Theft of Swords contains The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha, books 1 and 2 of Riyria Revelations. The Crown Conspiracy is the first book in the captivating Riyria Revelations.

They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.

There is no ancient evil to defeat, no orphan destined for greatness, just two guys in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in a plot to murder the king. Sentenced to death, they have only one way out...and so begins this tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend. Avempartha is the second of a six book series entitled the Riyria Revelations.

The secret is in the tower. The problem is the beast. The answer is two thieves.

When a destitute young woman hires Royce and Hadrian to help save her remote village from nocturnal attacks, they are once more drawn into the schemes of the wizard Esrahaddon. While Royce struggles to breech the secrets of an ancient elven tower, Hadrian attempts to rally the villagers to defend themselves against the unseen killer. Once more, what begins with the simple theft of a sword places the two thieves at the center of a firestorm - but this time the outcome could change the future of Elan.

Performed by Bradley Foster Smith, Chris Genebach, Jonathan Feuer, Henry Kramer, Nick DePinto, Todd Scofield, Laura C. Harris, Andy Brownstein, Sasha Olinick, Bruce Alan Rauscher, David Jourdan, Lawrence Redmond, Bradley Smith, Terence Aselford, Christopher Walker, Michael Glenn, Jeff Allin, Amanda Forstrom, Chris Stinson, Dylan Lynch, Andy Clemence, Ren Kasey, Nanette Savard, Nora Achrati, Andrew Quilpa, Michael John Casey, Colleen Delany, Ken Jackson, Mort Shelby, and Richard Rohan.

Listening Length

17 hours and 59 minutes
Author

Michael J. Sullivan
Narrator

Amanda Forstrom, see all
Audible release date

January 8, 2022
Language

English
Publisher

GraphicAudio
ASIN

B09PQNXX6W
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	16 hours and 59 minutes
Author	Michael J. Sullivan
Narrator	Amanda Forstrom, Andrew Quilpa, Andy Brownstein, Andy Clemence, Bradley Smith, Bruce Alan Rauscher, Chris Genebach, Chris Stinson, Christopher Walker, Colleen Delany, David Jourdan, Dylan Lynch, Henry Kramer, Jeff Allin, Jonathan Feuer
Audible.com Release Date	January 08, 2022
Publisher	GraphicAudio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B09PQNXX6W
Best Sellers Rank	#6,720 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #109 in Historical Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals) #261 in Historical Fantasy (Books) #557 in Epic Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

5,709 global ratings

5 star		60%
4 star		30%
3 star		8%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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A return to fun fantasy

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 20, 2023

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This book was original written as two separate books, now combined, though there is a clear break in the narrative that delineates where the first book ended. Not jarring, but obvious.

A rollicking good adventure (or two) that felt like the fun fantasies of an earlier time. Hadrian and Royce made for a great team, and the banter between them felt comfortable. Sullivan obviously felt very comfy with the characters, and it showed beyond their interactions.

Book 1 - The king has been killed and the pair have been set up as patsies to take the fall for the murder. With the aid of a royal family member they are set free and put on the path to investigating the real killer and clearing their names. There's a fairly standard party-building section albeit with some interesting characters, and the adventure begins. A well-rounded tale.

Book 2 - A young girl hires the duo (the 'Riyria' of the tales name) to get a weapon from a remote tower to add in killing a beast terrorizing her village. They take the job, and find out there's more to the job than they expected. Hijinks from the church and a hobbled wizard ensue. Some very interesting highborn family are introduced. The beast itself was interesting and not the cliche dragon atop a pile of gold trope.

One thing that did stand out for me, but not enough to merit deducting a star was this series leans heavily into the rogues with hearts of gold trope. In book 1, Hadrian buckles, accepts a job to help someone out, throwing caution to the wind, and this drives the adventure. In book 2, it's Royce that's the softie, and Hadrian wants nothing to do with the goody goody path. Seemed a smidge of dichotomy for a pair of famous thieves, but again, the reasoning comes round soon enough and you grow to love the pair, even as their choices make things go awry.

I've bought all 7 books in the series because they came so highly recommended. I'm looking forward to many more adventures in the years ahead with Hadrian and Royce.

Helpful

Brandon Z

An Excellent Beginning

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2012

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I read this book earlier this year, but I never got around to reviewing it until now. I had read Michael Sullivan's independently released Riyria eBooks 1-5, but I gladly bought them again in this form. To make it clear, this is definitely two separate books with a beginning middle and end combined into one book, making it a great deal. I really think that these books are a great read, whether you're an avid Fantasy fan looking slightly lighter fare, a young adult reader. or someone trying Fantasy for the first time these books are perfect.

The world building in Theft of Swords is relatively limited, but it works really well to set up the story and the amazing characters. It's pretty much the basic Tolkienesque world, with Humans Elves and Dwarves, however there is some interesting facets of it surrounding racism against the other races. Mainly, humans are now the dominant species, and while all full Elves are no longer living in the countries of men, there are many half-breeds that are treated as second class citizens barely above slaves. There's also some interesting sections where the Church of Novron actually declares that they don't have souls, so it's okay to treat them as poorly as you wish. With the Dwarves, they are above the half-elves, but not much, and really only because they are excellent craftsmen. There is magic in these books, but it's not too extensive, especially in Theft of Swords. Use of magic relies on the will of the sorcerer and the art of shaping that will with your hands, and some ritual words. In the first half of the book, the only magic we see is from the 1000 year old prisoner Esrahaddon, who even with his hands cut off gets the heroes of this story to help him escape his prison frozen in time. In the second book, the magic mainly comes from the mostly invulnerable magical construct slightly resembling a dragon. I thought the main idea of the Gibralym (I can't remember the spelling)being indestructible to be a little goofy, as with its existence in the previous age, especially if there were hundreds of them, I don't know how humans could have competed. Still, the concept of having only one sword, labeled with the name of the beast in Elven, being able to hurt it by dispelling it created some really exciting and horrible/awesome plot twists. I only had two problems with the world building, and they're both relatively small and inconsequential. The country seems really small in size, with their journeys between large cities and a town at the end of their territory, bordering very close to forbidden Elven territory, to only take a few days. The other one was the monetary system, where in the first book their huge dangerous mission only cost 10 or 15 gold, yet in the second half a one night stay for their young patron with included food and a makeover cost 90 some silver (and they gave them 1 gold). I know it was just meant to be funny and showing their character, with the young girl giving them her life savings of 60 some silver, yet before they'd even taken the job they'd already spent more than that on her. However, it just doesn't really make sense, mainly that 100 pieces of silver would make 1 gold (plus I assume 100 copper would make 1 silver), and that they were really weren't being paid to well for their jobs. Neither of those things really made any difference in the quality of the book, but I just remember that they kind of bothered me.

The story is a little basic, but it is very effective and enjoyable. In both halves of the book, Royce and Hadrian are hired for a seemingly simple job (one of them paid very well the other not really paid at all) which ends up with them way over their heads. The journey itself is where the book shines, especially when it comes to the characters, from the main characters to the supporting cast and the villains are all very well done. I loved how Royce and Hadrian are two unique people with an extensive background, and they have a great bromance in this book. For the character development, a lot of the smaller characters (at this point) definitely go through a lot and grow accordingly, but the development of Royce and Hadrian was very interesting. Basically, since they are both older and relatively done growing during the time period of this book, their character development instead comes from the author showing the background stories of the two characters bit by bit, and I found it to be extremely effective.

So in the end I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that can read, as I really think people with very different backgrounds would still really enjoy this book. Also, the author is a really nice guy, and the main reason he wanted to be published was so that he would be able to reach more readers. He was probably making more money as an Indie author before he was picked up by Orbit. So if you haven't read this book yet, you should really pick it up and start enjoying the characters and world Michael Sullivan has built here.

Helpful

chris busch

Good fun and the beginning of something great

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 23, 2023

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The three Riyria Revelations books are actually six novels that were published over six years - they flow into each other well so there's no issue with reading them all in one go, or taking a break.

This volume collects the first two, and while I had fun reading them I wasn't completely sold. However, I enjoyed them enough to buy the rest, and everything snapped into place almost immediately. (I've since gone on to buy the author's other series and they just keep getting better).

The bottom line is that this is good fantasy fun with great characters, crisp dialogue, and a nice sense of humor. There are a few slight issues (some characters don't get as much development, and the world needs to be built to explore it) but these are all fixed in book 2. I'd check out the sample, if this seems like your thing just go ahead and buy the full trilogy in a box, it's well worth it.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Randal

Review of the first book only

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 17, 2018

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I didn't realise until I was well into this that it was two books in an omnibus edition. I read the first, The Crown Conspiracy, so this is only a review of that one. I was looking for some fantasy or science-fictional heist books and this was on someone's ten-best-heist books list. Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater are thieves, successful enough that they haven't been caught yet. Royce is the lock-picker and Hadrian the brilliant swordsman from a good family (and we only get hints of what brought him to thieving for a living). They are careful to plan out every heist carefully, but they get into a spot of bother when they fall for a sob story and unwisely take on a job to steal a sword from the king's chapel. It's a set up. What they find in the chapel is the body of the king and they are framed for the murder. It's looking bleak when the king's daughter makes them an offer. She'll let them out of the dungeon if they will steal something else for her. She wants them to steal the prince, the new heir to the throne. Their kidnap job turns into a rescue and they face a plot to take over the throne. It's a straightforward read with a simple plot and a cast of engaging characters. (Yes I will read the second one, but not right now.)

2 people found this helpful

Robert Nielsen

Nothing special

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 12, 2019

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Alright, but nothing special. The story felt half-baked and rushed. The characters are bland and the plot is a bit simple, with far too convenient and neat endings. I didn't feel any connection to Hadrian or Royce or know anything about them. Were they supposed to be funny? The writing was clunky, veering from paragraph long information dumps that the characters already know, to not telling us enough to keep us connected.

But worst of all is the amount of cliches. For some reason the book is promoted as subverting tropes, but this isn't true at all. There is a host of the usual cliches you've read in so many other fantasy novels. Secret heir, rescuing the princess (twice), evil schemes for world domination, poor damsels in distress, dwarves who work with stone and elves who live long lives in the forest, basically the same medieval Europe world-building in all other fantasy.

The depiction of women is particularly lazy, they basically don't do anything in the story except look pretty (in fact their only characteristic is their beauty) and get rescued by men. I was sick of Thrace constantly doing nothing except crying for her Daddy and the completely unnecessary rape scene (that is immediately forgotten because it served no purpose) was stupid. What was the point of Arista, especially in the second book? She sat around, acted like an idiot and then got rescued. Rescuing the princess is a lazy cliche, even worse when it's done twice.

One person found this helpful

L. Bavington

Ok but not his best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 23, 2020

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I was looking forward to this book having read the myths and legends series first, but it's no where near as good. The story is fine. The writing style is good, easy, fun to read. I really like the two main characters. However I was left really disappointed by the representation of the female characters. Weak, poorly thought out, and not representative of any women I know. Arista is the single most annoying character I've come across. It's a shame as she could have been a lot more and still had the same story/outcome. I really struggled to continue reading her parts at times and while I understand wanting to keep to familiar fantasy tropes, some of them really can be updated and add to the story.

Hugh

An absolute joy.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

This was an absolute joy to read. Theft of Swords contains books one (The Crown Conspiracy) and two (Avempartha) of a six book series (The Riyria Revelations) and in addition there's a prequel trilogy (The Riyria Chronicles) but the author recommends that you read the six book series first.

The main protagonists are Royce and Hadrain; an expert thief and warrior respectively and they are a dynamic duo for hire operating independently from local Guilds and are known for being the best at what they do. And it's during one of these jobs that everything goes wrong and the full story kicks into gear.

They deal with Knights, Princesses, Kings, Dwarfs, Monks, Wizards, Towers along the way and end up in more crazy adventures as the story progresses.

There's nothing ground breaking here - deliberately so - Michael J Sullivan has created a series using traditional fantasy tropes and he makes no apologies for it. None are needed because he has created an amazing world that I cannot wait to jump back into. The world building, characters and story arc are all excellent but I have to single out the prose and dialogue for stellar praise. The back and forth between the characters is a joy; funny, realistic and organic. The prose is unfussy and clean; helping to push the story along well. The pacing is perfect.

Another triumph is the fact that the author has created a story arc that (so far) will stretch for two entire series but at the same time each novel is a story that has a beginning, middle and end; that is such a great skill and gives the reader the enjoyment of a resolution and conclusion each time whilst also teasing us with what is to come. There will be a sentence or throw away comment that is important later; I love that. Who are the good guys and who can be trusted and how will it all link together....? I don't know but I can't wait to find out.

10/10

2 people found this helpful

Gaudd Almighty

A ripping yarn rather spoiled by the necessity for disbelief suspension

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 13, 2018

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OK, now I like Michael Sullivan's Riyria series but reading Rise of Empire and Theft of Swords is made rather frustrating by the fact that the characters frequently allow themselves to fall into completely ridiculous situations. Hadrian and especially Royce are the legendary street-smart thieves oozing deadly experience yet end up clapped in chains more often that an S&M brothel prostitute. I kept thinking "Oh come on, surely he's not going to walk into there...oh he is..um..ok". Its really annoying.

An example would be Hadrian walking into the nationalist camp and ordering Parker around and then suddenly finding himself in chains, again. I mean, wasn't he told the nationalists would blame Arista for the disapperance of Gaunt? Yes, he was but for some reason was utterly surprised when this happened. Its a bit ridiculous. I think Hadrian and Royce end up in prison/chains several times each novel, which isn't really all that cred worthy for two legendary thieves.

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Theft of Swords [Dramatized Adaptation]: Riyria Revelations, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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