Book Review: Theft of Swords

Summary: Royce Melborn is a superb thief, his partner, Hadrian Blackwater is a skilled mercenary. They make a profitable living as agents-for-hire to wealthy nobles until someone sets them up to take the blame for the murder of the king.

Thoughts: Where to begin...? This book was a great read, especially for the beginning of a series! It was easy to fly through, full of complicated and intriguing characters and, best of all, witty dialogue...more or less. The conversations that flew back and forth usually held my favorite type of humor but this book could be pretty serious too. While dark it had an overall light feel due to the comical back-and-forths between most of the characters. Filled with action, adventure, villains, heroes, princes, and princess...there are even evil organizations and a monster to be defeated! Sullivan sticks to the classic stereotypes of elves and kings and wizards which, while not creating an exactly new world, makes his all the more enjoyable as so many works are twisting or abolishing such elements in today's fiction. But don't let that lead you to believe this book is stereotypical or your familiar classic, no, this book stands on it's own for its unique story and cast. Over all a great read!

Content: Well, I'll admit I was pretty surprised when I found out Sullivan wrote this for his thirteen year old daughter. I definitely wouldn't hand this book to anyone under fifteen at least. A few of the minor characters are prostitutes(though this doesn't really lead anywhere in this book), while one character is introduced in someone else's bed. That is the most pronounced scene, but there are others, they just don't get that far. These are mercifully few and mostly disappear once you get past the beginning. There is also quite a bit of language. D*** is used often and, unfortunately so is W**** along with a few others that fall somewhere in between. Thankfully, they are not used often so it doesn't interfere with the majority of the story, but parents be aware I wouldn't hand this book to an immature reader!