Reddit reviews Theft of Swords (Riyria Revelations box set Book 1)
We found 18 Reddit comments about Theft of Swords (Riyria Revelations box set Book 1). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Brian's book is just one of the novels in the Orbit Cyber Monday sale. All are $2.99 and a list of the fantasy titles is provided here:
Title|Author|Book #|Series|Rating | # Ratings
:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:
The Fifth Season | N.K. Jemisin | 1 | Broken Earth | 4.31 | 34,271
The Black Prism | Brent Weeks | 1 | Lightbringer | 4.24 | 68,494
The Last Wish | Andrzej Sapkowski | 1 | Introducing the Witcher | 4.20 | 58,433
Blood of Elves | Andrzej Sapkowski | 1 | The Witcher | 4.23 | 32,039
The Shadow of What Was Lost | James Islington | 1 | Licanius Trilogy | 4.16 | 9,656
Sins of Empire | Brian McClellan | 1 | Gods of Blood and Powder | 4.47 | 3,727
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan | 1 | Powder Mage| 4.16| 26,245
The Blade Itself | Joe Abercrombie | 1 | First Law | 4.14| 111,811
Theft of Swords^1 | Michael J. Sullivan | 1 | Riyria Revelations | 4.21 | 38,525
The City Stained Red | Sam Sykes | 1 | Bring Down Heaven | 3.68 | 1,088
The Red Knight | Miles Cameron | 1 | Traitor Son Cycle | 4.12 | 10,607
Skyborn | David Dalglish | 1 | Seraphim | 3.92 | 1,010
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^1 In full disclosure - this is a book that I wrote.
Since no one's mentioned it yet, i'm going to recommend Michael Sullivan's Riyria Revelations series, starting with Theft of Swords , the author really tells a great story and though i wouldn't necessarily call it completely light hearted, its never grimdark
Riyria Revelations. A good sci-fi one that's more cerebral is Jean le Flambeur. Those are both thief types. For a great one that's more assassin oriented with tons of action is this sci-fi/fantasy crossover: The Acts of Caine.
I happen to write novels with a lot of dungeon crawling in them :)
Apart from me, another redditor is writer /u/MichaelJSullivan and his Ryria Revelations has a big dungeon crawl.
Paul Kidd's Greyhawk series are some classic D&D dungeon crawl books.
Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria books would probably fit nicely. It started off self-pubbed and it kind of shows, but they're a fun read.
It was publishes as Theft of Swords which is books 1 and 2 combined
Leiber and Howard, for sure. After that:
/u/Paul_S_Kemp has written the BEST of modern fantasy's sword & sorcery tales with his series The Tales of Egil and Nix, which starts with The Hammer and The Blade.
Coming in JUST behind that, and with slightly more torture in at least one of their souls, /u/MichaelJSullivan has the also excellent Riyria Revelations, starting with Volume One: Theft of Swords.
Great topic, I look forward to seeing everyone else's recommendations.
These definitely aren't the worst-case-scenario, but I still wouldn't pick them up if I saw them on a shelf. They just don't spark my interest.
THAT being said, two of my favorite books - Theft of Swords and The Name of the Wind - are books that I would NEVER have picked up if a friend didn't recommend them. I don't think your examples are bad because (1) it looks like art rather than a photo, and (2) enough of the character's face is hidden (or their back is turned) to still let the reader imagine what the character looks like.
Hrm. Maybe House of Blades and the rest of the Traveler's Gate Trilogy by Will Wight? This doesn't have quite as much of a group dynamic as Steelheart, but it does meet most of your other requirements.
Do you like thievery stories? The Lies of Locke Lamora has a lot of teamwork between a group of thieves. It's darker than Sanderson's stuff, though.
Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria Revalations have a great team dynamic between the two central protagonists. Much like Locke Lamora, it has a lot of thievery stuff, but it's not quite as brutal or dark.
If you'll forgive a little self-promotion, you might like my own book, Forging Divinity, too. Brandon Sanderson was one of my primary inspirations for it. You'll get more of the banter after the first few chapters, and it's definitely heavy on action.
I'm also a fan of this trope, though I didn't really realize it until now. If you're not adverse to fantasy as a genre, I've a couple of suggestions for you.
The Dresden Files has a couple of characters who are like this towards Harry Dresden, himself. It's not very prevalent in the first couple of books, but a theme starts to develop where Dresden starts to really doubt his own inherit goodness while his surrounding friends refuse to do the same. Two characters in particular (a priest and holy warrior of sorts) really strike that Myriel chord.
The other series may be a bit of stretch, but it was the first thing I though of: the Riyria Revelations by Michael Sullivan. It's a mostly light, entertaining fantasy series with a kind of buddy-cop relationship between the two main characters. One of those main characters, however, is a little morally grey and the other protagonist plays the role of believing in that he is actually a good man. Religion also plays a big part in the story, but neither protagonist is religious themselves (as far as I can remember.)
I don't think either of these are generally considered Young Adult, but they're both light, fast-paced reads like those in that genre tend to be.
I'm reading two right now. Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan and The King by J. R. Ward. They're both pretty fun. The Michael Sullivan one is the first in a series (actually, it's an omnibus of the first two in a series) and the J.R. Ward one is the newest in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. If you're interested in BDB, I recommend starting with Dark Lover, which is the first in the series. This isn't a series that you can jump into from the middle.
By the way, I highly recommend "Theft of Swords", by Michael J. Sullivan. It has conspiracies, sword-fights, action, adventure... the whole lot. I personally enjoyed it a lot. Here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XWBUKK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I agree with a lot of the suggestions so far.
Fritz Lieber's Lankhmar books, while there are a lot of them, are quick reads, and well worth checking out if you haven't read them.
Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories are worth a read, too.
If you haven't already read Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Cycle, you might enjoy them, and they are short and easy reads.
J.D. Hallowell's War of the Blades series is only two books, definitely quick reads.
Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria Revelations should definitely be on your list.
ooo I wanted to try this book
Super, thanks :) And it is kindle!! Quotes I don't ever remember but maybe I'll look one up and put here later. :)
Those are gorgeous!
I've only ever seen the US covers that look somewhat like TV show posters.
I would love to read Theft of Swords as I watch fireworks! Thank you for this contest!!
EDITED FOR (Not so) FUN FACT:
Did you know that Cows actually eat more than grass? They have been known to eat baby chickens and birds. :(
I would love Theft of Swords
Fun Fact, each episode of Game of Thrones costs about six million dollars to create. Fireworks
It's not any more than any other book, and less than some. Where are you looking? You could be looking at some of the older self published books, back before it was published by orbit. Here's a link to amazon for the current price. https://www.amazon.com/Theft-Swords-Riyria-Revelations-Book-ebook/dp/B004XWBUKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518632238&sr=8-1&keywords=riyria+revelations