The Thief's Gamble

The Tales of Einarinn #1

by Juliet E. McKenna

The Secrets of the Shadow-Men

Magic? It's for the rich, the powerful...the Archmage and his elite wizards and cloud-masters.

Livak is not among them. She haunts the back taverns of the realm, careful to appear neither rich nor poor, neither tall nor short . . . neither man nor woman. Obscurity is her protection, thievery her livelihood, and gambling her weakness.

Alas, some bets are hard to resist. Particularly when they offer a chance to board a ship for Hadrumal, the fabled city of the Archmage. So Livak follows a minor wizard, Shiv, in an attempt to turn a rune or two, never dreaming that the stolen tankard she wants to sell contains the secrets of an ancient magic far more powerful, and infinitely darker, than any mortal mage's spells.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Magic, Epic Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction Fantasy

495 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, she has written fifteen epic fantasy novels so far. Her debut, The Thief’s Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. The Green Man’s Heir was her first modern fantasy inspired by British folklore in 2018. The Green Man’s Quarry in 2023 was the sixth title in this ongoing series and won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. The seventh book, in 2024, is The Green Man’s War.

Her 2023 novel The Cleaving is a female-centred retelling of the story of King Arthur, while her shorter fiction includes forays into dark fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. She promotes SF&Fantasy by reviewing, by blogging on book trade issues, attending conventions and teaching creative writing. She has served as a judge for the James White Award, the Aeon Award, the Arthur C Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Awards. In 2015 she received the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award. As J M Alvey, she has written historical murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.

Who’s to say what will come next?

Learn more about all of this at julietemckenna.com and on Twitter @JulietEMcKenna

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

On paper, this book sounds amazing. Headstrong thief character who is really good at her job and is as useful as all the men on the team! Lots of world-building, especially in terms of magic and politics! Two systems of magic at war with one another with modern magic unable to defend against ancient, forgotten magic! A positive homosexual character who is treated like a normal character! A fallen empire shrouded in mystery! An old man that can turn into a waterfall!

In execution, however, this book was a really poorly-paced mess. Small snippets of cool things happen between large stretches of our heroes just sort of wandering from plot event to plot event while I fight the urge to fall asleep.

Which is a shame; the good parts in this story are really good. Livak's thievery is exceptionally engaging with all the needed steps to execute a difficult heist, complete with created personas to throw the guards off her tail, being by far the most exciting parts of the book. And the other characters, from Shiv the warlock to Geris the scholar with big ideals, do develop relationships with each other that have heart to them.
But at the same time, the boring parts are really boring.

Since the title, the cover, and the summary blurb all do nothing in explaining this book, I will do a quick plot summary. Livak, a headstrong young thief straight from a DnD session you had in college, steals an ancient mug from a noble's home in an act of vengeance and then tries to sell it. The buyers are none other than agents of the Arch-Mage, and they essentially bribe her into helping them recover more artifacts such as the one she stole, since clearly she has some skill if she stole that mug without getting her hands chopped off. And so, our noble heroes travel the countryside, first in search of more artifacts, and then in search for answers as to why a bunch of people with blond hair are attacking and killing people.

Also some stuff with a guy named the Ice Man who wants to take over the world I think? He tortures (in very graphic detail) and uses mind control on people so he must be bad.

I think my main problem is, for all the little chapter starters that include text from pieces of literature in this world - from plays to textbooks written by characters in this story - I still had no real picture of what this world's belief system was about. Or what the magic system really was about. Or what things like Forest Folk were. All the extra lip service towards fleshing out this world...really didn't. This book really doesn't even bother to explain really rudimentary things like how many gods the characters believe in, nor does it explain why an entire race of people is basically evil and disgusting, eww look they breed like rabbits gross, with their leader being a grand douche who likes performing mindrape and torture for the evils.

This book is nearly 500 pages. Perhaps instead of giving me an excerpt of a play someone mentioned in passing during a conversation that has no bearing to the plot, could we get a pantheon of gods in there? Or a basic understanding of what each element of magic can do instead of just introducing spells at random when convenient?

Also, the finale to this book is one of the most poorly written things I have ever read. I can't even remember what happened beyond "I think someone summoned a dragon to attack some ships?" because sometime after someone gets possessed, the writing gets really muddy and what should be an exciting conclusion to the book just confused and irritated me. This book doesn't so much end as it just stops.

This book also makes the weird choice in that the characters like to say 'shit' a lot, which ends up making some of the more tense moments unintentionally hilarious. At one point in the book, a wizard is accused of brutally murdered and raping a friend of an important noble (and you see the corpse of this noble earlier in very graphic detail, adding to the horror), and he's being beaten within an inch of his life. In any other book, this would be a very harrowing scene, and you'd feel for both parties. In this book, the noble keeps calling the wizard 'shit-head' while the wizard is getting his ribs kicked in, turning this scene into something comical.
That's not even touching the fact that it's common slang to call sex "playing stuff the chicken" in this world.

In short, not something I would recommend. What's good is good, and I actually really enjoyed these characters. They're just woefully trapped in something that needed a few more passes with the editors and maybe 100 less pages.

Additional Thoughts

*The book goes from first person with Livak to third person with another character between chapters (a snooty wizard named Casuel who isn't very good at his job) and it's extremely jarring. It's also rather pointless, because Casuel, a character the book devotes entire chapters to, just exists to get beat up multiple times and then whine about how much his life sucks. He has no bearing on the plot and why he gets over 100 pages of his wacky adventures is beyond me.

*While it is cool that Shiv is gay, it's only really brought up in a major fashion two times; once to dispel any potential for a relationship between him and Livak (which is fine), and the other time to jokingly explain why Casuel doesn't like him (which is really not fine). At the beginning of the book, you learn Casuel got into a really big fight with Shiv and it has driven him into a giant grudge with this guy; turns out the fight started when Shiv wrongly guessed his orientation and Casuel took it as a personal attack on his manhood. Ho ho, how droll!
So I feel conflicted about awarding the book any points for this.

*There is a scene where everyone gets diarrhea from moldy bread while they're traveling through an enchanted forest to meet a wizard. Okay, writer, I laughed at this. Fair enough.

*Minor literary pet peeve: While traveling and having to slog through rainy conditions, Livak is like "bards never write about how the heroes have to deal with rust and rotten food and depression during their travels, it's all sparkly and nice in fairy tales!" in her narration. Yes, Livak. They leave that stuff out because bards know something about how to keep a story interesting. Perhaps you can learn something from them.

[Carol (StarAngel's Reviews) Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started out very slow and confusing but about 30% in it definitely all comes together and the action begins!

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, fast moving well plotted and a leading character you can't help but like even if you wouldn't want her to have access to your valuables.

I got caught in this book fast and stayed that way. The traditional characters, a party with fighters, wizards, and a thief. Later they run on a different type of wizard (sorcerers?) and an evil cleric, all are well done.

"Good read". (Note the play on words...aren't you impressed? Oh you aren't, sigh, okay.)

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Thief’s Gamble is the debut novel of British fantasy writer Juliet E. McKenna and is the first installment in The Tales of Einarinn epic series. Though it may seem as yet another clichéd fantasy tale, which I keep on coming across lately, the story is infused with ironic and rather intriguing plot twists that mark the book as definitely above the mediocre level.

The plot is focused on the adventures of the joke-cracking, witty and thievish character of Livak, who casts the runes deviously, does not care for the consequences and therefore, manages to earn a decent livelihood. But a shortage of gold forces her to rob a noble’s house and from this point on, her life becomes a mishmash of magic, blood and love.

Hadrumal, the island and sanctuary of elemental wizards, is a place dreaded and found intimidating by ordinary people. However, the magi have stumbled across a jumble of ancient objects which give their owners the ability to dream of a mighty Empire lost in the carnage of chaos centuries ago. Are these artefacts actually remains of the ancient knowledge, of the old magic, which kept the Empire whole and inalienable?

Hired by agents of the archwizard, with sudden and uncharacteristic reluctance but with prospects to show off her abilities, Livak is now entangled into an inevitable intercontinental war, as an unknown race (which is strangely reminiscent of Vikings) roams unchecked, killing and demolishing, with powers completely inexplicable.

Juliet McKenna has succeeded in developing an immense world divided into numerous pieces by greedy fractions and frail alliances. So far as her worldbuilding skills are concerned, she is one of the best in the genre, as she manages not only to enliven Einarinn with a jumble of authentic and original individuals, but also creates dynamical and intense relationships that contribute to a certain level of plausibility.

In The Thief’s Gamble we face an engrossing plot, which might suffer from tropes of the fantasy genre but is presented masterfully, and all the prerequisites that should turn The Tales of Einarinn series into a solid debut have been met. For me, though, the main inadequacy of the book is the mixing of humorous scenes with unaccountable cruelty, like depictions of rapes and murders, which are definitely not suitable for all audiences. Nevertheless, violence in literature is nowadays largely regarded as normal, so this minor flaw cannot outshine the indisputable assets of the novel.

Fortunately, the protagonists are well-developed and likeable; only those few who join the group of companions later on lack decent background and motivation. Livak as a main character is an enigmatic figure, impulsive and entertaining in her somewhat ruthless and practical logic. In conclusion, The Thief’s Gamble offers a multitude of amusing characters, original manifestations of magic, a mixture of politics and intrigue, as well as a vast world yet to be discovered – thus, Juliet E. McKenna has every right to be considered one of the best adventure fantasy writers out there.

[Kitty G Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to go back to some of the older titles on my to be read pile, and it seemed long overdue for me to try out some of Juliet McKenna's work, so starting at the beginning made sense. This was her first fantasy book I believe, and although it's not as polished as some I've read, it's a solid story and probably the start of a good adventure.

We follow a lady called Livak who is a gambler and thief. She is looking to meet up with a friend, but instead gets mixed up in an affair with wizards and scholars on a quest to uncover new (or ancient) magics and their potential. Livak is resourceful and witty and not afraid to stick up for herself, but she's also unable to get out of the agreement as she is drawn to the adventure. Her plot is told in first person.

We also follow some side characters such as Cas and Allin (a wizard and a wizard apprentice-to-be) as they try to get ahead of their rival, Shiv. Shiv is another wizard we follow, as part of Livak's party, along with Darni and Geris who are also accompanying them. Each of these side characters has their own parts to play, told in third person, and it was good to see the story fleshed out a bit by their plot too and how that interacted with Livak's.

Overall, the magic and set up of this world is fairly stereotypical, but it still felt fun to read. Although I didn't see anything I'd not seen before in some form, I did enjoy the reading experience and I'm intrigued enough to want to know how the story goes on as it's clear that the plot is thickening at the end and there's some similarities here to Robin Hobb's RotE series which I'm intrigued by. 3*s

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantasy Review Barn

Sometimes a generic fantasy yarn is just what you need. I love books that try something new, push the limits of the genre, and make me think. But sometimes a quick little romp is ok too, right? Sure it is, and when in that mood there is nothing wrong with ‘The Thief’s Gamble.’ It hits all the nice fantasy tropes, and doesn’t see any reason to bend them, break them, or subvert them. You got your talented thief with a good heart, benevolent wizards, a mysterious stranger in the bar, ancient lost magic along with the commonly used elemental magic, and a whole island of baddies to overcome.

So the story starts. The Archmage is searching for artifacts from the good old days to better understand lost magics. To do so he has send several groups out to collect these. Our heroine, Livak, is coerced into working with one of these groups as they need her thieving skills to get a piece that has been hard to get. No hard feelings though, despite being coerced she is going to be paid well by mage Shiv and his band. After some early shenanigans the plot gets going when it is discovered another group is after the same artifacts. This race of yellow haired jerks is using unknown magic and horrible brutality to get their way.

I liked quite a bit about this book. Livak is a genuinely interesting character, fairly resourceful within her means, very smart, sometimes witty. Her chapters are written in the first person, whereas chapters dealing with other characters are not. She is actually a pretty adult character as well, ok with her sexuality though it is never her defining feature. She has a couple ‘adult’ relationships with various degrees of attachments, like real people do! Ryshad, the mysterious stranger, is quickly shown to be loyal to his employer and new friends. While the various mages tend to run together in my mind, the Archmage and Shiv did stand out. Shiv is a rare openly gay character in the fantasy genre, though it is only known through a few passing references.

The plotting was a strong point as well; fairly fast paced fairly focused. There were only three or four threads to follow throughout the book, but they were all tied together by the end. One small diversion to visit an old mage dragged on too long, but outside of that everything moved at a brisk pace. While this was the first book of the series it could be read as a standalone; it ends with good conclusions for surviving characters. Oh, ya there is an actual sense of danger, not everyone will survive the journey. While never the focus, the violence factor really ramped up in the last twenty percent of the book.

Only a few complaints here. I was fine with the generic feel of it, but be aware that no new ground was broken here. The history of the land was a bit jumbled, or at least it confused me. Some things I thought were part of ancient history instead turned out to be only a few generations old. Lastly the magic was a bit inconsistent, sometimes incredibly powerful, others fairly limited.

3 and a half stars.

PS. Not related to the actual book, but whoever wrote the excerpt on the back of the paperback copy (which also appears on Goodreads) didn’t even attempt to read the book. He/she actually mixed up some of Livak’s plot line with a separate minor character. And the ‘teaser quote;’ ‘Never bet against a wizard, you might win,’ has zero to do with the story either. Just bad packaging.

[Mieneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Thief's Gamble is a great traditional fantasy, of the kind that made me fall in love with the genre when I was fourteen years old. Which shouldn't have been a big surprise as the book was actually first published in 1999, which was in the same decade as when I first discovered fantasy. It's epic and fun – none of that modern gritty stuff here – and very much a part of a series. Of course 'modern' fantasy often is part of a trilogy or series as well, but it seems as if these days more of an effort is made to make books more readable on their own, to have their story be somewhat self-contained. Not so The Thief's Gamble; this is clearly the first book of a series, introducing us to our main characters, giving us an idea of the world we're moving into and setting up the overarching story arc, i.e. who is/are the baddie(s) and what's the problem that threatens the world as we know it? And you know what? I loved it!

Our main character Livak, the titular thief, is a wonderfully self-reliant and strong female lead. We meet her as she's hanging around, waiting for her companion to arrive and she learns of a nice 'business' opportunity. As said business opportunity also provides a way to get revenge on the man who tried to rape her years ago, Livak decides to take advantage and lands herself in far more trouble than she expected. But she never expects anyone but herself to get her out of this trouble, which I really liked. Another factor I loved is that there is no sweeping romance in the book, she'll take her pleasure, but Livak doesn't need a man! Ms McKenna doesn't need her protagonist to be a-sexual or the tomboy type to be strong and independent in her own right and it was very good to discover another such character, as I think you can't have enough of those in print.

Through Livak we meet most of our main characters; those she doesn't introduce have their own viewpoint, specifically the Archmage and Casuel. I liked how Ms McKenna played with the narrative voice for the different viewpoints, keeping all but Livak's in third person and hers in first. This lends an immediacy and intimacy to the pages spent with Livak, that is less present in the other passages. Unsurprisingly, this also led to Livak being my favourite character, closely followed by Ryshad, Shiv and Planir, the Archmage. Another character whose development I'm interested in following through the other books, that is if she returns, is Allin. Her growth through this story was fun to watch, moving as she did from a shy, diffident and insecure young girl away from home for the first time to a young woman still unsure of her place in the world, but far more assertive and present in the foreground than she had been. I especially liked the scenes where she didn't let Casuel bully her any more; those had me cheering for her in my head.

The plot was quite interesting – even though at times it moved a bit slowly – with a very creepy evil overlord and interesting societies, both the Elietimm and Tormalin. The Elietimm were a mixture of berserker warrior and a strange docility. They are a mysterious people and I look forward to finding out more about them. The same is true for the Tormalin. They are equally mysterious, though somewhat less so, due to the presence of modern Tormalin descendants, such as Messire D'Olbriot and Casuel. And while they seem equally warlike to the Elietimm, there doesn't seem to be much docility in the Tormalin character. Another thing I liked, were the opposing magic systems. On the one hand there are the elemental magics, which seem completely aptitude based and on the other hand there aetheric magic, which seems accessible to all who know the spells and how to chant them. I found it interesting that the elemental magics, which would logically be harder to attain as they need an innate affinity is the form that has survived, while the aetheric magics have been mostly lost in the time the book takes place.

The Thief's Gambit is a strong start to the Tales of Einarinn. I originally picked this book up at Amanda's suggestion during our London book shopping spree and I'm glad she put it on my pile, as I really loved this book. At the same time, she's made it so I have at least twelve more books to buy and read to catch up on Ms McKenna's backlist. I don't whether to hug her or curse her for that! But it is also a clear indication of how much I enjoyed The Thief's Gambit. If you like your old-school epic fantasy, Ms McKenna's first outing is definitely worth your time. Me, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the other books of the Tales of Einarinn, as I really want to return to Livak's story and see where adventure will take her.

[Connie53 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heerlijk ongecompliceerde fantasy. Met veldslagen, zeeslagen, magiërs, elementen magie en spreuken magie. En een groepje helden en een heldin, Livak. Ze is een gokker en ook af en toe niet vies van een diefstal als ze geld nodig heeft. Als ze een inktpotje steelt van iemand die haar jaren tevoren heeft geprobeerd te verkrachten doet ze dat eigenlijk meer uit wraak. Bij de verkoop van het potje ergens in een achteraf straatje wordt ze min of meer tegen haar zin ingelijfd bij een speurtocht naar bepaalde magische voorwerpen. Het soort voorwerpen waarvan de eigenaar heel levendige dromen krijgt die hij niet kan vergeten en waarin dat voorwerp een rol speelt. Als er van voorwerp geruild wordt met andere eigenaren die dezelfde ervaring hebben, houden de dromen op, als ze dan ieder hun voorwerp weer terug hebben en beginnen de dromen weer.
Een aantal magiërs denkt dat deze dromen de gaten in de geschiedschrijving kunnen opvullen.
Livak gaat met een groep mee om deze voorwerpen te stelen en dan beginnen de avonturen. Er doemen mensen op uit een ander deel van de wereld die weer andere magische talenten hebben. En die mensen moeten ze te lijf om te overwinnen. En begint het verhaal. Heel leuk om te lezen misschien ook vanwege de luchtige en humorvolle schrijfstijl. Ik heb er heel erg van genoten.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a crush on Ryshad back in the day because my SO roleplayed a character with the same name and I loved him. I even picked the series because of this.

The series felt meh but it still has some nostalgia vibes for me.

[L.R. Braden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thief's Gamble is a traditional fantasy adventure with mages, fighters, and rogues. The story is faced-paced, and the characters are well developed, each bringing a unique personality to the party. I love the dynamic between Livak and Shiv (the thief and mage), and I love the way the protagonist's flaws continuously land her in trouble.

As an aside, this is the first book in a series and the subsequent books alternate between Livak's POV and that of Ryshad, the warrior. I like the story and world building in Ryshad's tales, but I never could connect with him the way I did with Livak, so I found the series as a whole a bit of a roller coaster, oscillating between books I really liked to books that were "meh" for me. That said, I did read them all and enjoyed the series as a whole.

[Jacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ms McKenna’s Green Man books so I’ve gone right back to her first published novel from 1999. Livak is a thief and a professional gambler – a chancer by trade – who steals the wrong thing and tries to sell it to the wrong person. She’s drawn into a quest to retrieve magic books and artifacts which have details of magic and history from a little-known Einarinn time period. This involves her special skills, sneaking and lock-picking being to the fore. Her companions in the enterprise are a mage from Hadrumal, a scholar and a soldier, but the are all economical with the kind of information that would makes Livak’s job easier. Two further characters are introduced part way through, and the plot gets interesting with bands of cutthroat yellow-haired invaders relentlessly trying to kill our heroes. This is the first in a series of books that take us deeper into Einarinn. If this is anything to go by, I’ll be reading the rest.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a long read for me for two reasons, it's a paper book and it had frequent slow parts. I found the magic and the culture to be pretty interesting so I think it's viable for a reread. I own book two so hopefully I'll start that soon.

Oh and a minor note that I'd forgotten to mention in my original write up for this review. There is an LGBT character in this story! I didn't know that going into it but I was pleasantly surprised.

[K.C. Rivers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ergh, yet another low-star rating. I hate giving those. I tried to like this book, I really did, but it just fell flat for me in too many ways. I confess, this is in my very small "did-not-finish" category, but I’m counting it anyway because I was 5/6 of the way through the darn thing before I finally gave up.

What kept me going at first were the wizards. (Though the whole tagline about betting against a wizard had nothing whatsoever to do with this book. Quite misleading, in my opinion.) Livek felt like a rather shallow character and I didn’t care what happened to her or any of the others, which is not how you want to feel about the protagonists. Love them or hate them, you should feel SOMEthing more than just meh. And while I enjoyed the wizards/mages, too many of them felt shallow as well. I mean, Livek meets Geris and within one day they’re sleeping together? It would have been different if there had been more chemistry between the two of them, but it literally just felt like, “Well, there’s nothing else to do so we might as well just do each other.”

It felt the same way with making sure to point out that Shiv is gay. There was no purpose to that. It didn’t build or change his character or give us a sense of his backstory. In fact, it seemed to be brought up in a way that was clearly just meant to be a “shock factor,” which given that this was written in 1999 was probably the case. I can’t stand it when authors (or movies or video games or whatever) do that. Just one of my little pet peeves, I guess. All of the information was just that – information. Because I did like the wizards, I kept reading because I wanted to see more of them, like Usara, but even that was hard to follow at first.

So…yeah. There’s a lot of names and titles and info dumping, and it’s confusing at first to go back and forth between the different points of view. Not to mention every chapter starts with random historical facts or literature in the author’s fictional world. While this can be helpful with world-building, I felt like absolutely none of the chapter beginnings had anything to do with the story I was reading. Thus I just ended up skimming those. (And I did try to be gracious, as this is the author’s first book. I’m pretty convinced that with few exceptions, everyone’s first book is always a little rough, including my own. So perhaps her writing style and voice have changed over the years.)

Sadly, I didn’t like any of the wizards enough to want to read the rest of the series, or even the final chapters of this book. It might appeal to readers of high/epic fantasy in general, but my personal opinion is that there are far better series out there with better world-building and much better characters.

[Jenny T · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very okay beginning to what may turn out to be an interesting series. In spite of Livak, a fierce, independent thief heroine and a cast of quirky wizard-types, something didn't click with me.

The fantasy world has a well-developed history, but the author's writing is so bogged down by her insistence on telling us all about it in DETAIL when what we really need is character development. As it is, the relationships between the characters seem to come out of nowhere.

I like the premise a LOT, and the author manages to balance grit with humor, but the overall effect is a bit lukewarm.

[Aliki Ekaterini Chapple · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed an epic fantasy as much as this. Complex world, nicely drawn characters, exciting plot. It was her first published novel, and I’m along for the whole series now.

[Shaitarn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. FRTC.

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 stars - English Ebook

Livak is a part-time thief and full-time gambler, long accustomed to living by her wits and and narrowly avoiding serious trouble. When she attempts to sell a stolen antique to a passing merchant, she finds herself pulled into a new and dangerous world of political intrigue in which the stakes are higher than anyone involved can imagine.

For the antique she has acquired dates from a particular period in the history of Einarinn about which little is known, but much has been speculated. When the truth begins to emerge, Livak decides to take the greatest gamble of her life.

I really enjoyed the protagonist's point of view, and observing the tale through her perspective. I am hoping there is more Livak in the rest of the Einarinn books.

The secondary characters were also engaging and likable. I would have liked the 'villians' to be a little more well rounded, but I get the sense that more light will be shed on their motivations and rational in following books.

Overall, a sound read in an interesting world with an enjoyable cast. Livak is an entirely likable lead that has charm, charisma, and levity to spare. I don't know why these virtues are so rare in female characters.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit slow at the start but it picked up at the end. This book was charming and I liked the world and characters, but it wasn't anything special. I skipped basically all of the lore that opens the chapters because it was pretty boring.

[Devin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a golden rule to fantasy novels; you have to give it at least the first 100 pages, because the main plot or conflict of the story doesn't really start to present itself until then. I'm on page 96, and I'm still waiting for the plot to stand up and make itself known.

I'm not saying that I'm ready the throw in the towel just yet and move onto something else. I'm just not impressed with what I've read so far. I don't dislike the characters, yet there's nothing about them that's particularly stood out to me. The main character is Livak, a street-savvy thief looking to turn a higher profit and instead ends us getting wound up with a group of ambitious wizards who are on a quest to find specific artifacts to a lost Empire, and who are also in competition with other mages to find the best treasure first to advance their position within the mage hierarchy. In all respects it sounds like an interesting story line, except so far nothing's happened. Just lots of talking as the mismatched companions travel from region to region, looking for their next item for Livak to swipe for them. It might be better if the author had a good writing style, but like her characters, it's pretty mediocre. Once again, not necessarily bad, but nothing that pops either. At times her prose and sentence structure is a little slap-dash, and there are at times awkward exchanged happening between the characters that make me go back and re-read a section to make sure I haven't missed anything. The dialogue is stiff and a while not unbelievable, feels little forced.

However, none of what was mentioned above had deterred me enough to stop. I'm going to press on a little further and hope that things will start to turn around. After all, this is McKenna's first book, and so some exceptions have to be made, and as of right now I'm not so worried about the book being bad as it will be boring.

Update:

Despite my previous notions, I actually finished this book, and while some of my opinions have slightly altered, I still remain unimpressed in the long run. In the end it was the dialogue that saved it for me, but as the first book of a series, it left a lot to be desired. I really do believe that McKenna has a lot going for her, and that she had the potential to really give us a powerful story, but she failed in execution. There's a lot going on in her world, but the presentation feels... fragmented, like she just fell short of showing us all the really good bits and therefore loosing the overall impact. Towards the end of the book I found myself simply feeling apathetic. Everything that the characters had to endure during the course of the novel pretty much accounted for naught at the end, and although I realize that McKenna is leaving the door open for a much bigger endeavor as her series continues, I simply found myself not caring. The characters were definitely the most enjoyable aspect of the novel, but not even they are enough to compel me to continue. There was no appeal to keep reading, no spark of curiosity to hold my interest. I think this is one series I'm going to have to let slide.

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

In general -- I thought this was a great book and I enjoyed it. I found the plot sufficiently engrossing and the characters likable.

Pluses:
1. The story was interesting enough for me to look forward to reading it each day, which is a huge point in favor of a book :)

2. I picked this book because the comments have said that this was more of a 'traditional' fantasy. People keep talking about 'fantasy cliches' and how nice it is to have something new and wonderful. I totally disagree -- I think it WAS novel to see a brand new magic system -- at some point in time. Several years back. Now everything is like this, and it's not novel at all. In fact, I think it may be a bit of a cliche all in itself. In fact, to my mind, in many of these 'new and improved' magic systems, the magic is turned and twisted until it isn't magic at all. I think the appeal of a story should be in the how well the characters + world are rendered and in how good the plot is -- not in how different you managed to be from everyone else. I.e. the fact that this book has a 'traditional' magic system pleased me to no end and I loved the mage + thief + warrior travelling party as well.

3. I thought the world was interesting and well described.

Weaknesses or actually to be more precise 'weakness':
The characters, although likable, did not seem quite real to me -- they were well written but in my view they lacked dimension.

[Carrie Mansfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did Not Finish - made it to page 234

I tried folks, I really did. This is an oldie - 1999 to be precise - and side from a female protagonist and a primary male character who casually admits to having a boyfriend (progressive for the year, to be sure) there just isn't much here here. I have trouble keeping characters apart. The book has a tendency to jump POV in a single chapter (with each chapter being rather long and divisions of time, rather than narrator) made the more confusing when Livak's story is told in first person, and everyone else is told in the third person. There's no good reason for that division either, at least not from a narrative point of view. I have to wonder if it was a short-cut way to try and draw the reader in? Dunno.

For epic fantasy, the quest is pretty tame and the magic is woefully underdeveloped for a story about wizards and practically not used beyond some parlor tricks - it almost seems more theoretical than real.

Ultimately, this book is worse than bad: it's boring and doesn't have enough story to justify the almost 500 pages that it fills, making it impossible to recommend. There are too many other, better, traditional fantasies out there to recommend in its place.

[Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really good. It was a very good high fantasy story with an unconventional strong female main character. I look forward to reading more from this author. :D

[Susana789 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rozvláčna epika ktorá rešpektuje kánon žánru tak, ako to bolo ešte v 90. rokoch skoro pravidlom.

[Nessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable adventure where nothing turned out as predictably as I thought it would, which was a refreshing change.

[Myridian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book primarily follows Livak, a thief whose skills include cat burglary, cheating at games of chance, and some fancy knife and dart work. She is the descendent of a mysterious forest people on her father’s side but has had no contact with that culture. Livak meets up with delegation of wizards/scholars and through some plot gymnastics ends up working with them to recover artifacts of another culture that appear to be imbued with an unknown form of magic. Of course it does not turn out to be as simple as things first appear and there are mysterious baddies also trying to retrieve these artifacts who turn out to be highly skilled and dangerous.



I will say that I tried to start this book two or three times before I got into it. Each chapter starts with an excerpt from a supposedly historical document associated with this world. These were written in a suitably dry style and took away from my enjoyment of the story. Additionally, while Livak and her exploits were interesting and the she and the other characters in this story line were engaging, McKenna did jump to the viewpoints of other related characters in disparate locations. None of these characters ended up engaging me in the same way, and she starts her story with a long interlude with the most powerful group of wizards in the land. While these characters reappear briefly later, their presence here just kept me at arm’s length. If this had been a third book in the series I’m positive I would have had a different reaction.



At the same time, the story moves along briskly, the peril is high and the discoveries the characters make in the course of their journeys and searches pulled me along after I got past my initial frustration. Without giving too much away, the ending did have a bit of a deus ex machina feeling and left so many unanswered questions that it made this feel like simply a set-up for the next book which I’ve had a hard time finding! I do look forward to reading more in this world.

[Mariachiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eccoci di nuovo a parlare di fantasy, nella mia ricerca di titoli simili a Il dardo e la rosa di Jacqueline Carey sto testando alcuni autori e questa è la volta di Juliet E. McKenna che devo dire mi ha convinto più della Zettel, ma non raggiunge comunque le altezze della Carey, non c’è niente da fare.

A mio parere scrive in modo più moderno e scorrevole della Zettel, la trama più o meno è allo stesso livello, molto semplice, per riassumere tutto il libro basterebbero poche righe giuro, ma lei ne ha ricavato più di 400 pagine perchè in parte in alcuni punti si dilunga un po’ troppo in scene si carine, ma francamente un poco inutili al proseguimento della trama, e in parte perchè comunque, al contrario della Zettel costruisce il mondo in cui si svolge l’azione in modo più acccurato e dettagliato dandogli un passato ben chiaro, una storia, dei documenti storici e anche la magia, di due tipi, viene spiegata abbastanza bene con numerosi esempi.

Quindi promuovo stile e creazione del mondo fantastico, e anche i personaggi, ma non a pieno perchè alcuni risultano parecchio piatti, interessanti, ma piatti. Peccato perchè con quel quid in più sarebbe veramente un bellissimo libro, invece si ferma ad essere un fantasy carino, ma niente di più, manca di pepe, di pathos, non saprei come altro spiegarlo. La protagonista potrebbe essere fantastica e invece sta molto sulle sue…e non viene sfruttata la massimo. Se fosse stata più centrale alla storia a mio avviso il libro ne avrebbe giovato, questo è il problema nessun personaggio emerge chiaramente sugli altri. Invece se lei e Plenir, l’arcimago, avessero avuto più voce e più spazio…sarebbe stato tutt’altro libro. Se poi i cattivi avessero avuto una personalità sarebbe decollato. Invece ha solo planato.

Il libro è inedito in italiano, e lo consiglio se state cercando qualcosa di questo genere, cioè con questa trama, ma in generale ho letto fantasy molto migliori. E vi consiglierei altro. La Thorthon in primis o la Carey appunto.

La ricerca per un fantasy degno del dardo e la rosa continua….

[Nat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me 3 tries to get into this book over a course of 2 years. The first couple chapters are so confusing and completely lack any type of hook for the reader. This time I decided to persevere, determined to get through the first book in this series because I have the 4 other books in this series waiting to be read. However, I’m not sure they will get read, at least not by me.

Even after finishing The Thief’s Gamble, I still don’t have a visual of the world, the politics, the religious system, or a complete understanding of either type of magic system mentioned in the story. Locations are mentioned in the story that aren’t on the map at the beginning, making it hard to visualize where the characters are going, where they are from, or what places the characters are referencing. Snippets from lore at the beginning of each chapter attempt to provide history for the world, but end up being more confusing than anything. Usually the purpose of a book at the beginning of a series is to set all these up for the reader.

Overall, it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t good either in my honest opinion. I connected with the characters and love the strong female protagonist. There is an excellent sense of humour from the author as well that they transfer into the characters. The description of a tortured body is a little much… would prefer to have the world/religious gods/ systems have that amount of detail put into them. Some parts of the plot seemed pointless and unnecessary (ex what was casuel’s purpose of 100+ pages?), but hopefully those are setting up the next book in the series.

[Abrianna Leaming · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m going to make one point clear – McKenna’s writing style made it hard for me to get immersed in this book. Her jumbled descriptions and fondness for run on sentences almost made me put the book down and not finish it.

But then, somehow, her world building and dynamic characters still pulled themselves out of her dense narrative and hooked me in.

Livak is an interesting chaotic (lawful?) protagonist. Her way of viewing the world is something that very few female heroines in the fantasy genre have. While she was rough around the edges, blunt, and far from lady-like, there was still a genuinity to her, and a feminine softness that liked to hide behind her calloused exterior. There are plenty heroines in modern stories who are not damsels in distress – but Livak is a whole other breed of independent.

I did want more from the other characters, but I suspect that McKenna explores them in the other books in this series.

The kinship that grows between the characters was something I really appreciated. It was a very real growth, one supplemented with an instinct for survival and a solid pack mentality. It was probably my favourite part of the book.

The world was well fleshed out, and deeply embedded in the story. Although I found myself skipping the historic pieces of narrative plugged in throughout the book.

Overall, an enjoyable fantasy story.

[Ginny Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I’m going to give this four stars. I’d like to do three and a half because you killed one of my darlings. And I don’t like that.

So the main character is so relatable and you can’t help but to hope the best for her. She goes through a lot and has trauma and adventure in slightly balanced scales.

She has a band of men she works with, and she is t a slut. I’m so glad. Books with one lady. To multiple men usually have a disgusting orgy or a love triangle and this had neither. The girl wasn’t a prude either. She was herself and no one was super judgy about it.

There was a lot of adventure and some back story bits that seemed a little too detailed for me. Not that I’m upset. I’m pleased. Better to much than to little but everything seems to fit in the book. I can only wish to have heard more about the Forest people.

Think Tolkien Meets Anne Bishop for this book.

Enjoyed myself. There was a lot of fighting and if you aren’t into that, this book is not for you.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fairly basic 90's book and while not bad its not that great either. I will give it its due in that it was an entertaining read but the pacing could be a bit out of places at times when it made no sense. Like there's an action scene happening but the main character is monologuing but not in the fun villainous sense. This does seem to be the weakest book in the series so in theory it does get better, and while I'm somewhat intrigued I'm not sure I want to do so at this time. At the end of the day this is a start to a series and I think the authors first book as well so I tend to give these books a bit more leeway then I otherwise would. Its a decent starting point and I've seen much worse starts to series/trilogies from more well known authors with dozens of previously published books.