Age of Myth

April 4, 2016
The first volume in Sullivan’s prequel series, set 3,000 years before his Riyria epic fantasy books, is an uneven effort that peters off after an intriguing opening. In “the days of darkness before the war,” men live in fear of the Fhrey, gods who reside across the Bern River. Raithe of the Dureyan clan and his father, Herkimer, have ventured onto the gods’ lands, crossing the forbidden river in search of a place to live, farm, and hunt. Their trespass is quickly detected, and they’re confronted by an immortal. After Herkimer refuses to surrender a cherished family sword, the confrontation turns violent, the god kills Herkimer, and Raithe avenges his father’s death by slitting the god’s throat. He’s shocked that the immortal does not recover from the wound, and the ramifications of a man actually having killed a god drive the rest of the plot as the Fhrey begin a campaign of revenge. The bloodshed and political machinations are mild by grimdark fantasy standards, and the occasional modern phrasing is jarring. Agent: Laurie McLean, Fuse Literary.

April 15, 2016
In Elan's ancient past, men were called Rhunes and were treated as less than animals by the long-lived, magic-wielding Fhrey, whom the Rhunes believe to be immortal gods. With a suspenseful plot and some engaging characters, the first book of a new epic-fantasy series returns Sullivan's (The Death of Dulgath, 2015, etc.) readers to the land of Elan 3,000 years before the events of his previous Riyria Chronicles. One of the five major races of Elan, the Rhunes eke out poverty-stricken lives in clusters of small settlements, or dahls, while the extremely long-lived and well-heeled Fhrey rule as if they were gods. But when Raithe and his father cross the forbidden Bern River, their trespass blossoms into a war between the Fhrey and the Rhunes, in which Raithe earns the name of God-Killer and the Fhrey learn to respect Rhunes as men. Along the way readers will encounter a ferocious, possibly demonic, man-killing bear, Grin the Brown; a mystic child, Suri, who is far more than she seems, and her white wolf companion, Minna; a brave widow, Persephone, who will become the first female chieftain of her dahl; and a host of others, including such genre standards as giants, talking trees, goblins, and woodland spirits, all painted into a vast but familiar fantasy canvas. Sullivan's world is richly detailed but emotionally threadbare since all the action, bloodshed, magic, and menace lead to a cliched conclusion: the good ones win, and the evil ones lose.

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June 1, 2016
The epic backstory of Sullivan's Riyria Revelations is revealed in this stand-alone novel, a tale of a time that would become legendary. This fantasy begins with Raithe and his father hoping to find food and good land on the forbidden side of the river. Men, known as rhunes, live on one side of the river, and Raithe's homeland is barely able to sustain life. The Fhrey, believed by most men to be gods, live on the other side of the river in luxury. When they are discovered, they protestand Raithe does the impossible, killing one of the Fhrey. Meanwhile, in Dahl Ren, the old chieftain is killed in a hunting accident, and there are shifting allegiancesand terrible news of Fhrey retaliation for Raithe's impossible action. The Fhrey send one of their magic users to make a lesson out of this upstart, but there are unexpected twists. The story is an engaging interweaving of legends and the accident, carried along with entertaining characters and flashes of potentially fascinating secrets about the world itself.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)