The Crown Conspiracy [Paperback]

This book is not bad. In fact, a good point to mention is that the author, Michael Sullivan, provides the genre with a much needed light-hearted tale of adventure, conspiracy, and intrigue. By the end of the book, you can't help but like some of the main characters and you want to read the next part of the saga.

Basically, the story is about two thieves (Royce and Hadrian) who take a job only to find themselves immersed in a larger conspiracy regarding the rulership of not only their own kingdom, but the empire as well. In this first book, you start to learn a bit about what the bigger picture may entail and you learn who some of the key players may turn out to be. There are definitely a few twists that are handled nicely. Of course, Royce and Hadrian are the main focus of the story. They are a likeable pair, but my opinion is that they are somewhat shallowly developed characters. The book does end with a resolution to the main plot, so the story can be read as a stand alone story.

The flaws to this book have to do with the skills of the author. While I think Sullivan lays out an interesting plot (and I will continue to read this series), his descriptions, characterization and world building definitely leave something to be desired. For example, way too often he uses the bad guy soliloquy, where the villian needs to reveal his reasons and motives to the good guys in the midst of some battle or conflict. This comes across as cheesy, when better characterization would have done the job for the author. Speaking of characterizations, too many come from the cookie-cutter mold (for example, the young and inexperienced prince), and without adequate development, they remain shallow depictions. The descriptions are at times too simple. If a column is ornate, tell me how it is ornate. If a priests robes are rich looking, how are they rich looking. Finally, in regards to world building, the author needs to find a way to paint the picture of his world more tactfully. In this book, so much of this world building came across as forced upon the reader and revealed through questionable means.

So in the end, The Crown Conspiracy is not a bad book. Based upon some of the other reviews, it's just that I expected something better. Nevertheless, give this book and this series a chance.

The reviews were great and the author has won a number awards, according to the blurb on this page. I consider myself pretty tolerant of fantasy literature, because I love the genre and it has been the bulk of my reading material over the years. Has fantasy writing fallen to such depths that this book, and its author, should deserve these accolades?

I concede that he is a jolly storyteller, in the way that David Eddings is, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a story that isn't too heavyweight, but this is just dreadful! The characters are like cardboard cutout stereotypes and entirely predictable. There is absolutely no subtlety at all and, if the characters are easy to understand, it's because they have so little depth.

But worse, far worse than any of that, is the actual writing style. It is, quite simply, the worst I have any seen in any printed material in my entire life. Full of spelling and grammatical errors and childish dialogue. His portrayal of an ancient wizard, using what he thinks is archaic English, made me cringe from start to finish.

"I have expected thou ere long..."
"I believe thy father 'twas ill..."
"I teacheth her..."
"... I wilt lead them to him."
"... thy sister asked thou to come."
etc, etc, etc

Aren't editors supposed to check this kind of stuff, or are they also all imbeciles now? Is this the product of the Internet age, that writing quality plumbs such depths? People learn English from reading books much more than they do from lessons at school. If we can't control the quality of printed material then we might as well kiss goodbye to the language of poets, Shakespeare and science. English is such a beautiful, expressive and powerful language, and it is being royally raped by publications such as this.

I've never felt moved to comment on a book before, but I was so outraged that the level of literary ability that publishers seem to accept has dropped this low, I couldn't let it go. I will NOT be reading any of the rest of this series.

UPDATE 1/14/11
I need to come back to this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the author has had the good grace to take my criticism on board and revise the Esrahaddon dialogue (quoted above) in the latest (Kindle) edition of this book. Secondly, I have to eat some humble pie and admit that my criticism of the style and characterization was exaggerated by my annoyance with the grammar and editorial errors, particularly with the pseudo-archaic speech in the edition I read. The storytelling is good and the characters are far more mature and less one-dimensional than you would find in Eddings' work. I am now reading the second novel in the series and am enjoying it a lot as the story develops and the characters gain more depth. I would still consider it "light reading" but then, as other commentators have pointed out, there is nothing wrong with that. I don't want to change my original review, as I think it was appropriate to the edition I read and furthermore it would make a nonsense of the later posts in this thread. However, I have raised my rating to three stars. I trust that people (particularly Michael) won't think me parsimonious in not giving it more than that, but I think the series gets better and I would still reserve five stars for what I consider to be a truly great work - on a par with Tolkien, for example.

Look, Mr. Sullivan has made clear what he intends to do with his fantasy series--less epic, less length, less jargon, less pretentiousness and above all, more acessible. Nearly everything the negative reviews lash out at him for doing. The first book is very good, and it was a pleasure to be able to digest the tome in a reasonable amount of time. I'm getting tired of 900 page "thrilling fantasy" adventures. I'll give this author time to grow on me and would just offer an opinion that others should see how this all turns out by the time we reach the sixth book. The characters are most enjoyable. My quibble is that the "Church" is too easy of a villain. But time will tell as each book unfolds. Five stars for a fine start.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 179 reviews  4.3 out of 5 stars