I Call This a "Lazer"

Michael J Sullivan “Age of Swords” (Del Rey Books, 2017)

My friend tells me stories about a guy he knows: the guy is just smart enough to have some good ideas, but not smart enough to realize that someone else had that idea a long time ago. Or maybe to overlook an obvious flaw in his thinking (such as the flame toilet that was made of wood).

Age of Swords is the second book in Sullivan’s Legends of the First Empire series. It’s a sprawling prequel series, set long long before his earlier books. (It’s actually rather brilliant: he is avoiding the usual problems with prequels by having his prequels set so far before that spoiling is more or less irrelevant.)

Basically we’ve got a situation where a huge war is about to erupt, with the elves fighting against all the other races (except the giants, at this point). We have multiple factions of humans working with some dwarves and renegade elves.  We’re at one of those mid points in a series, where the big action sequences aren’t happening yet, but he needs to get some dramatic action as pieces are moved into place.

To Sullivan’s great credit, his storytelling chops are strong enough that it really isn’t much of a problem to keep the pages turning.

My only real complaint is that the very small group of primitive humans contain multiple prodigies. We have a culture that does not have much sophistication in technology or social relations.  Yet somehow our characters are making significant breakthroughs all within a brief window of time. And not just to create their own inventions but also to duplicate or incorporate those of others into their concepts.

I know, this is the type of book where you just need to put those sorts of reservations by the door. And no matter my reservations, this was a very enjoyable book. Sullivan spins a great yarn, and the pages kept turning and there was a smile on my face the whole time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for a review copy.

Gods Don't Die. They're Immortal.

Michael J Sullivan “Age of Myth” (Del Rey, 2016)

Sometimes you don’t want challenging.  Sometimes you want pasta or a hamburger or mac & cheese. You want the enjoyment of the familiar, done well.

Michael J Sullivan isn’t looking to reinvent genre here.  He’s looking to go straight down the middle of the road, & tell a damn good story.  It’s steak & potatoes, fantasy style.

This is the start of a new series, set thousands (?) of years before the beginning of his earlier work.  As the start of a fantasy series, there is a whole lot more set up than follow through in this volume, but there is easily enough to enjoy volume one.

A Stone Age human kills an elf-analogue & the whole thing seems to start a war between the two races.  At the end of this volume the war hasn’t really started yet, but it’s inevitable.  

This is a fantastic summer read!  Sullivan does a great job with tropes & characters.  There’s a sense that this is familiar, but it’s so well done that you enjoy the familiarity.  AND THAT”S OK.  There are lots of interesting characters, great action scenes, intriguing world building.

I for one appreciate how this is a step back from the grimdark stories that seemed to have a strangle hold on the genre a few years ago.  There are consequences and bad things happen, but there’s no torture porn here.

I’m ready for the next volume please!