[QuickTidal]

My god, I dunno how I missed this one. this guy has released 5 book in a six book series this year and having just finished the first one I am blown the hell away! Simply amazing. A return to old school style fantasy but with a new fantasy style. I reviewed it up at my site.

I think everyone should read this guys book. Just fantastic.

The series is called The Riyria Revelations and consists of THE CROWN CONSPIRACY, AVEMPARTHA,NYPHRON RISING, THE EMERALD STORM, WINTERTIDE, and PERCEPLIQUIS (forthcoming next spring).

http://icebergink.bl...by-michael.html

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 24 October 2010 - 09:19 PM

[Aptorian]

Sounds good, it will be interesting to hear your opinion of how the series develops. From the blurb it sounds like just another typical loveable rogues find themselves in the middle of bad things that we've heard of a thousand times before.

Quick question, what kind of world is this and what is the world building like? Are we talking classic horse and swords and old sorcerors in their magical towers, or is it a more modern take on the old ideas?

[QuickTidal]

It's got old fantasy tropes, and takes place in a medieval world, but the old sorcerer is actually a young guy and significantly dangerous. Basically it has the tropes of classic fantasy with the edge of modern ideas. It all just clicks really well.

[QuickTidal]

Okay, the Michael J. Sullivan (who I emailed telling him how I enjoyed it and pointed him at the review) emailed me back about how blown away he was by my review....and he even Tweeted about it!

http://twitter.com/author_sullivan

[End of Disc One]

You seem to like a lot of the books I like, so I will definitely keep an eye on this.

[Abyss]

End of Disc One, on 24 October 2010 - 11:35 PM, said:

You seem to like a lot of the books I like, so I will definitely keep an eye on this.

What he said.

[Astra]

Michael J. Sullivan's better half posted at sffworld.com

Quote

I thought I would stop by and let people know that my husband's second book Avempartha is being offered free by the publisher for a limited time. Don't be concerned that it is the "second book" as it stands on its own and reading The Crown Conspiray is not a requirement.

This is being done to celebrate the release of his fifth book Wintertide that just hit the street.

You can get the free Avempartha at Barnes and Noble from this link. If you have a Kindle or other reading device you can get a free copy by emailing the publisher at: ridan.ship@gmail.com.

[Aptorian]

That makes no sense at all. How are you going to attract people to buy your series by offering the second volume in the series??? Why not the first book? My guess is that some guy down in the paper mill accidentally put an extra zero on the amount of copies they wanted printed of the second book... or something...

[Abyss]

it seems they're only giving the ebook away for free, and then only for the Nook - do i have that right?

[Astra]

Abyss, on 25 October 2010 - 05:12 PM, said:

it seems they're only giving the ebook away for free, and then only for the Nook - do i have that right?

Yes

No
For nook you go to B&N, for the rest of the ebook readers you send email request as she said and you get the ebook in the requested format. Yesterday night I asked for epub, today in the morning I got it.

This post has been edited by Astra: 25 October 2010 - 05:56 PM

[QuickTidal]

The series is episodic (though it has small tidbit threads running through it for the series), so like she said you don't have to read the first one first...but it helps naturally. That said, even if I had read AVEMPARTHA first, I think it would intrigue me enough (I'm about 130 pages into the second book already) to go out and find the first.

[Astra]

Aptorian, on 25 October 2010 - 04:35 PM, said:

That makes no sense at all. How are you going to attract people to buy your series by offering the second volume in the series??? Why not the first book? My guess is that some guy down in the paper mill accidentally put an extra zero on the amount of copies they wanted printed of the second book... or something...

Do not waste your time on trying to decipher publishers' ways.

[QuickTidal]

Review for AVEMPARTHA will be up before morning....Jeebus I read this one even faster!

At any rate, I ordered the 4th and 5th books from the author and RIDAN directly so I could get autographed copies. Am excited!

I am also hoping (and my hope is apparently not unfounded) that I might be able to get my hands on an ARC of the final sixth book before its April release, which would be so great!

...cause the big companies (TOR, Gollanzc, Del Ray) are completely ignoring my requests for ARCs or review copies.

[QuickTidal]

Okay, the review for the second book AVEMPARTHA...which I read in pretty much one sitting today if that tells you anything about how much I enjoyed it...is up at the site. Go have a gander.

http://icebergink.bl...-michael-j.html

[FantasyFan]

Aptorian, on 25 October 2010 - 04:35 PM, said:

That makes no sense at all. How are you going to attract people to buy your series by offering the second volume in the series??? Why not the first book? My guess is that some guy down in the paper mill accidentally put an extra zero on the amount of copies they wanted printed of the second book... or something...

What a nice surprise to find this thread - I'm the wife (though not sure I can be classified as "better half") of Michael and its safe to say that he's loved the reviews posted on Iceberg Ink. As to why the second book is posted for free?? I think it comes down to Avempartha really starts the "larger arc going" - and in many ways The Crown Conspiracy is like the appetizer and the "main meal" starts with Avempartha and is pivotal to a larger story arc that runs through the series, while Crown is a pretty stand alone - almose a "prequel". Crown has always been meant as a fast-paced romp to get you palate ready (wow I must be hungry many food references here) and if you "skip" it nothing about the series really changes. It's focus is on plot and pace and it really doesn't waste time with a lot of background of the characters or much of the world building so I think Avempartha is a bit better representation of the series as a whole.

One other thing I should point out...Book 1 - The Crown Conspiracy is also available for free but in audio format. You can find it in the itunes store and is read by Nathan Lowell who is a fabulous voice talent. It can also be found on podiobooks.com which may have contributed to the decision to offer book 2.

Thanks again QuickTidal - for helping to spread the word. Michael is a new author from a small press and they obviously don't have the resources (either marketing or distribution) as some of the larger boys but I think the quality of the books they are putting out rivals anything that New York produces.

Robin.

This post has been edited by Silencer: 26 October 2010 - 09:04 AM
Reason for edit: Fixing link :)

[Aptorian]

Thanks for the input. I think I will pick up the 2nd volume then after all.

[FantasyFan]

Aptorian, on 26 October 2010 - 08:09 AM, said:

Thanks for the input. I think I will pick up the 2nd volume then after all.

Glad to hear it - Based on reviews and lots of input I've read from others I think you will enjoy.

[Morgoth]

Not being much of a fan of the more classic fantasy these days (being grumpy happens early for some it would seem), I can't resist a free audio book this close to my exams.

[Silencer]

@FantasyFan - hey there, I just edited your post because the link to podiobooks was incorrect. It made itself an internal site link, and of course we have no page listed as malazanempire.com/Crown. It now correctly points to the Crown Conspiracy page on podiobooks. Hope you don't mind,

- Silencer

[FantasyFan]

Silencer, on 26 October 2010 - 09:07 AM, said:

@FantasyFan - hey there, I just edited your post because the link to podiobooks was incorrect. It made itself an internal site link, and of course we have no page listed as malazanempire.com/Crown. It now correctly points to the Crown Conspiracy page on podiobooks. Hope you don't mind,

- Silencer

Not at all - thanks for fixing it - not sure what happened there.