With humor and style, Michael J. Sullivan quickly made me a fan of his work in The Crown Tower, which was also my first foray in Sullivan’s work. The Crown Tower is the first installment in The Riyria Chronicles, a series which takes place twelve years to the events in Riyria Revelations, and the story which unfolds is fully entertaining.. A thrilling journey with sweeping action scenes and stellar landscapes, Sullivan gives the perfect introduction into a fully developed world.
Two men who hate each other. One impossible mission. A legend in the making.
Hadrian Blackwater, a warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with Royce Melborn, a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most prized possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels that the old wizard is after, and if he can just keep them from killing each other, just might do it.
Sullivan shows us the perfect meld of experience and opportunity unique to people in their prime. I was quickly enamoured with the full cast of characters in The Crown Tower. In true leading male fashion, Hadrian was the shining knight and Royce the perfect counter of the jaded assassin. I could go on about these characters but instead I have to point out the supporting characters which were just as well thought out.
One of my favorite characters was Gwen, a foreign whore in the most literal sense. This strong character had both an intriguing past- a tight bond with her mother and grounding in the gift of fortune telling an incredible future of her own making. Part way through the book Gwen does one of the hardest things anyone could do in her situation- she leaves abuse at self sacrifice to better the lives of others. Gwen succeeds in a fabulously realistic way. She keeps to what she knows and proudly becomes a brothel-running businesswoman. Doubts and insecurities keep Gwen human and the subplot of Gwen’s story beautifully entwines with the main. My other two characters of mention were Pickles, a funny urchin, and Professor Arcadius, who is everything you want in an aged intellect.
The plot was somewhat simplistic but masterfully hinted at more. Hadrian goes on a journey to Professor Arcadius in what should be an uneventful manner. However, the best thing about this for me was that Hadrian finds what he didn’t realize he was looking for- an end to his boredom. The very tone of this start of an adventure is set early on a ship ride where Hadrian is forced to use his brain rather than brawn, realizing that there is more than meets the eye to the flirty damsel in distress.
I was hard-pressed to find a thing I didn’t enjoy in The Crown Tower. The entire story was well paced, charming and amusing. It is hard to give Sullivan so much credit for having a fully developed world. After all, if he hadn’t established the world setting in his six prior stories, I would have been wary of his foresight. Sullivan shows that even if your backdrop and characters aren’t entirely original, they will shine if well written. By no means a hard read, The Crown Tower is the perfect vacation or quick read. I personally find the largest downside to be waiting until the second instalment, The Rose and the Thorn to find out what happens next.
Read Order:
The Crown Tower
The Rose and the Thorn
