Blazing Reader,

I was wrong.

My nineteen-year-old son pointed it out (he likes to do that).

Per last week's review of The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan, I'd written:

"For people like me, who prefer stories of individuals, rather than political campaigns, I can certainly see why they rate Sullivan's work so highly.""

However, as Jonah noted, the story actually does have an overarching political plot — one that is strikingly similar to the situation we find the world in today.

In the novel, the King of Melengar is assassinated so that his brother-in-law can take his place on the throne. But Percy Braga is a puppet whose strings are being pulled by the nefarious Church of Nyphron. The end goal is to unite all the kingdoms of Elan under a single ruler. To this end, they are placing those sympathetic to their one-world government as placeholders.

Sound familiar?

So, yeah, the political conflict is also there. They even have a big battle near the end. But the story is told from the point of view of two thieves, a monk, a prince and a princess. It doesn't read like a historical account of vague elites fighting for world domination. It's a story of individuals trying to navigate a world full of grand conspiracies that seem well beyond their ability to influence.

If you haven't checked out my two-part take of Michael J. Sullivan's The Crown Conspiracy, you can head over to Goodreads, where I posted the entire review.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. If you're not a member of Goodreads, I'd encourage you to sign up. You can read reviews, leave reviews and interact with other book lovers. You can even argue over how political Michael J. Sullivan's fantasy novels are.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.