Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Discussion for the first half of the Rise of Empire omnibus, Nyphron Rising.

Jarek, when do you want to start this one?

Wednesday it is. How do you wanna do it? Chapter by chapter or daily or something else?

Jarek wrote: "Wednesday it is. How do you wanna do it? Chapter by chapter or daily or something else?"

Doesn't matter - just post whenever you feel like posting :) Chapter by chapter is pretty good if the chapters aren't too short. Just make sure you hide all the spoilers in case one of us is ahead or behind and then say where it is in the book.

Ok great:)starting tomorrow then

Started this in the early morning today:) Once again from the very begining iam instantly hooked. Chapters 1-4 (view spoiler)[Ok so the first thing that hit me was the conditio that Thrace is in..I mean jesus..I expected her to be the churches puppet but this...She was so strong in Avempartha. Hadrian is having a little breakdown..he doesnt want to be Riyria anymore. He has a feeling that he was meant for more..this makes me think more on the whole heir and protector thing. In my book he could be both tilting to the protector side because of his knowledge of fighting. Royce knows who the heir is..or does he. I Wonder why does he think revealing whatever esrahaddon showed him will be a bad thing for Hadrian. I like the character of the simple girl becoming thraces ( Modina) "teacher". I dont know why but now i think that the heir could be a woman..just a hunch (hide spoiler)]

By the way...did anyone notice a patern in the single books color? I read somewhere that Sullivan hinted at this. the first is yellow second is blue and the third is green. Then the 4th is yellow again the 5th blue and the 6th green.

Jarek wrote: "Started this in the early morning today:) Once again from the very begining iam instantly hooked. Chapters 1-4 [spoilers removed]"
(view spoiler)[ Seeing Thrace now is the complete opposite of Avempartha. So much so that I think the name change is necessary for now. The church has not only manipulated her, but abused her so much that they have stripped her of her old identity. Hopefully Amilia can remind her of her old self.
And GRRRR, I just want to slap Hadrian in the face right now and tell him he needs his cheery attitude back. All this skulking is not healthy for him. (hide spoiler)]

I know hes acting a bit like a spoiled teen...i dont wanna play anymore...get it together Hadrian. On the other hand maybe its his past, whatever it is, calling to him in some subtle way. Still, I am wondering how can they not see that they are in the middle of something huge coming....

by the way iam so glad that we have prequels cause i so wanna read about the crown tower, the story with gwen, how they exactly came together for the first time. Chapter 5 explains a bit about that but not in detail

Jarek wrote: "by the way iam so glad that we have prequels cause i so wanna read about the crown tower, the story with gwen, how they exactly came together for the first time. Chapter 5 explains a bit about that..."

I read The Crown Tower first - it's a lot of fun :)

Iam wondering Jenna, do you have any thoughts about who could be the descendants of the protector and the heir?

Jarek wrote: "Iam wondering Jenna, do you have any thoughts about who could be the descendants of the protector and the heir?"

I generally try to stay away for theorizing because I usually end up disappointed. I don't piece things together actively, but when it is revealed, I will either be shocked or not surprised at all. If I'm not surprised that means I probably pieced it together subconciously.

I understand:) what do you think about the feel of this book? It seems to be darker than the previous ones. More...adult I would say. I think its a good thing. If we got the same thing for the third time I don't think it would be as interesting.

Jarek wrote: "I understand:) what do you think about the feel of this book? It seems to be darker than the previous ones. More...adult I would say. I think its a good thing. If we got the same thing for the thir..."

It is a bit darker and so far I'm not sure if I like the first one better or this one...we'll have to wait and see

How far along are you? Ian middle of chapter 7

Royce is such a badass:) I love this guy. Iam really curious about his past

I'm on chapter 8 - I love Royce so much. He's my favourite of all the characters so far.

I really liked the whole scene on the river:D

Finished chapter 8. The pace has slowed a bit in this book but that doesnt mean that its bad. We get more character and world building which being not to excessive it really nice. Sometimes its good to slow down a bit before speeding up again. More insight to Hadrians past this time which was interesting. I Wonder will Royce and Hadrian will have a falling out at some point

Jarek wrote: "Finished chapter 8. The pace has slowed a bit in this book but that doesnt mean that its bad. We get more character and world building which being not to excessive it really nice. Sometimes its goo..."

If they do, I don't think it will last long - they were made to be together.

Yeah i dont think either would manage without the other. They complement each other so well. But Royce is a little selfish by keeping the truth from Hadrian. But then who could blame him. Hadrian is all he has. I mean there's Gwen but its not that kind of bond

Jarek wrote: "Yeah i dont think either would manage without the other. They complement each other so well. But Royce is a little selfish by keeping the truth from Hadrian. But then who could blame him. Hadrian i..."

I think is definitely a bit of selfishness, but he does have a point that Hadrian would just go and get himself killed for no reason. I think he's also right not to totally trust Esra Hadden - he was locked up for 1000 years for a reason.

Totally agree. Esra definitely has a hidden agenda. I like the way arista is opening up to the art of magic. I think she's gonna make it rain:)

up to chapter 14 - (view spoiler)[So after finding out that the bloodline of the heir has been destroyed iam wondering who it might be...I think it will be a woman. Something in my mind is pointing towards amilia but its just a wild hunch. That little flirt between arista and emery...Yeah I mean...kinda cheesy for my taste:) I really did like the little stand off in the tavern between emery and the fat guy. Some really cool dialogue thrown between them:) This 3rd book has less action then the others overall and more political plots,world building and character development. Still, so far its a 5 star read for me. It kinda feels like set up for the next trilogy. That's how I look at these 6 books. Two trilogies telling one epic story (hide spoiler)] I will probably be finishing it today. As fort he next one Jenna Iam ready to start whenever you are. It might take a bit longer than 3 days this time since I really want to catch up a little bit on the second book of the Black Company Shadows Linger. Things are starting to get really interesting there:)

Finished:D what a ride:) in chapter 16 there was a scene where I actually yelled out loud "yes"!! :) I liked that this one was a bit darker for a change. Lots of back story on Hadrian and Royce. We also met some very interesting new characters. The ending...well lets just say you wanna dive into the next one more than ever:D

I finished last night and I accidentally started the next one without even realizing because I have the two book omnibus. I could wait a bit to read the next one though because I am doing The Shadow Campaigns series. I did not like (view spoiler)[ Arista and Emery. It came out of nowhere, but I really loved everything else (hide spoiler)].

No worries:) Iam doing the black company like I said before so ill be catching up on that during the weekend. Nevertheless Ian good to go whenever you are so just let me know when you want to start:)

Random thoughts - on one hand Royce and Hadrian are your typical mercenaries with Royce being ex guild assasin and Hadrian a sword for hire bad ass characters with some dark pasts and bad things done. On the other hand they always seem to do the" right thing". They continue jobs they could abandon. They take jobs for free cause its the good thing to do. They let people live who more than deserve to die and so on. That's all great Ian loving them so much but, its probably just me but I would like to see them sometimes just you know. This guy cheated us, he gotta die no questions asked. Maybe they are just a little bit too correct. I know we're told about their past and they did this stuff but its just a recollection. They never do it in the story

Jarek wrote: "Random thoughts - on one hand Royce and Hadrian are your typical mercenaries with Royce being ex guild assasin and Hadrian a sword for hire bad ass characters with some dark pasts and bad things do..."

Well, it's mostly because of Hadrian. He was so sick of killing and all the violence he committed, but he still wants to have a purpose in his life and stealing is something he is good at. Also, even though Royce is morally ambiguous, Hadrian keeps him at bay and their dialogue is so great that I usually don't care if Royce never does anything bad. I mostly don't have a problem with them seemingly always doing the right thing because Michael Sullivan is not advertising his books as grimdark in any way - just two unlikely partners out for adventures.

You're probably correct. Before this I was reading the broken empire trilogy, the first law and black company so I just got used to things like that

Jarek wrote: "You're probably correct. Before this I was reading the broken empire trilogy, the first law and black company so I just got used to things like that"

Yeah, I always compare books to the other ones I have been reading recently and sometimes it's good to have two very different types of books, but sometimes it will have you raising eyebrows. I read Gardens of the Moon at the same time as the last book in the Farseer Trilogy and I almost tore my eyes out at all the unnecessarily repeated information in Farseer. It was mostly because I was reading GotM which was a lot more complicated. I loved the first of the Farseer books and also really liked the second, but just suffered through a lot of the third.

I haven't read any of them so far. Maybe ill give them a go in the future. As for Gotm. It was a really hard read for me. Putting it down for weeks picking it up again. Same thing with DHG. 50% in and had to put it down. The stories are really epic but I just can't seem to get the reading flow nicely with those books. I might just give up on the series. Not saying its bad
it's really awesome

Jarek wrote: "I haven't read any of them so far. Maybe ill give them a go in the future. As for Gotm. It was a really hard read for me. Putting it down for weeks picking it up again. Same thing with DHG. 50% in ..."

I love the Malazan series so far, but it does take a lot of time and concentration until you get the hang of the writing style. Then it just takes a lot of time.

I'm actually good to start the next one whenever you are, Jarek. I just finished the other book I was reading.

How about Monday? New week new read:)

Jarek wrote: "How about Monday? New week new read:)"

Sounds good :)

I just skimmed the comments here, as I'm only 100 pages in. So far I am enjoying this a lot more than Avempartha, and it seems to be on par with Book 1. I'm hoping to make quick progress with this so should be back with more comments soon!

Sean the ending in this one and the first chapter in the next is so awesome:)

Chapter 9

(view spoiler)[Things are starting to escalate alright! So the rhyme in Hadrian's letter is more than a simple rhyme, and it looks like his father was guiding him towards Ratibor. Which is where we're going next! (hide spoiler)]

Sean wrote: "Chapter 9

[spoilers removed]"

Well we visited Hadrian's home - we have to visit Royce's too.

Keep an eye on that magician from the academy.
Ratibor...such a pleasant place:D

Ending:

(view spoiler)[Loved the ending! I actually enjoyed Amelia and Modina's chapters a lot more than I expected - I'm hoping to see more of them in the coming books!

The Battle of Ratibor was perfect - I'm not a huge fan of extended battle scenes, so it was nice to see things dealt with pretty quickly. Royce's absence from the ending better mean we get a lot of him at the start of Book 4!

And the final conspiracy scene at the end - well things are certainly going to get interesting. Hadrian is off to get Royce and attempt to rescue Degan, who they and Esra believe is the heir. Has Esra been outsmarted, or is he working with our academic friend? And Esra has presumably let himself be captured to get close to the Empress? Very interesting to see how this plays out.

Overall, this certainly the most enjoyable book so far. The main plot is escalating, and there was no real lull in the action, as there was in the first half of Avempartha. I'll be diving straight into the next one!

Edit: Although, that was probably Degan in the cage. They would never transport him like that, even if he offered it himself.
(hide spoiler)]

Get ready for the first chapter of emerald Storm Sean
:D