Quick-take: Interesting puppet emperor.

Dan's Review

Rise of Empire contains Nyphron Rising and The Emerald Storm, books 3 and 4 of Riyria Revelations. The author decided to reorganize these books into 1 and call it a part 1 and part 2.

Nyphron Rising

I enjoyed this book more than the previous 2 books, purely for the odd behavior of the emperor. I hope as we get into the next book, she stays strange.

I like stories where rewards and success are made not by luck of who your parents are or other such dumb luck, but by sheer skill. I also like it when the success is believable. This book had plenty of that.

It also went into a bit of political scheming, and I just don't know enough about military politics to know for certain if there is a grain of truth to it. It seems to me that an overwelhming imperial force coming at you, the best way to save your life is to just surrender. However, I will also admit that an underdog story is more interesting, and that is the path this book is taking.

The war was not concluded, and it is worth following, so I am picking up the next "book". I put that in quotes because this book contains it. I am now starting to think that the main goal was to make this a nice trilogy. I can respect that.

The Emerald Storm

Royce and Hadrian join a pirate ship! Lots of nautical terms thrown around. Lots of intrigue. Princess Arista goes off on her own adventure.

The story is difficult to follow. There are tricky names and switcharoos happening. If I had some kind of flowchart, that would help. Sometimes, books will take a break and the two characters will discuss where things are and what needs to happen next. This is extremely helpful to me, and that did not happen much.

For the parts that I could follow, the story was decent. This is a weak entry into it. At the end, the big reset happened (like things often do with fantasy series) to prepare for the next big adventure.

If this was not complete, I would probably walk away here.

Score 3: I an hoping for something epic with the last edition, which looks to also be a double-novel.