Age of Legend

“Time had sneaked in and stolen her recklessness.”



Michael J. Sullivan has done it again: He has written a book that doesn’t need to hide behind any other work in contemporary fantasy. His latest masterpiece, Age of Legend, the Kickstarter of which I had the honour to participate in, begins after the Battle of Grandford at the end of the previous book, Age of War.

This makes “Age of Legend” the fourth book in Michael’s “The Legends of the First Empire” series which I whole-heartedly recommend to, well, actually anyone who reads. (In fact, my wife isn’t really into fantasy but thoroughly enjoyed Michael’s Riyria books.)



I already wrote it in the review for the previous book but this latest instalment solidifies this show more feeling: More and more, “Legends” turns into Michael’s magnum opus. The Riyria books, which are fairly different from Legends, are undoubtedly great but the narrative depth of Legends is absolutely remarkable.



Michael gets pretty much everything right and this starts even before the actual book with his “Author’s Note”:

“Now, there are a few things in this second half that I’ve done differently than my other books, and I want to warn you about them in advance.”

This is expectation management done right – before we even get started Michael informs us about what he has done differently. I love his transparency.

The main part of the book again takes us to the war of the Rhunes against the Fhrey and lets us accompany our heroes Persephone, Suri, Brin, Gifford and the others in their global as well as their personal struggles. True, some of them take a backseat compared to the earlier books but to me at least this feels completely natural – there's so much story to tell that the narration has to concentrate on slightly fewer characters. Some of them grow far beyond what I expected (and they themselves!) and some fall short of their own expectations.

Michael is a master of characterisation, though, and consequently, those characters he focusses on truly come to life and “feel” real, alive. Literally nobody here is perfect, none of them are spotless white-vested heroes. As do we all, our heroes struggle – against their own fallibility, their doubts and, of course, an enemy who considers them animals.

Among all the considerable developments in this book, Michael never loses his touch for careful world building, e. g. a very simple question...

“I noticed a number of carts being lashed to horses outside. What’s that all about?”

… leads us to the invention of chariots. Just as in the earlier books this is executed brilliantly.



And while all this plays out about 3000 years before Riyria and, thus, long before our time, Michael carefully makes us think of contemporary challenges but never preaches or lectures us:



“The dwarf?” Malcolm paused and thought a moment. “Well, I wasn’t referring to him specifically. But now that you bring it up, I should point out that you run the risk of painting a whole race with the same ugly brush, which could have unexpected consequences in the future.”



I think Michael’s greatest gift and the key to understanding his work but especially “The Legends of the First Empire” is his empathy. The downtrodden, the despised – however deserved that may be – are not beyond redemption. This deeply human attitude is part of what makes me love his books:



“Empathy—the ability to understand and appreciate the feelings of others—is the cornerstone of civilization and the foundation of our relationships. Lack of it . . . well, lack of empathy is as close to a definition of evil that I can come up with.”



In the beginning, I already referred to Michael doing Kickstarter projects for his latest works (and even this he does pretty much perfectly).

Kickstarter projects are great for this kind of stuff – the author finally gets more than just a meagre share of the proceedings and we, the readers, get to read the book earlier at the very least and, if committing by pledging higher amounts, lots of other goodies. I certainly wish more authors would make such good use of Kickstarter.



So, if you’re into fantasy go ahead and read Michael J. Sullivan’s fantastic books! show less

This book felt choppier than previous ones in the series, and ends on a cliffhanger (well, more than one cliffhanger, really)! While a few questions got answered, many more were left unanswered and new ones were raised, so there is little sense of closure. I know there are 2 more books in the series, but in the past, at least one or two story arcs were concluded by the end of a book. Not this time…

I have always found it amazing that in the vast expanse of eternity, several significant yet unrelated events can occur simultaneously. Such things make we wonder what the gods know that I do not.
-The Book of Brin

Age of Legend is the fourth book in the Legends of the First Empire series by Michael J. Sullivan. It is also the point where the series takes a mythological turn as the story's tone and focus shifts. The war between Rhunes and Fhrey has been going for years and is now in a stalemate. While both sides desire an end to the war, one side desires peace while the other aims for nothing short of the extinction their enemies.

What I didn't realize going into the second half of the series is that these three books were written as one show more story and broken into a trilogy due to size. This entry definitely reads as one long prologue with a set up for the remaining two books to come. There are some interesting reveals and a seriously bad decision all to move various characters into place for what's to come. Just as everyone is in place and the plot gets going, it ends. Not just ends but ends in one heck of a cliffhanger. I'm glad I waited for the series to finish being published so I don't have to wait to see what happens next. show less

Description
The war with the Fhrey has officially begun. Limping from an almost-lost victory, the humans rally for the next clash; but battle never plays out as expected.

Suri was a wild-looking Mystic, with every intention of telling the village leader her prediction of widespread death, then returning to her life in the woods. Now, no longer just a Mystic, but also a human fully capable in the Fhrey’s magic Art, she finds herself surrounded by death, and nowhere near returning to her old home in Hawthorne Glen.

Raked with grief and loss, she follows the friends that she unexpectedly found, and is only led further into the human/ Fhrey conflict. How can she continue despite everything she has lost; and what help can she be, refusing to show more call down destruction with the power of the Art? More importantly, what happens when a butterfly wants to become a caterpillar?

Disclosure
I personally bought this book. There was no agreement with the author, publisher, or any third party that I would publish a review. The following review is unsolicited, unbiased, and all opinions are my own.

Review – Spoiler Free
Fourth in Sullivan’s six book series, The Legends of the First Empire, Age of Legend bridges the series’ first half to its second half. (Read the review of the first book in the series, Age of Myth, on my blog.) At two points the story jumps forward, skipping past chunks of time. Some readers may lament not being able to read through specific events that occurred during those skipped times, but I honestly didn’t miss them. It was obvious to the story that they had occurred, and it saved much droning on about the progress of the war.

The skips, and certain developments within the story made it a little hard to pin down one specific ‘main character’, but again, I wasn’t bothered by this. Sullivan is such a strong writer, that it is easy to follow a new story line with clarity while also not losing touch or understanding with the other continuing story lines not being told at the forefront.

Honestly, my only disappointment with this was the general absence of a character that the story previously followed closely. Their absence was perfectly understandable, I just wish that they were more pivotal in the few scenes we had them ‘on screen’ for.

Overall, I loved this book. As always, Sullivan’s work is full of good story layers and unexpected, yet hinted at, plot points that make reading it a joy. show less

OK I am definitely weak, yes I was a Kickstarter backer and I thought I could wait for the actual physical release of Age of Legend. But I guess not as I just went through the book this weekend. I mean what else was I going to do after a blizzard rolled through and dumped nearly 2 feet of snow and stranding us in...

********* WARNING THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS OF THE PRIOR BOOKS AHEAD ***********

[and I will try to keep other spoilers to a minimum since well this is still nearly 3 months prior to official publication, and those who have read the original Riyria books some of these "spoilers" won't come as a surprise]

Now this book definitely has a different feel than the other books in the Legends of the First Empire series. Where as the show more first 3 books happened in relatively short time, this comes away with multiple time jumps but Michael does explain that in the Author's Note in the beginning of the book and some of the reasons behind it.

But as with the prior books the War between the Rhunes and the Fhrey is in full swing. The Battle of Granford is over and Fane Lothian has suffered a crushing defeat after the Raithe sacrificed himself to Suri in order to summon him back as a Gilarabrywn to bring destruction on the elven forces and force their retreat.

Now it is time for Nyphron to lead the forces of the west in an offensive against the retreating elves. But as with all wars nothing ever goes according to plans. Engagements that often plan on taking days or weeks then turn into months and years.

Relationships further bloom and those who you least expect to make a difference or even notice become those that will eventually hold the fate of all in their hands.

And as with all wars scarifies are always to be found but they may not come in the form one suspects or sees coming. And when gods meddle in the affairs of the worlds all bets are off.

Now I have to wait for Age of Death later this year, because the cliffhanger at the end makes me want to just scream why... show less

The good:

If you have been enjoying the Legends of the First Empire so far, you're probably going to enjoy this and the newish direction it takes. In a very positive way, it is more of the same with many of the same characters, dealing with the aftermath of the big blow-out of the previous book and learning how to move forward. Brin gets a lot of page-time and I, for the most part, enjoyed these parts more than the rest. Writing about writing is fun.

The bad, or rather, the indifferent:

I just couldn't get into this book much. I found my mind wandering a lot, never connecting or caring much about most of the happenings or the characters. It might just be me or perhaps I'm getting slightly burned out on the series.

It's a shame! I did enjoy show more quite a few parts of the previous tales, and this one has some pretty interesting, if very late, reveals that rallied my attention. I'm just not sure if I feel like it's worth it, tho. ; ;

Who knows? Maybe the rather mythological new direction will appeal to a lot of ya'll. show less

So this book finishes on a cliffhanger of biblical proportions. Good thing that Age of Death is now out so I don't have to suffer too long. But I did feel this book was a little slower than previous books. There was a lot to tell I guess. I was mostly interested in Suri's side of this book rather than the rhunes fighting fhrey. There was a bit of jumping around to each character and a few I wanted to strangle. It's good to know the back stories...But mostly I just want to get back to Hadrian and Royce. I miss those guys.