Age of Myth

Conosco l'autore per i suoi libri e sono andata a colpo sicuro.Se cercate un buon fantasy, divertente, con personaggi memorabili e ottimi dialoghi, questo è il libro giusto. Inizia bene e finisce anche meglio, con un colpo di scena che ti fa desiderare leggere il seguito.

One of my most anticipated fantasy novels of 2016 was Age of Myth, book 1 of the Legends of the First Empire by the marvelous Michael J Sullivan, one of my favorite authors writing at the moment (and of all time so far). I had a received a few sneak peaks of the novel as I was a part of the kickstarter for The Death Of Dulgath, this merely whetted my appetite.The story is one of Gods and Men: Since time immemorial humans have worshiped the Gods they know as Fhrey, truly a race apart, invincible in battle, masters of magic, and seemingly immortal. When a God falls to a human blade, the balance of power changes between humans and those they thought as Gods changes forever. For a few people, this means standing between mankind and annihilation.What a premise for a epic fantasy novel and the beginning of a new series! This is easily one of the best novel I have read this year, Michael has a nice easy to read style that makes him very accessible as an author to new readers and veterans alike. The story is very well crafted as well, it flows and develops very nicely and when you read it you can tell that it is the beginning of a epic story. The characters of which there are quite a few, but not enough for the story to be complicated, are well drawn and believable characters (they are not all human!) who you will come to love and cherish(those who are the good guys) as you can with all of Sullivan's characters (not all of them of course).I have enjoyed all of Michael's works and this is no exception, this is well constructed novel recounting a history that is over three thousand years old and telling us the truth from the Riyria Revelations and Chronicles. A feat like this has only been achieved (really well) by a few authors they being Brandon Sanderson and J R R Tolkien himself! To create an entire world in one series, complete with a patchy understanding of the past, and then construct the world as it was three thousand years ago! This is a feat of the imagination only the greatest writers in fantasy have done or doing (please see above).The only problem I have is that I have to wait until next year until the next book in the series Age Of Swords comes out, but the knowledge that the series is written is comforting.If you have not read Age of Myth or The Riyria Revelations and Chronicles what are you waiting for.....get a copy now and read these spellbinding fantasy adventures.

This was an excellent first book of a new series, Legends of the First Empire, with a lot of potential from the author of one of my favorite series, the Riyria Revelations. I love how the author, Michael J. Sullivan, went about creating this series, where it's still the same world as his other books, but it's somewhere around 3,000 years in the past. This allows for a lot of interesting aspects of the book, one of the main ones being that even though it's a prequel, it's so far in the past that it avoids all of the prequelitis pitfalls that usually plague these kind of stories. Fan's of the author's previous books might see some Easter Eggs, especially recognizing some of the names in the book, but this story is essentially untold. It also allows Sullivan to explore a Fantasy Era that is seldom used in the genre. The vast majority of Fantasy stories take place in a fantastical version of our worlds Dark Age, Medieval Age, or Renaissance Age. However, Age of Myth takes place in a version of our Bronze Age, and this world's Humans (Rhunes) reminded me of the Barbarians or Celts, and this world's Elves (Fhrey) reminded me of the Romans.Sullivan is notorious for creating unique, original, and lovable characters, so in this new series it's no surprise there's a whole new group of excellent characters for the readers to enjoy. There are three main viewpoint characters: Raithe the Godkiller, a reluctant hero that must find his place in the world; Suri the Mystic, a young girl who is more used to talking to trees and her wolf best-friend than another person; and Persephone, the widow of her clan's chieftain who must overcome her grief and lead her people through a very dangerous time. I really loved the interactions between these three, and all of the supporting cast as well, each of whom are unique and interesting characters. At the beginning of this book, all of the humans view the Fhrey as immortal gods, and each human clan pays service to the Fhrey and they stay in their small lands, even if they're harsh and barren. The power structure for the Fhrey is in a time of change, as their previous leader who ruled for thousands of years has died and passed on the reins to her son. Other forces within their race are looking to take over, and while some want to use the humans to kill their brethren as they aren't allowed to, others just want to wipe the inferior species from the face of their world. However, Raithe, Suri, and Persephone (Seph) along with their clan that is having it's own power structure stand in the way, and they won't go down without a fight.The world building in this book was really interesting, and I enjoyed seeing magic, or the art, at perhaps its highest peak, as in the Riyria Chronicles magic had for the most part completely died off. It was also nice to see the world of the Fhrey, as it's essentially unknown in the previous books. Sullivan is also known for using a decent amount of plot twists and turns in each book and throughout the series, and that's no different in Age of Myth. I saw most of the twists coming, but it was still incredibly satisfying when all of the different threads came together to a conclusion. That leads me to another thing that the author does amazingly well, and that's providing a distinct and satisfying beginning middle and end in each book, even if it's part of a larger series. Honestly, even though if I had the next book I'd currently be reading it instead of writing this review, the ending left me so satisfied that I'm okay with waiting a year until the sequel is released. This book could have been a one-off, and it still would have been a complete story, although I would hate not knowing what happened next.So in closing, I would 100% recommend this book to anyone. Age of Myth is a perfect introduction to the works of Michael Sullivan, and to the Fantasy genre in general. I honestly loved this book, and I eagerly await the next story in this series, Age of Swords.

Have not had the time to read but will soon .In any case I know the story will be good.

Loved it, just ordered book two.If you read and enjoyed the David Eddings Belgariad series you will love this.There's even about half a chapter from chapter one book two at the back of the book as a teaser for the next book :)