Theft of Swords (Riyria Revelations 01-02) by Michael J. Sullivan Review

Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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The Riyria Revelations follows the exploits of a unique couple of friends. They are unique in the sense, that one of them is a talented thief while the other is a former mercenary adept at warfare. They are famous (or notorious, as the case may be) for taking on the toughest jobs, which no one else will touch, and succeeding at them. Both the books in the Theft of Swords omnibus have such jobs as the starting point. Their reputation of being invincible has been carefully developed by the author. It really seems that this reputation is well-deserved as we see them getting out of impossibly difficult situations with skill and a lot of luck.

The Riyria Revelations: A Series Overview by Michael J. Sullivan

This post is part of ‘Michael J. Sullivan as featured author for an entire week’. During the week we will be having a number of posts by Michael. You can find the details here. There will also be a giveaway happening for Michael J. Sullivan’s Theft of Swords, which is the first book in the Riyria Revelations series. Details of the giveaway can be found here.

The Riyria Revelations was twenty-one years in the making and while it was never intended to be published at all, it has come to market by each of the various publishing paths: a small press (AMI), self-published (through my wife’s company, Ridan), and now through a big-six traditional publisher (Orbit, fantasy imprint of publishing giant Hachette Book Group).

The reason that I say it was never intended to be published is because there was a time when I had given up on my dream of writing for a living. Most of the story came to me during a period of ten years when I never touched the keyboard. When I finally broke down and decided to write again, publishing was not one of my goals. I wrote the series merely as something that I wanted to read.  My intention was to make it available only to friends and family, and in many ways this decision freed me to write something that is, I hope you’ll agree, unique.