Goodreads Bookshelf
Book Review: The Crown Conspiracy
Through the website Goodreads, I have once again received a review copy of a book, in this case The Crown Conspiracy by Michael James Sullivan, and not only did I get a copy, it was autographed, reading “Welcome to the Adventure,” and that’s actually a pretty good introduction to the book. Fantasy has many sub-genres, and The Crown Conspiracy leans toward what I’d like to call adventure fantasy, and it’s not a genre I tend to favor. I like my fantasy more toward epic, with more depth of character and intricacy of plot.
That said, Sullivan spins a fair yarn in the tale of two elite thieves, Royce Melborn, the second-story man, and Hadrian Blackwater, the brawn of the operation, who find themselves framed for the murder of the king. To save themselves from execution, they are forced to kidnap and protect the crown prince in an attempt to clear their names and unravel a plot against the crown.
It sounds complicated, but it’s really not, unless in subsequent books we find out that we don’t know what we think we know. Although Sullivan wraps the plot up pretty neatly by the end, he clearly has in mind a larger story arc to be developed over future novels. However, this novel’s plot felt just a bit too straightforward and, frankly, easy. I never had any doubt that all the characters we were intended to care about would come out on top by the end, and that faith was justified. The action moved forward with great speed but without much complication. On the whole, it felt like watching a pretty good television series: it was entertaining, with an engaging enough plot, snappy dialog, and characters I could enjoy spending time with… but it didn’t have the depth that I want from a novel. I have no doubt there’s a market for this kind of fantasy, and Sullivan delivers for this readership, but I’m not really that readership, though I might have been half a lifetime ago.
There was one part I feel compelled to criticize that’s not simply an issue of genre. The dialog and narration have a modern tone (no problem with that—it can be done well and Sullivan does do it well), but at one point we encounter a character who, for reasons I won’t go into, has been out of circulation for a thousand years or so. Sullivan has him speak in an archaic style reminiscent of Shakespeare… except that he’s gotten it wrong. I’ve read enough Shakespeare to know when verbs have been conjugated incorrectly or the wrong pronoun forms are used, and they were. It probably didn’t bother anyone to whom Shakespeare sounds one step removed from gibberish, but it drove me nuts. A good editor should have caught something like that, and since this character seems likely to recur later in the series, I hope that gets straightened out. In the overall scheme of things, this was minor and quickly passed over, and Sullivan showed me enough that I’m planning to read the second book, which comes out in April (but I’ve got an early electronic review copy, and I'll get to it over Spring Break!).