Thursday, August 16, 2018

The Crown Tower

The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles, #1)The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some unexpected things are happening and a university professor appears to be behind them all. Professor Arcadius has brought together a fighter without equal and an incredibly skilled thief. The two are polar opposites and hate one another, but Arcadius has managed to convince them to do one job for him. To steal a single book from a seemingly impregnable fortress.

The Crown Tower could easily have been titled how Hadrian met Royce. Michael J. Sullivan made a good point in saying that Hadrian and Royce wouldn't have been an instant success as a team because of their differences. It's amazing neither tried to kill the other one. For anyone who has read Riyria Revelations suffice to say Hadrian is even more of an optimist while Royce is far more pessimistic.

The story is told largely from three perspectives. Two of these perspectives are obvious as they come from Royce and Hadrian. The third, for me at least, was unexpected. The third perspective came from Gwen. I have to admit I rarely gave Gwen much thought despite her unique position and abilities in Riyria Revelations. I also have to admit, I wouldn't have cared in the least to see her storyline almost completely abandoned. There were at most two or three things about her I was curious about and those simply didn't warrant the number of pages spent detailing her rise from prostitute to lady of her own house.

The Crown Tower was good, but didn't quite hit the spot for me. I did find myself feeling the old Riyria magic towards the end of the book though.

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