Hello Fellow Journeyers,
The second book in the Theft of Swords book, Avempartha is where we're headed next because it continues the Riyria Revelations series immediately following The Crown Conspiracy. Let's begin!
What's the story about: Avempartha takes up where The Crown Conspiracy left Hadrian and Royce, but on a new quest. Also, a new thread of Arista trying to weave political machinations provides a new angle.
What I enjoyed about this story is how it felt like a clearly new tale in the world of Elan but with all of the history and information from The Crown Conspiracy. Since the groundwork has been laid, much of this can move into new storytelling and it does a good job forming new motivations and goals on old ties. Unfortunately, the political machinations were still there, which bored me a little.
This second book had me going back and forth between really enjoying it and being frustratingly bored by it. Almost every chapter with Royce and Hadrian's quest to help a small village fight a monster was riveting, interesting, and provided a lot of life and fun to the story. But Arista's and Saldur's chapters tended to lag the story in many ways from all the excitement. I could tell that the greater story of six books was being formed through these chapters, but they simply couldn't hold up to the fun plot going on sideways.
Again, just like in The Crown Conspiracy, this story was really easy to get in to, fun in it's unweaving, and simple. Having Esrahaddon be reintroduced really improved the wonder and intrigue and even though not much new happens, the forming of the greater plot did feel like new information and world building. We get some plot resolution in this tale as well through meeting up with a specific dwarf and other information that was left hanging from the previous book.
★★★★ 3.5 Stars - While Avempartha was a fun improvement upon The Crown Conspiracy's foundation, not enough warranted it to be much higher than the previous book. I don't mean to downplay it, the story was good, intriguing, inviting, and read quickly, but nothing was truly riveting about it again.
Recommended For: those looking for a simple quest-like structure similar to The Witcher, but without the over the top violence, sexuality, and excessive unpleasantness from characters. A simple mission and rescue story with greater plots being told.
Let me hear from you! If you like what you read, want to hear more thoughts on this book, other reviews, or talk book recommendations and Essential Reading, leave a comment below.
Rating system:
★★★★★ 5 Stars: It was amazing; I loved it. Read this book; it is definitely Essential Reading!
★★★★★* 4.5 Stars: It was nearly perfect. I really loved almost every aspect of it, but a few things kept it from being amazing.
★★★★ 4 Stars: It was very worth reading and satisfying; highly recommend.
★★★★* 3.5 Stars: I thoroughly enjoyed this story, but it was lacking in certain crucial areas.
★★★ 3 Stars: It was good, but could've been better or improved upon significantly.
★★★* 2.5 Stars: I wanted to enjoy it. Certain aspects were good, it was worth finishing, but many issues.
★★ 2 Stars: It was okay, I didn't feel strongly about it.
★ 1 Star: I did not like it. It was not worth finishing or I did not finish it.
*I round up based on the system on Goodreads. Also, there is no 1.5 Stars because it does not seem to have enough differentiation.
