Gaunt, Mince and his band of thieves and Hadrian's old squire duly set out to reach the lost city of Percepliquis and in it to find the artefact.Their quest is frought with dangers and a rather entertaining power stuggle between Arista, Alric and Gaunt.The squire and thieves are forced to stay and guard the horses, however act as the first vanguard to warn the capital of the incoming invasion.The elves invade and decimate the capital in a matter of minutes, until Thrace herself surrenders to protect the remaining refugees. The elves tell her that they are awaiting the blowing of the horn (the artefact Hadrian & Co are looking for) for their religious disputes, and she tells them that Hadrian & Co are out trying to find it, thereby bying time and getting a free ride to the city.In the lost city the team is slowly decimated until only Hadrian, Mauvin, Myron, Arista, Royce and Magnus are left and they succeed, learning about the many lies on which their culture is founded on their way. Arista and Hadrian finally get together and there's an awesome duel to finish. Followed by a couple of chapters solving a few little problems and giving a not exactly unhappy ending, but I'm so glad it wasn't entirely rosy.

What an epic conclusion to the Primary series! I can not wait to read more of what Sullivan has written. His style is so descriptive and easy to read. It captures the mind and doesn’t let go until the early hours of the morning when sleep is a must. I am hooked.

Uma das melhores séries de fantasia que eu li na vida!Hadrian e Royce melhores personagens, além disto, os personagens secundários muito bem escritos também.Este último volume é simplesmente de tirar o folego, é preciso ler para entender o que estou falando, a gente se emociona, torce para que tudo de certo no final, em resumo que jornada maravilhosa.Sei que os demais livros do autor se passam no mesmo mundo (Elan) mas com novos personagens. Com certeza vou ler os outros livros do autor pois adorei a forma como ele escreve.Infelizmente o autor não é reconhecido no Brasil, esta série nem foi finalizada, mas graças ao Kindle Unlimited pude ler Roubo de Espadas e assim conhecer a obra do autor

Ho preso questo libro per mio figlio(15 anni appassionato fantasy), che ha già letto i primi due, e nonostante sia in inglese ha deciso di leggerlo. Dice che è molto bello, quasi meglio degli altri due che già lo hanno conquistato. Così fa esercizio anche di lingua inglese

Note: this omnibus consists of the last two installments of the “Riyria Revelations”-series and since the books need to be read in the intended order, it's not a good place to start reading. If you're new to the series, I recommend to start with “Theft of Swords” or one of the two prequel series.ReviewThe second half of the last book had me on the edge of my seat – and again I don't know how to tell you anything about the stories of these two-book-ominbus without spoiling. I'm making a compromise by adding mild spoilers, since otherwise I literally could not tell anything. But you are warned and read on your own peril.Again the book starts, where the prequel left off with the already known POVs. There is Arista, whose undercover mission ended with her being captured and her voice out of prison is miserable and desperate. I felt for her and could hardly stand to read her parts, for she suffers a lot. Then there is still Amilia, whom lot's of people like, but I don't. I know, she has a good heart and stuff, but I still think her just too narrow-minded to appreciate listening to her. Especially since her POV is only interesting, when she witnesses Modina, aka the empress formerly known as Thrace, do some astounding s***t. And boy is she the epitome of cool! There are pictures, M. Sullivan draws, describing her at crucial moments, that just left me gaping. She is an incredible character in this ominbus. Royce and Hadrian, are wonderful as ever to listen to, but they spend a lot of time apart in the first of the two books, and there is indescribable treachery and subsequent loss to suffer and I suffered alongside. If I tell you, whose loss, you'll know immediately, what's going to happen, so I can't do that. But it hits hard and brought even tears to my eyes. And after Modina cleaned house, everybody finally gets what the elves are really like and what a threat lingered right over the river Nidwalden in the elven realm. Their only chance, if there is any, is finding the lost city of Percepliquis and the mythical horn that is said to be hidden there and that somehow can, when the heir blows it, prevent a full out war. So they start in a “Fellowship of the Ring” manner, with Arista, Royce, Hadrian, Myron, Magnus and others. This adventure is pretty cool, with fights and magic and high stakes, and it answers a lot of questions that have risen over the course of the series. Especially what “The Big Lie” is. But since I have read “Age of Myth”, the start of the series describing the beginning of the first empire 3000 years before, I had a sound idea about that and I was right. But although I got a lot of things right and was impatient to finally see them revealed, there were also things that still got me surprised. And yes, things fall into place rather conveniently at times, but still, it was an overall well wrapped-up finish.What somewhat annoyed me, or at least made me rush through pages, where the POVs from some street kid and squire that I can only guess should give glimpses at the situation at the palace. But they just derailed me. Especially since even the main adventures sometimes felt very prolonged. And there were the obvious things that made me want to shake some of the characters when I was like: “How can you not see that now!?!”. But then I was totally satisfied with the overall outcome and can live with it all. Since the last installment of a series is always also a rating of the whole thing, I can now say that, despite it not being flawless, I loved both the individual books, and the series.

I can't begin to describe how much I enjoyed reading this, and how much I enjoyed the series. The only thing i disliked about it was that it ended. No doubt in a couple of month's time I will go back and re-live the journey again.