A review by nclcaitlin
Nolyn by Michael J. Sullivan

3.5

Can you read this without reading any of the other books?

If you have all of Sullivan’s works, there’s so many allusions to the past - learning truths behind myths, and also offers progression on what happened hundreds of years in the future after the prequel series!

If this is your first Sullivan book, Nolyn would still be understandable and enjoyable. 

Sullivan excels at characterisation and quirky characters and the rich lore, history and worldbuilding were also aptly established in the for newbies not to feel thrown in at the deep end.

The story in Nolyn took place over eight hundred years after the conclusion of the First Empire series (but still 2,000+ years before Riyria).

Nolyn and Sephryn are the children of the some of legendary people who were responsible for the creation of the empire.

Nolyn, the heir to the empire, is suspicious about his reassignment to active duty on the front lines of the Goblin War with the funny and loveable Seventh Sik-Aux. 

Elsewhere, Sephryn finds her apartment broken into, her nursemaid murdered, and her son kidnapped. She then hears a voice telling her to steal the Horn of Gylindora which is a legendary, powerful artefact.  

A reoccurring theme in Sullivan’s book is how myths and stories are created and then manipulated. This affects civilizations and their conceptions for generations. As a few of the characters live longer than mortals, they demonstrate and witness how history is blurred by bias, manipulation, and memory.

"Something l've learned about people, both human and Fhrey, is that they hate having long-held beliefs challenged by facts, even about stupid things. Once you get something settled in your head, it becomes comfortable and difficult to dislodge... No one likes to admit they're wrong, even if they are just agreeing with something someone else told them."

In contrast to Riryia, Nolyn and Sephyryn can sometimes feel hollow making predictable choices with little interaction with each other despite their alluded to deep friendship and their future (if you know).

Sephyryn in particular contains very little character development and is constantly anxious and struggling with her morality. 

The best parts are with the Seventh Sik-Aux who have such a fun camaraderie who tease and banter with each other.

All that being said, I enjoyed this more than I remember enjoying the last book of Legends, and I have heard that each book set in this trilogy (interrelated but not necessary to read one after another) gets better. 

Sullivan is definitely an author to look out for. He and his wife work as a team to only publishseries when he has finished it. This means that everything goes neatly together and you are always left feeling satisfied.