The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter by Michael J. Sullivan

Obviously, twists and turns quickly tip this story on its head and by the end of the book an entire city has been upended by Royce and Hadrian. Royce is obviously pleased about this possibility, but Hadrian holds out hope that it’s actually a rescue mission instead. The story centres around the disappearance of a particular noble whose father wants revenge for her supposed death – lots and lots of revenge. This particular series (the Riyria Chronicles) are set in the early days of their partnership, Royce and Hadrian are therefore still in the “getting to know you” stage of their relationship and are coming to terms with one another’s eccentricities. I quickly found my feet, however, and rejoiced in being reunited with two of my favourite characters (so much so that I’ve begun rereading Theft of Swords). I couldn’t remember how old Royce and Hadrian were supposed to be in this book. Needless to say, despite how much I love Sullivan, I found myself swimming in the deep end for a few chapters when I first started reading The Disappearance of Winter’s Daughter. Now he’s written a new book, and self-published it again, but this book is set back before the first three books (which were actually six stories) but after the next ones he wrote but which were set before the first three (six), and thousands of years after the next ones he wrote. Then he wrote more books, but these were set thousands of years before the books he had already written. Then he wrote more, but these new stories were whole books, and set years before the original books. They were then picked up by a publisher and published as three books (each with two stories each).

He then wrote six stories and self-published them. Sullivan wrote for years but got nowhere with agents. But his story is unlike so many others (and again, so very similar). Michael J Sullivan is, simply put, one of the best writers writing today.

The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter by Michael J. Sullivan