Mary ~Ravager of Tomes~'s Reviews > The Thief

Gen is a thief. The story begins with him being rescued from prison by the King's Magus in order to help him steal an object of political power that is so historically obscure it is almost considered a myth.

So there's a lot I didn't enjoy here.

To begin with, this book is mostly composed of a very, very, very long travelling sequence. Now, I should take this opportunity to point out that I don't dislike journey stories. In fact, one of my all time favorite novels is The Lord of the Rings, which is, at its core, a massive journey.

The problem with this book is that nothing even remotely interesting happens while our characters are travelling. Somehow a relatively short 280 pages ends up feeling more like 2800 pages while trudging through scene after scene of riding on horses, campfire chatting, and bickering.

It was over halfway through the book before I really distinguished between all the side characters that weren't the Magus. And of course I had the unfortunate experience of accidentally imagining the Magus as Governor Ratcliffe, aka this guy:



So yea. That was.. not the book's fault but it was certainly interesting.

Anyway, once I finally had a firm handle on who everyone was, I realized they're mostly stereotypical in nature. Angry, masculine rival. Soft, young apprentice who isn't good with a sword. Tough, stoic guardian. Eh.

I suppose it's important to remember that this was published in 1996, and so these stereotypes were probably a lot less abundant at that time. This definitely doesn't read like a modern Young Adult book, but this doesn't change the fact that my experience with these now is no more welcome than it would be reading a book published more recently.

The dynamic between the characters is even confusing for me. I have no idea how I'm supposed to feel about Gen or the Magus because their statements & actions are just a slew of contradictions.

One minute they're all messing around, joking, the next characters are threatening other characters with actual, physical violence. One minute Gen is at the complete mercy of the Magus, the next the Magus is allowing Gen to contradict his mythology stories without reprieve.

Gen even points out the Magus' inconsistency so honestly, I'm just now sure how I'm supposed to view these characters.

Speaking of mythology, this book spends a lot of time exploring mythological characters of the realm & telling their stories, and much less time than I would've liked expanding the world. These sections of the book come off very info-dumpy, and I could feel myself zoning out whenever they would pop up.

Honestly, I can only think of one scene where I chuckled near the beginning of this boring trudge of a book. Otherwise, I spent most of the time hoping it would be over soon.

Relieved to finally make it to the end of this story, I was planning to stick it with a 1 star & forget about it. But then something interesting happened.

The twist at the end practically flips this story on its head, contradicting everything you may have thought about it up to this point. It's almost a brand new story which is the ONLY REASON I am considering continuing the series.

I'm not 100% sure I agree with a twist like the one presented here. I'm not clear how it works, to be honest. It seems contradictory on many levels, but I'll definitely give it points for originality.

This twist brought the book's rating up a bit for me. It doesn't make up for how hard the rest of the of it is to get through. 2 stars it will have to be, but I'm kind of excited to see where the story goes from here because it feels like a fresh beginning.

Read this with the gorgeous miss Kaylin! ♥