I now blog over at The Eyre Guide! This blog is an archive of my past posts.


Monday, December 23, 2013

Review: The Thief

Posted by Charlene // Tags: , , ,
The Thief (The Queen's Thief #1)
by Megan Whalen Turner

Plot Summary:

The most powerful advisor to the King of Sounis is the magus. He's not a wizard, he's a scholar, an aging solider, not a thief. When he needs something stolen, he pulls a young thief from the King's prison to do the job for him.

Gen is a thief and proud of it. When his bragging lands him behind bars he has one chance to win his freedom-- journey to a neighboring kingdom with the magus, find a legendary stone called Hamiathes's Gift and steal it.

The magus has plans for his King and his country. Gen has plans of his own.

Review:

It is so difficult to review this book because it is an excellent read, but to really delve into why it is excellent might detract from the experience for new readers!  And I really think it helped going into this story with little expectations.  It does take a bit of time for the story to pick up, but I did find the author's descriptions of the world and of the lives of these people so vivid as to be completely fascinating, and I enjoyed all the details.

I think this story has a perfect blend of character development, plot and world building.  All three support each other so well to tell the story.  Just when it is necessary to know more about a character, the information is dropped in - as well as the information concerning the beliefs and politics of the world, and the purpose of the story.  The plot does seem aimless at times in the beginning, but I enjoyed how everything was made clear as things that were hinted or briefly mentioned in the beginning became important.  The story builds very well as we get to know more about the characters and their motivations.

Gen is such a fun character - wry, unrepentant, and very cocksure - he narrates the book and keeps the flow of the story entertaining with his observations of his fellow travelers.  Everybody it seems has secrets in this book, and it really felt like I was there on this journey of discovery with these characters as I continued to read.  The writing, the characters and the world building - with it's influences of Greek mythology - all felt real and striking.  I think when it comes to a book of this kind of fantasy, there is an expectation of real emotional poignancy.  And there were a couple emotional moments in this book that could have been very affecting, but the plot moved too quickly to dwell on it.  That made this story lighter fantasy fare - which is nice to read sometimes because it is just pure entertainment.

This is a fantastic adventure tale with some surprising twists and great characters.  And I've heard that the second book "The Queen of Attolia" is much better, so I'm really looking forward to finding out why!


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6 comments:

  1. Hmms this sounds like my kind of read! I need to list it..I am so far behind on reading Char..I admire how many books you and Aidan read in a year!

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    1. This is a great book - and apparently it was so inspiration for Melina Marchetta in writing Finnikin of the Rock! I am jealous you have such a nice long vacation to read though!

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  2. This sounds really good! I think you did a great job giving some good points without giving anything away. It's also exciting that the second book is even better. There are some series I'm currently avoiding starting because negative reviews for later books have started to come out. It's just nice to know going in that things (probably) aren't going to go downhill :)

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    1. Aw thanks! That's so true - it's heartening to know that a series gets better! There are actually four books in this series, and I haven't heard anything about #3 and 4 so I'm a little nervous, but after I finish #2, I'll look at the reviews for the rest of the series.

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  3. I was definitely going to read your review for the third book but saw your mention that you'd not avoid spoilers so I came here! :) I haven't read this series yet, though I've always wanted to. I think that'll have to change! Great review Charlene!

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    1. Yayy!!! I'm happy to spread the word of how great this series is - I can't wait to read what you thought of it!

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