I have now completed all of the available Riyria tales and I can tell you that it has been a fun ride all the way through. I have not read a group of novels recently where I was engrossed in the characters and world like I have been with Royce and Hadrian. I am sure some of this is due to the wonderful narrator, Tim Gerard Reynolds, that Michael used to tell his stories but it was not just this that made these so enjoyable. Michael draws you in and you develop a real relationship with his characters throughout the six book (so far) in this world. I am looking forward to moving on to his Age of Myth stories next, of course in audio as told by Tim Reynolds.

5 Stars for a "must read" epic fantasy tale!!!

I was exhausted after this book. Emotionally and physically. I read nonstop over the weekend to finish the Riyria Revelations, averaging 4 hours of sleep, forgetting to eat. I wasn’t done though. As soon as I finished the Revelations series, I picked up the Chronicles. Reviews for those will have to be next week. Anyways...

 

What an ending. I called it. My suspicion of who the heir was by the end of Rise of Empire was right. Yay me.

 

I shamefully admit that I skimmed and even skipped certain sections. If anyone has read my other reviews, they’ll know I’m a 100% devoted to Royce’s character. That means I can’t really be bothered with other story lines. It’s a reading habit that I absolutely despise. Luckily, I can count on one hand the number of characters that have done this to me. As I said before, sure there are characters in books that I love... adore, even. But few ensnare me as Royce did. Kvothe is one. Sorna another. None more than Raistlin. But Royce came in only second to Raistlin, who I don’t think can ever be topped, in my humble opinion. You’ll notice that all these are characters who start from the bottom and try to overcome all the hell they’ve been through. I love those characters. They make me feel strong. They give me hope. They make me take a step back and not be so judgmental of others. They remind me not to focus on the bad stuff I’ve been through, cause I didn’t have anything nearly as horrible as them. Sure, they’re fictional, but isn’t there truth in fiction?

 

My biggest beef with the beginning of this book is there wasn’t enough Royce and Hadrian time. I needed them to spend more time together. Even if I wasn’t as addicted to Royce, the other parts were extremely slow.

 

I cried in this book. And I like to cry in a book. I like to be moved. I could cry right now remembering why I cried. That’s powerful stuff.

 

I’ve already read both of the Chronicle books, and I agree with Sullivan that reading them in the order he published is a good idea (Revelations before the Chronicle). I think it keeps things just a bit more mysterious. I, however (in perhaps a year or so), plan to read them in chronological order. And I plan to not skim this time. I know the ending, so I can slow down. Furthermore, I believe Sullivan added tiny tidbits here and there that would be jewels to find, now I know what to look for. I think it’d be fun.

 

Oh, and Mr. Sullivan, if you read this, I’d absolutely love a book that follows Royce throughout his childhood up until he meets Hadrian. And I’d love love love more stories of Hadrian and Royce doing some exciting jobs. Their banter and interaction is great.

 

So to conclude, this series has shot up to my favorite top five and I’m a huge fan of Sullivan.

Wonderful book and outstanding ending of a great trilogy. This series is absolutely precious, with great plot and characters. I got hooked after reading the first book of the Riyria chronicles, which is also the first in chronological order, and I would recommend starting with it because, even though you can read them in publishing order, I enjoyed having no prior knowledge of how the future was going to unfold. The writing style is also much enjoyable and sets the story going at the right pace. I highly recommend this book and this series, and thanks to gr community and the author himself who piqued my curiosity and let me get started on Riyria. Also, don't miss the short story on "unfettered anthology", my very first Hadrian and Royce encounter.

Wonderful book and outstanding ending of a great trilogy. This series is absolutely precious, with great plot and characters. I got hooked after reading the first book of the Riyria chronicles, which is also the first in chronological order, and I would recommend starting with it because, even though you can read them in publishing order, I enjoyed having no prior knowledge of how the future was going to unfold. The writing style is also much enjoyable and sets the story going at the right pace. I highly recommend this book and this series, and thanks to gr community and the author himself who piqued my curiosity and let me get started on Riyria. Also, don't miss the short story on "unfettered anthology", my very first Hadrian and Royce encounter.

Second part of my four part look at my favorites of this year.  This grouping represents those authors that I have read and enjoyed in the past but whose work has never quite risen to the level of favorite of the year.  Until this year.

 

Part 2 - Familiar authors who stepped up to the plate

 

  I discovered Kristen Ashley last year and did a major glom of her work.  Own the Wind is the follow-up to Motorcycle Man -- a book that I felt was one of her best.  This book is the one where KA got some polished editing that fixed some of the technical issues I have always had with her books.  It felt tighter and more cohesive.  It also did Tabby and Shy major justice.  While subsequent books that came out later than this one seemed to me to have muted some of the raw charm of her voice, I think this one was a big hit.

 

   This is the first year my epic fantasy reading was in the single digits.  But this omnibus of the final two books of the Riyria Revelations represented hard!   The entire series was a delight from the very first page.  But these final two books did exactly what the final story in a great fantasy story is supposed to do.  It made great use of its wide case of characters, it was exciting, bad people got justice and good people got rewarded, questions got answered, dangling story ends got all tied up and I closed the book with a big ass grin on my face.  Perfect.

 

 

  This dystopian erotica anything goes alt fiction was a revelation!  By the time it got to this third book, I was in love with the series.  And the hero & heroine of this installment, Six and Bren, were beautifully rendered.  The world-building gets better each book and  the characters are fantastic.   Keeping my fingers crossed that the series stays strong and goes diverse.  Biggest downside for alt-future type book like this is how disappointing it is in the diversity department so far.

 

 

Next up Part 3 - The Newbies.