Reviews

Rise of Empire by Michael J. Sullivan

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a_chickletz's review against another edition

4.0

Now that I’ve started, I must finish this series. Shortly after reading the first volume of the Riyria, I knew I had to read more.

Royce and Hadrian have become my new favorites in literary form. In these two stories we got to understand more about Hadrian and tad bit more about Royce. I don’t want to spoil everything in the story, so I won’t divulge what we got to know about them. However, it was nice to see them refer to events prior to the stories we read (which will be coming out now as prequels of sorts).

Unlike the first book, I sadly had some slight problems with this book.

Spoiler

I didn’t understand that if Arista had ‘vanished’ from her brother’s court, why was nobody looking for her? Why was nobody worried? I don’t understand why we didn’t hear anything about her brother looking for her or searching for her. It could be perhaps he assumed that she was with Hadrian and Royce, but I feel as though during all the weeks Arista spent with two thieves… there wasn’t some sort of ‘by the way, Alaric is looking for you’ from a character. Which I can see kind of fits into the trope that a lot of people had about Arista being the perfect woman – fights, rules providences, does magic, saves people, etc.

Another problem was the object of using ‘rape’ as a way of threatening all the women in the book. I can see it being mentioned once or twice, but every woman was threatened with rape. I think Arista was given a slight change of terms about being burnt or whipped, but rape was included as some sort of punishment. I kind of got tired of it and wished for another form of torture or a way installing fear.

The book sort of hit a low when they were on the boat – something about characters on a boat become a bit of a trap for me and I feel like the story and whatever ‘fun’ is there is sucked out. Then again, traveling on a boat is a long, tedious journey so the feel of reading it probably made me feel as though I was taking that long, tedious journey with them.

I kept waiting for Marius to meet up with Royce and Hadrian but I’m thinking that’s not going to happen until later. I find him such an intriguing foe and quite the darker half of Royce in terms of personality and cunning. I suspect that Royce will finally meet up with him in the last volume which I am highly anticipating.

I love that every time I feel as though I figured out the story or I think I can see something coming a mile away, the story takes a turn and I’m left with a smile on my face. That’s the true beauty of a book. Not knowing where the story will lead you and the thrill of the ride.

I’m currently working on the last volume and I hope to get my hands on the prequels. In the meantime, this book was a fun, enjoyable, adventure for Hadrian and Royce.