Nolyn (The Rise and Fall, 1) Paperback – December 12, 2023

The “Age of” stories were incredibly good, and these continuations are just as wonderful. Here we have the children of Persephone, Novron and myths of Brin that followed Persephone, Moya, Tekchin, the defeat of evil Fhrey…. They all tie together so beautifully. I also have the audiobooks as I re-reading all the books in preparation for Esrahaddon. I highly recommend the audiobooks, they’re engaging and the reader provides the best voices!

I'd never intended to purchase all of Michael's books, but after finishing one of his audio books, I was so impressed by the story that I hunger for more, after I finished listening to my first Michael J Sullivan audio book; this is when my love for fantasy audio books began; ever since then, I've been hooked and addicted to Michael's writing style and to many of the characters in his books. Currently, I own almost all of Michael's books, except for a few.Nolyn is my newest audio book purchase, and (just like his previous audio book series) I'm left wanting to listen to his next two audio books in the Rise and Fall series. It's going to be agony waiting a whole year, before I can listen to the next audio book in this Rise and Fall series. Not only do I get to enjoy great stories from Michael's books, he goes that extra mile in choosing narrators that are amazingly talented in transporting me (mentally) right into his stories/books. I always feel like I'm right there visually witnessing/observing everything that's going on in all of Michael's stories/books.It's hard to capture my interest and attention for very long, but Michael's books never fail to intrigue me from beginning to end. I have a few audio books (by other authors) that I've not been able to even listen to for 20 minutes, before I have to close the audio book, because the stories and the narrators are so boring. I know that everyone won't have my taste in fantasy audio books, but anyone who does have similar tastes will NEVER assign a rating below 4 stars to any of Michael's books, especially books as part of one of his series.

Characters developed well with a number of twists along the way linking back to the initial series. A great world to immerse yourself in for a while. Thanks

A wonderful saga of a lost son coming into his own in really difficult times

This book is as good as all of Sullivan's books set in Elan, but I don't recommend that first time readers should start here. There are so many references to the wonderful characters in The Legends of the First Empire series, that this one may be a bit confusing.That being said, I can't get enough of these stories set in Elan!

Each series set in this world are like missing puzzle pieces. A word of caution, I think the rise and fall of empires can stand alone as a series as can the Ryaria chronicles but I don’t think this one can. I found myself often thinking of how pieces I’m learning now slot into the overall arc and I can’t decide which series to now go back and re-read. Excellent for fans of the world maybe a little puzzling without understanding the context.

As a fan of all things Riyria, I was eagerly awaiting this book. I really enjoyed the overall storyline, characters and all the callbacks to the Legends of the First Empire. At the same time, it seemed as if something was slightly off. As I got deeper into the book, I realized that while I was enjoying Sephryn’s character and storyline and Mawyndule’s arc, Nolyn’s character and storyline was coming off like a discordant note in an otherwise harmonious symphony.It started off great with good opening scenes for both Nolyn and Sephryn, but as the book progressed Nolyn’s scenes seemed unrealistic and rushed, and his character came off as both naive and immature for a being of 800 plus years. Perhaps that was intentional as later there is a reference to Nolyn feeling like he was finally becoming an adult. And therein was the problem for me, Sephryn who is roughly his same age comes off as worldly, experienced, intelligent and grown up. Nolyn comes off as an inexperienced teenager. Yet supposedly he’s been an administrator, a warrior and a leader of men for 100s of years.A couple of spoilers here, so beware. The discordant notes started for me in the way he went about confronting his superior officer who he believed facilitated the assassination attempt. But at the time while it seemed a little off, it was not that bad in itself, especially as I thought the scene worked if you initially saw Nolyn as a prince and experienced leader of men accustomed to dealing with subordinates. But then in the blink of an eye, he goes from dutiful soldier who accepted an assignment to the worst front in a nasty war apparently without complaint, to a committed revolutionary intent on killing his own father and taking the throne. It seemed like sudden change in his base character. While it’s believable that in this world the populace was ready for revolt, Nolyn suddenly making the decision to join it, lead it and possible kill his father within literally the space of a couple pages, and less than about a week of activity rings wrong. There simply was not enough character development for that to come off as believable, unless you think of him as a mercurial, unexperienced, romantic fool in which case he would not be a leader inspiring enough to get men to follow him into assaulting the capitol.Also a couple of times, the hand of fate or deus ex machine technique seems to be used to get around plot issues. But that may be intentional as interfering gods is part of the story.Finally, I have to disagree with a point Mr. Sullivan has made as I do not think this is an understandable story for first time readers. You really need to have read the Legends of the First Empire series first. The callbacks are not simply Easter eggs that fans will enjoy, they are integral to the story and character background. Otherwise it’s like reading The Two Towers before the Fellowship of the Ring.So to sum up, Sephryn’s character development and storyline are good. The continued character arc for Mawyndule is also good. But the character development for Nolyn and the occasional use of the hand of fate to facilitate story advancement are not so good. Perhaps I’m spoiled by Mr. Sullivan’s past books and being hypercritical. For fans of Mr. Sullivan, it is a very enjoyable read.

I couldn't wait to get my copy of Nolyn. I had just finished the Age of series and to pick up with the next generation is great. I do recommend reading that 6 book series before Nolyn, otherwise their might be too much to catch up on. The continuity, story-telling, characters, and the richness of writing all combine again in this novel to create an involving storyline. I admit, like so many novels, the opening was a little slow for me, but that is true often when i encounter a completely new set of characters that i have to get to know. So if it seems a little slow in the jungle at the start, give it a few pages an it'll click with that same humor-infested, captivating style that Sullivan is known for.

O livro é muito bom na minha opinião, leitura fácil e história bem articulada, o universo criado é muito rico e bem pensado, realmente Michael mostra um talento para contar uma boa história.

I look forward to every book in the world that Michael Sullivan has created and he never disappoints. Loved it!!

You can't really put this Book away. The story is told nicely and you alway want to know what comes next. It can't compete though with the original series with Suri and Raithe. Less action and humor, almost no magic. Let's see what the next books brings.

I have read all of Michael J Sullivan's novels set in Elan. This is the best one yet.As always the characters are fantastic, but so many hints and references are beautifully woven between the Riyria books and the Legends series.The characters of Nolyn & Seph are so well crafted and the observations MJS imparts through characters always strike home.I thoroughly recommend reading this book. But it works better if you first read the Riyria books then the Legends books in order.I can also see just how much MJS has grown as an author through these series'.

A nice comfortable read that makes you feel good. Not overly complex, no plot twists and characters seem a little too similar, but enjoyable nonetheless.