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Shannon DeRespino lives in Sanford
with her husband and their two black
cats, Cam and Raven. She holds a B.A. in
English from Wake Forest University and
an M.A. in English & Creative Writing from
Southern New Hampshire University. She
has been contributing book reviews to the
Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. since 2012.
Theft of Swords
by Michael J. Sullivan
2011 / Fantasy
Review by Shannon DeRespino
It is always exciting when a reader stumbles
across a hidden gem in the world of books.
My discovery of Michael J. Sullivan’s Theft of
Swords was something of a happy accident.
I have long been a fan of fantasy novels, but I
have primarily read those series that are world
famous household names (such as Lord of the
Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, A Song of Ice and
Fire and Harry Potter). I knew that there was
a vast world of fantasy literature completely
untapped by me, and I went to the bookstore
one day with the intent to pick up a fantasy
novel I’d never heard mentioned.
I selected Theft of Swords based on an initial
attraction to the cover art and a perusal of the
book cover summary and a reading of the first
few pages. When I got home, I checked the book
on Goodreads and found that it had a very high
rating with many five star reviews from readers
gushing about the book and its characters. I dove
in with excitement, and I was not disappointed
in the least.
Theft of Swords is the first volume in the
Riyria Revelations, a story cycle originally
self-published by Sullivan. The Revelations
(originally presented as six short novels) proved
popular enough to find a publisher (Orbit), who
published the complete series in three omnibus
collections, two volumes per book. This first
volume collects the first two books in the series:
The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha.
As soon as I began reading, I was hooked.
Sullivan is an excellent writer with that rare
gift of making fantasy worlds feel familiar and
accessible. The Riyria Revelations tell the story
of a pair of outlaws living in a fantasy world and
making their living any way they can. Hadrian
Blackwater is an intelligent and self-confident
mercenary, skilled with a blade. Royce Melborn
is a crafty thief with a secretive past. These two
main characters are extremely well-drawn, and I
found myself instantly liking both of them. Their
friendship and easy camaraderie lights up the
pages, and they work extremely well together.
The first novel begins with Hadrian taking
an assignment against the wishes of Royce,
which ends up swiftly getting them into hot
water when they are framed for the murder of
the king. What follows is an exciting actionadventure
full of excellent plotting, fascinating
supporting characters and perfectly-timed
humor. This is the kind of book that earns the
title of “page turner.” The second novel follows
Royce and Hadrian on a different adventure
involving a large dragon-like beast terrorizing a
small village.
In an interview printed at the back of my
edition of Theft of Swords, Michael J. Sullivan
discusses the fact that he was influenced in his
plotting structure by television shows like Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and Babylon 5. These shows
utilized three interlocking plots: the overall
plot of the series, the arc of each individual
season and the stories found in each episode.
Sullivan uses this same structure in the Riyria
Revelations, with the three volumes together
telling a complete story while each novel
showcases a different unique adventure in the
lives of Royce and Hadrian.
If you are looking for a compulsively
readable fantasy novel off the beaten track
from the mainstream, I can’t recommend these
books enough. Sullivan’s skill as a writer brings
the world to life (with exposition woven in
unobtrusively), and the characters and their
relationships with each other are wonderful and
real. Sullivan also intentionally wrote them for
all audiences so there is no graphic violence,
language or sex. Theft of Swords was followed by
two further volumes, Rise of Empire and Heir of
Novron.
The Morning Gift
by Eva Ibbotson
1993 / Historical Fiction
Review by Shannon DeRespino
I am not typically a re-reader. Once I have
read a book, that tends to be the end of it for
me...even if I truly loved it. There are, of course,
exceptions to every rule, and there are a handful
of books I have read more than once. These tend
to be what I refer to as my “comfort reads” books
that will always make me feel good when I’m in
need of a pick-me-up. As you might imagine,
The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson is one of
those books.
Eva Ibbotson was an Austrian-born author
who mostly wrote for children and teens for
decades. She died in 2010 at the age of 85, but
left behind an excellent body of work written in
her warm, descriptive style. Among her many
novels published, she wrote five historical
fiction novels for older teens or adults which
do not form a series (they are all individual
stories) but do have much in common with one
another. They are each stories of young women
in the early half of the 20th century discovering
themselves (and love) amid European culture. I
would recommend all five of these novels (the
other four are A Countess Below Stairs, The
Reluctant Heiress, A Company of Swans and A
Song for Summer).
However, The Morning Gift has always been
my personal favorite and the only one of the five
that I have read more than once. It tells the story
of an Austrian young woman named Ruth who
has spent her life in Vienna, where her father
is the dean of paleontology at a university.
The family is Jewish and, at the start of Hitler’s
reign, Ruth’s father is replaced in his job by a
non-Jew, the family decides to flee to England
for their safety. Ruth is detained at the border
for a variety of reasons, and in order to get safe
passage out of the country, she marries Quinton
Sommerville, a British former student of her
father’s. She gets safely to England where she
lives in a colorful community of other displaced
Jews and begins attending college locally
where Professor Sommerville turns out to be
one of her instructors.
This is an utterly charming, romantic and
beautifully written novel full of well-crafted
characters. Ruth is an extremely likeable
heroine, and her experiences as a Jew living
in England during Hitler’s reign are wellworth
reading about. Ibbotson is very skillful
with characterization, and every person in
the novel, no matter how small a part, has
a clear personality and purpose. Quin is a
compassionate leading man, and the ending of
the novel is highly satisfying. Why else would I
keep reading this book?
This is the kind of book you never want to
end while you’re reading it, and fans of historical
fiction should give Eva Ibbotson’s work a try if
they have not done so already.
No. 132 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.31