The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

[meganbmoore]

A thief who was jailed after stealing the king’s seal and bragging about it, Gen is sitting around in the prison of Sounis, waiting for a chance to escape, when he’s approached by the magus he originally stole the seal from for a job. If he will travel with the magus and three others to steal something-he isn’t told what for some time-his prison sentence will, at the least, be shortened. Knowing a good thing when he sees it, Gen agrees.

Much of the book is a Road Trip, with the five characters (all men…nothing resembling a female shows up until near the end, aside from a waitress in a bit part-they are cool when they do show up, though) discussing the history and mythology of their world, which is very like if ancient Greece had continued through to what seems to be about the Renaissance era, without the introduction of monotheism. In complete honesty, while the world and mythology are interesting and Gen an engaging narrator (though, to be really interesting, he needs more appealing characters to interact with than he has for most of the book) the book itself isn’t overly compelling until the last leg. Mostly, it’s setting up the promise of something really good, which it starts to deliver on in the end, and presumably will completely in the sequels. 

BOOK BREAKING SPOILERS!

As far as the final reveals go: That Gen is nobility, and the Queen of Eddis’s official thief was, I think, though not telegraphed, pretty clearly set up. It was clear that Gen wasn’t who he said he was (and did anyone ever doubt that he was the one who had stolen the Gift?) and all the talk about how his full name with Eugenides and his claims to be better than they thought he was led me to think that he was, at the least, the illegitimate son of a former official thief. While I’m mostly neutral with a positive leaning for the bulk of the book, the setup of the end is very much my kind of thing, and I very much like the “Greek-lite” world. *Likes thieves and queens. Queens in general, actually.* 

Comments

[mekosuchinae.livejournal.com]

I love The Thief, but its sequels - particularly the excellent The Queen of Attolia - are vastly superior. (In, er, my opinion.) Gen has loads more to do, the story is notably heftier and more layered, and Turner develops the queens of Attolia and Eddis into fully fledged and powerful characters with recognizable flaws and strengths. So, so good.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

See, I clued in that Gen was hiding something, but I assumed it was that he was a she. :D

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

The book itself isn’t overly compelling until the last leg. Mostly, it’s setting up the promise of something really good, which it starts to deliver on in the end, and presumably will completely in the sequels.

That is exactly correct. The sequels, in particular the last one, are great.

[anime-babble.livejournal.com]

Just echoing what everyone else has said. Whalen gets much much pretty with each subsequent book, and this series (at least I hope there's more than three) is flat-out excellent.

[snarp]

The next book does not lack female characters. Also, it is awesome. I didn't really get why people were so enthusiastic about the series until I got to Queen of Attolia.

(And darn it, now I want to re-read it and have inadvertently pulled up Amazon.co.jp - oh, hey, looks like there are even translations, but they're randomly insanely expensive.)

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

This series just gets better!

I'm not sure if 'Queen' or 'King' is my favourite, though.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I’m not SO fond of The Thief, but the sequels are BRILLIANT and some of my favorite fantasy. (I especially love the next one, The Queen of Attolia!)