Age of Myth

Written by Michael J. Sullivan

Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds

Michael J. Sullivan's trailblazing career began with the breakout success of his Riyria series: full-bodied, spellbinding fantasy adventures whose imaginative scope and sympathetic characters won a devoted readership and comparisons to fantasy masters Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch, and Tolkien himself. Now, Sullivan's stunning hardcover debut, Age of Myth, inaugurates an original five-book series--and one of fantasy's finest next-generation storytellers continues to break new ground. Since time immemorial, humans have worshipped the gods they call Fhrey, truly a race apart: invincible in battle, masters of magic, and seemingly immortal. But when a god falls to a human blade, the balance of power between men and those they thought were gods changes forever. Now, only a few stand between humankind and annihilation: Raithe, reluctant to embrace his destiny as the God Killer. Suri, a young seer burdened by signs of impending doom. And Persephone, who must overcome personal tragedy to lead her people. The Age of Myth is over; the time of rebellion has begun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781490641317

Michael J. Sullivan

Michael J. Sullivan is an author and sports writer living in New York who graduated from St. John's University, and is a member of the McDonald's All-American Selection Boys Basketball Committee and the Parade All-American Selection Committee.  Michael hosted sports radio shows on WGBB on Long Island, NY, and WEVD 1050AM in New York City, as well as worked with ESPN and Sporting News.  In addition to writing the When Time Forgets series, Michael covers high school and college sports for Fox-owned Scout.com, which involves daily activity on ten to twelve message boards as well as writing approximately 100 articles each month. Michael has published a number of books through established trade houses, including the trivia book So You Think You're a New Yorker, which was an iconic work lauded by columnist Cindy Adams.  In addition, he published seven sports-themed books for children through Enslow, and a volume of a children’s book series through HarperCollins.

Reviews for Age of Myth

[Chogan Swan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This may be the longest saga I've ever followed. (Starting with Riyiria). Lots of intrigue and skillfully woven plotting.

[Bonni-anne Rutherford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is everything one would hope for in a fantasy novel. The pacing is magnificent, very consistent.

[Daniel W · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was painfully slow to listen to. I had a hard time focusing on it because it was pretty dull. It started out great for the first hour then went steadily downhill.

[Gilberto Diaz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great book that reveals so much about the original chronicles

[John A Ryan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well written and narrated. Can’t wait to listen to the next in the series.

[Justin Riggs · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

That was an awesome book, started a little slow, but quickly got really good.

[kelsey burnett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Best book I have read in a long time. Enchanting story and beautifully written!

[CRYSTAL MCDONALD · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Great story, beautifully narrated. Unfortunately the audio skipped several large pivotal scenes and I had to read them elsewhere to fill in the missing story.

[Kevin Wilcox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyed this book. I haven’t listed to this author before, but make sure to put him on my list.

[Lorraine Becker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Epic fantasy with interesting characters and relationships...can't wait to read the next in the series!

[aepcaomhan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It got better towards the end, but for some reason I really struggled to care for the entire first half. There aren't any glaring issues, or even things I can explicitly point out as having caused me to not enjoy it very much, but I still can't say I actually liked it. The writing is strong, and the characters are well-developed, so objectively speaking, this is probably a good book.

[kati025 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Why are there no reviews for this book?? I truly loved it and can't wait to read the second one in the series. It's a book that totally envelops you. (Translated from Spanish)

[iffland · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wasn't convinced in the beginning but grabbed me in the end. Looking forward to the second book.

[belana-990668 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book certainly is another burner from Michael J Sullivan. Once I had started listening, I was unable to stop. I was drawn in right from the start, and I can't wait to listen to the sequels -- but I'll have to be patient for another four months.

If you've read the Riyria Revelations, you'll recognize a few names, but it doesn't matter if you haven't read anything by the author before (although you really should).

Once again, this isn't just a great story about magic and lore. There's racism, superstition, prejudices and more. Again, we have strong female and male characters alike, a fantastic plot, and some humour (although I think there was more of that in the Riyria Revelations).
I was very happy that Tim Gerard Reynolds is the narrator again, because he does such a fantastic job.
Do yourselves a favour and read or listen to this book, you won't regret it.

[jamestomasino · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed the other series in this world but this just fell completely flat. A friend had warned me but I still expected it to be passable. This is a DNF less than 10% of the way in.

[sunyidean · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Competent and enjoyable - written in that modern language which is all the rage (tbf, it's better than pseudo tolkien speech and perhaps easier than inventing your own syntactic variations).

A little lacking in depth and heavy handed on the moral issues (by which I mean laboured, rather than the issues themselves being unworthy' they were perfectly valid as concepts).

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A few years ago I read the Riyria Revelations series by the same author and loved it; this book, set in the same world but during a different era, much less so. For whatever reason, I didn't connect with the characters and I spent much of the book longing for the complex story and fascinating characters I remember from the other books. Likely, the weight of my expectations made it impossible for this volume to measure up, and to be fair, I appreciated the attempt to flesh out this world and the intriguing, if sometimes creepy, storytelling. Overall, I can't say I loved this book, but it's likely to appeal many of this author's fans.

[artdamnit_reads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Age of Myth (The Legends of the First Empire #1) by Michael J. Sullivan was an excellent start to a series (in my opinion), it had world building, character building, and a driving plot (with a few side plots afoot) with action to keep everything going.

What I Liked:

I loved Raithe as the “reluctant hero” poor dude just wants to settle down and have a life and then Malcolm barges in and ruins everything

Speaking of Malcolm - i LOVED the relationship between him and Raithe and the humor that he provides to the story

Suri and Minna were great - though i will admit - in my head i kept picturing her as Princess Mononoke
All the story lines in the book were well developed and easy to keep track of

What I didn’t Like:

It DID drag here and there but for the most part the pace was consistent

Other than that I would def recommend this book to Fantasy Readers and people who are interested in seeing how a simple act escalates into mythology.

Happy Reading!

<3 artdamnit

[amkitty-511462 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After struggling to become absorbed in the story, I wascaught up in it before the 50% mark.

As a history prequel to the Riyria Chronicles (which are on my to-read list), I found this first novel in the series thorough in its detail of relatively small events that I’m sure will become the stuff of legend in the Chronicles. I love that it feels like a “normal” tale of finding one’s place in the world, knowing that these events will take on more meaning, later.

The world and its humanoid races are well-thought out. This is evidenced by excellent description and convincingly plotted intrigues in both the civilized and rough cultures.

The only negative is invention of different race names than typically found in fantasy genres. I believe puzzling it out is part of why I struggled to get into the plot. Once I could equate that to my familiar experiences, things became easier.

[ssimon2000-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, and I also received the audiobook version in a LibraryThing giveaway. I chose to listen to it, and my review is based on the audio.

I'm having a hard time rating this book, wavering between 4- and 5-stars. It's definitely a strong 4-star read, but the potential in this series great. I guess I'll give it a 4.5, and round up.

This is the first book I’ve read by Michael Sullivan, and boy, was this a fun read! The first of a planned five-book series, it sets the stage perfectly, introducing the main players, building characters and this new world, basically prepping the reader for the storyline to come.

This book started out somewhat slow, as the Rhunes (humans) Raithe, Malcolm, Persephone, and Shae are introduced, establishing their personalities and their backgrounds. We also meet the Fhrey, the god-like race with complete control over the Rhunes. The pace is slow, but you have to pay attention, because little details that you may pass over suddenly become huge later on in the story.

As I said above, this book preps the reader for the coming sequels, and while this book stands well, it really did feel like a prequel of sorts. I’m definitely going to be reading the rest of this series.

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

According to the author's note at the start of the book, this is a prequel and the start of a new trilogy. At this point in time in his world, humans are basically Dark Age barbarians, forced to live separately from their elven overlords. In this world, the elves are called Fhrey and some have mastered The Art. A human warrior from one of the more primitive tribes is discovered hunting in Fhrey lands and mostly by accident, kills a Fhrey. This all happens very early in the book, the rest of the book concerns both human and elven politics and the after-effects of the killing.
I found this to be quite interesting and well written. In general, I don't like the idea of the Fhrey that have mastered the Art being basically invincible, but its a good story despite that. The charactes are good too, though his politics rely on some people being overly oblivious.
I'll definitely read the next one.

[jdifelice-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"It was like waiting for the sunrise and a chicken to hatch - if the sun marked the end of the world and the chicken was an all-devouring demon."

Michael J. Sullivan does it again. I just love his writing and the stories he weaves. I just enjoy his books so much, he is one of my favourite authors. The characters he creates are so complex and I love reading about all the strong women in his books. Persephone may seem like a know it all, but she is so confident in herself and really knows how to make the hard decisions. Suri was just an awesome character, she was so whimsical and I loved her logic. Raithe was also a pretty good character I guess, aha.

The setting once again was familiar yet, different (set in Riyria, but thousands of year before Riyria was formed). I enjoyed the descriptions of the land and how it tied into the story. The world building was quite interesting, because we've been in this world, but not in this time, it was cool to see how the different people and species lived.

The plot was also super exciting, and it was well paced. I liked how it unfolded and developed and how small things become significant closer to the end of the story. Some of this was predictable, but I was okay with it, mostly because I didn't know how they would get to that point for some of it. This wasn't the most original story I've read, but I still loved it and I am really looking forward to the rest of the series.

I cannot wait for the next book, and I am so excited about this series! :D

[creighley_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great Michael Sullivan trilogy! Since time immemorial the humans have worshipped the gods they call Fhrey. They are truly a race apart. They are invincible in battle, masters of magic, and nearly immortal. But when a Fhrey is killed by a human the balance of power is upset forever.
Faiths, the god slayer, is reluctant to embrace his destiny, Siri, a young seer is afraid of the impending doom, and Persephone despite her personal tragedies, must lead her people. Great beginning to another trilogy!

[seliz-879521 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this because I received an advanced reader's copy of this from a Goodreads giveaway. I have to say I enjoyed it. While it's not the normal type of fantasy story I'm used to, I found it interesting and unique in the types of magic illustrated. There's an abundance of witches, elves, dwarves, dragons, etc to be found nowadays. Age of Myth has none of them while retaining an interesting perspective of magic that's not always shown. The end brought about an unexpected and interesting twist as well to set up for the next in the series. I look forward to reading more.

[kgodey_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I’m a fan of Michael J. Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations series, so I was looking forward to reading this book since it’s a prequel. It’s set 3,000 years before the events of Riyria which sounds like a lot, but since that’s a normal lifespan for an elf of this world, it actually has more connections than I thought it would.

Our band of heroes are Raithe, a human that kills an elf (called Fhrey in the books) and accidentally proves that they aren’t gods, Persephone, the widow of the chieftain of Dahl Rehn, who has to look after her people in a time of change, Suri, a half-wild girl who has grown up in the woods and possesses a power she thinks she understands, and Arion, a respected elven mage venturing outside of her home for the first time. Raithe killing the elf brings long simmering resentments to the surface, and war between men and the elves seems inevitable.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I think of the Riyria Revelations series as comfort fantasy – heroes rising from an unlikely place, evil plots needing foiling, oppression needing to be to stopped, and this is exactly what Age of Myth was too. The world is different – humans are barely surviving, and their standard of living is pretty low, but otherwise the themes and characterization seemed pretty similar. The book is often not very subtle (the character of Gryndal, for example), but that’s okay – it’s still fun, and there are some epic moments.

I keep talking about Riyria Revelations, but I should make clear that this book stands perfectly well on its own as the start of a new series. Any references to things in Riyria are just Easter eggs.

[tottman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Age of Myth is the first book in a new fantasy series by Michael Sullivan. Set in the same world as his Riyria Chronicles, the events here take place much earlier.

Events start with a human father and son (Raithe) crossing a river into territory forbidden them by a treaty with the elves. The elves (called Fhrey) are considered gods and given their extraordinarily long life-spans, think of the humans (whom they call Rhunes) as little more than animals. When one of the elves dies, Raithe earns the unwanted nickname “God-Killer”. The nickname comes with a target on his back. Meanwhile, Persephone, wife of the chieftain of a dahl, or settlement, finds herself childless and widowed in the span of a few days. This leads to a power change in the dahl and Persephone at a loss to find her role in the new reality. The Fhrey have their own complicated politics going on, as they are separated into tribes who are united even though differences simmer not very far below the surface.

The book starts a little slowly as readers are introduced to the characters as well as both human and elven society. Once the introductions are accomplished, the action starts to move forward. Raithe’s killing of a god comes as a shock to both societies. Both human and elf discover that many of their core beliefs may no longer hold true. Michael Sullivan writes very good characters. They are easy to relate to and identify with. He does an exceptional job of world building. This world is richly detailed and vividly described. It hints at much more to be revealed. When the action comes, it is intense and thrilling. Conspiracies slowly simmer here, among both the Fhrey and the Rhunes. Some of the secrets unveil themselves while others remain to be discovered.

This is a world that is comfortable to return to for readers of Sullivan’s previous work. It is also a perfect jumping off point for new readers, as no prior knowledge of the world is necessary to enjoy this book. This book serves more as prelude to the war that is coming. Age of Myth is the first volume in a six volume series, so be aware what you are signing up for. Also know that all six books are already written, so there is no need to worry about when the next volume will be ready.

The audio version of this book is narrated by the wonderful Tim Gerard Reynolds. His narration completely immerses you in the world, breathing life into the characters and the setting. He is also signed up to narrate the entire series. He complements the story without overpowering it and is an ideal choice to narrate these books. Highly recommended.

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book.

[renbedell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic fantasy book filled with great characters and interesting plot line. I was hooked straight away in the opening scene. The characters and dialogue are very well written. The plot is quite interesting take on gods, giving an original spin to the story. There are a lot of characters that can get confusing in an audiobook, but Tim Gerald Reynolds does a great job giving them each a unique voice and bringing them to life. The worldbuilding is great too, but I feel I may appreciate it more if I have read the books in his previous series as you are just thrown into it. After reading this book, I definitely plan to read them all.

[cwhisenant11 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I went into this book with high expectations but this is probably the most disappointing book I've read/listened to this year. I'm struggling to put my thoughts into words as I am still so confused with all of the 4 and 5 star ratings. First, the book needed a prologue to set the mood or maybe better world building in the beginning to draw me in. I felt like so much information was thrown at me without any context to place it. Also, I felt no connection to any of the characters. Without a solid setting or even one well developed character, the story fell completely flat. I made it over half way through before giving up completely.

[papyri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed the audio version of this book from Recorded Books. Very well done and performed by Tim Gerard Reynolds. Although initially a bit slow and seemingly disjointed, the opening sections of the book filled in the background and set the stage for the later part of the story. Once things get going, the rest of the story was fast paced and kept my interest till the very end. The battle scenes are particularly well done.

[aethercowboy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's unfair to liken Michael J. Sullivan to Scott Lynch, or J. R. R. Tolkien. While I'm fine likening him to Brandon Sanderson, likening anybody to Tolkien, in my mind, brings to mind the terrible tolkienoid fantasy that the 80's churned out: Terry Brooks and David Eddings (who did it twice in a row) being the poster children for such.

Nowadays, when I hear "post-Tolkien" fantasy, I cringe, expecting a book that's over a 1,000 pages of exposition, prophecy, and latent racism, hitting the watermarks of Tolkien's fantasy without actually making a book worth reading.

It's unfair to liken him to Scott Lynch because Lynch depends on four letter words to hold up his otherwise shaky narrative, something Sullivan does not seem to do.

Discovering Sullivan was a breath of fresh air for a snobby fantasy reader like myself. His book, Age of Myth, was an excellent fantasy novel that did not tread heavily on the well-worn path blazed by Tolkien. Sure, sometimes he takes you down some of the better trails, but it's not just a walk down memory lane dressed up like a horse-choking tome indented to exchange your gold points for nostalgia points.

Age of Myth returns to Sullivan's established world, Riyria (which is fun to say, try it). However, it takes place a few thousand years prior, so you can start here without worrying about affecting your narrative expectations for other books you probably not have read (which you probably have not, since Sullivan is severely underrated). When a god dies at the hands of a human, it shakes the very foundations of the civilization. He must escape those who seek vengeance, and those who wish to placate the gods alike. Along the way, he scoops up a band of misfits, and they have a grand adventure.

The thing I liked especially about Age of Myth was the fact that it was almost family friendly. The characters never seemed to curse, nor was the violence elaborated upon more than necessary to get the point across. Also, the female characters were treated with respect, both by the author and by the other characters on the page.

It's great to see something like this in the modern sway of post-Martin grimdark, just to show that fantasy doesn't need to have buckets of blood and buxom ladies to make it worth reading. A reader old enough for Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings would be old enough for Age of Myth.

I would recommend this book to all fans of high or epic fantasy. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how smooth a story one can pave using the rocky road so many before have trampled.