Michael J. Sullivan

[The Crimson Avenger]

Has anyone heard anything, one way or another, regrading the new fantasy of Sullivan's? I'm thinking of picking up his first book, The Crown Conspiracy, but with money tight I'm being choosier than normal.

[Scott H. Andrews]

I have not heard of him or that novel, but I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to new fantasy novelists.

In my to-read pile are Ken Scholes's Lamentation and the first book of Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. The Scholes originated from a story in Realms of Fantasy that I liked and I've heard great things about the Abraham.

[The Crimson Avenger]

See, I've never heard of Scholes or Abraham. I'll look them up on Amazon. I don't often buy there but their reviews are priceless.

Sullivan's are being pushed on me because they're supposedly good old fashioned fantasy buddy stories, a la Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. However...

After perusing the reviews on Amazon, the book takes some pretty hard knocks from people about grammar and dialogue. As far as dialogue goes, they say some of it is stilted and in this strange faux-old fashioned speech (Thee's, and Thou's).

I'm just not sure if its worth spending money on.

[Scott H. Andrews]

I'm just not sure if its worth spending money on.
I hear ya. :)

There are a couple ways I know of to check out a preview of a book before you buy. There's the "Search Inside" thing on Amazon, although they don't have it for all books. Also, if the book is available in a Kindle edition, those often have a free preview. (I don't have a Kindle, but I do have the free Kindle reading software on my laptop.)

Also, in this modern era, many authors post sample chapters on their website or on their publisher's website or on review sites like BookSpotCentral. If you google, you might be able to turn up something.