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reality_x's review against another edition
3.0
it's easy to read, but I felt underwhelmed with this book except a moderate time-killer.
hellobookbird's review against another edition
3.0
I am a master of foolhardy plans. I have so much practice I consider them professional risks.
The king's scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king's prison. The magus is interested only in the thief's abilities.
What Gen is interested in is anyone's guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.
"It is too bad for you that intelligence does not always attend gifts such as yours, and fortunate for me that it is not your intelligence I am interested in, but your skill."
I'm going to sum up this book in two sentences: The first half is an obscenely long journey where literally nothing of much note happens. The second half saved the novel because the item is finally obtained and things start to get really interesting.
Gen was the single reason why I kept trucking along because I don't think I've ever been charmed by such an obviously guttertrash thief. Honestly! I just had to see how his role played out. In the beginning we think his only loves are his reputation, food, and sleep as he can't be bothered to be much of a help in any other way. And why should he? He only agreed to steal an item. Until it was time to steal said item, it wasn't his problem.
The journey was tedious and boring but speckled with Gen's humor as he offers (unsolicited) opinions on his companion's conversations. He has just the right amount of cleverness mixed with obvious sardonic selfishness.
Like a good tool, for instance, a very well-behaved hammer, I stretched out by the fire and went to sleep.
And then finally! The stone theft happens, bringing in the actual gods that you'd heard about on the way to the stone's location.
And the ending. It was enough to bump my rating by a star. I'd suspected something LIKE it, but got it wrong, and not NEAR the extent of it. While I had to suspend some belief on it, it quite literally flips the entire story on its head and makes you rethink everything you thought you knew up to this point. It's absolutely clear that this is one of those series that starts slow and then gets better the further you get.
Suffice it to say, while this was just an okay read, I'm excited to see where the series goes now.
Recommended as a single read (from the library) as a pre-cursor to the sequel: [b:The Queen of Atolia].
mama_b88's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
lilly_koonce's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
librarian_erinn's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
mike_onofrio21's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
kelcaro1's review against another edition
5.0
This book was really fascinating from a point of view perspective. The story is told from a first person perspective with what I would say is a fairly unreliable narrator. The author manages to communicate the traits of the narrator, Gen, without telling you much about who Gen is. You go through most of the story knowing nothing for sure about Gen's backstory, but when things are revealed it is not so out of the blue that you are surprised by the turn of the events. You get a good sense of Gen's character, despite how irritating it might be in the beginning, and as the story goes on he starts to grow on you so that you very much want to see him succeed.
laerugo's review against another edition
3.0
fine but rather boring. would’ve been more surprising if the summary and series title didn’t spoil the biggest reveals
sparrowhawk444's review against another edition
5.0
I always enjoy revisiting books that I adored as a younger reader, and when I realized that Megan Whalen Turner had more books in this universe, I decided to re-read the two that I had previously read: The Thief and The Queen of Attolia. All that I remembered was that I adored The Queen of Attolia so much that pages started falling out of it, but I had only read The Thief once, and I couldn't remember why.
The Thief is an interesting book, especially as the first entry into a series, partly because it engages in a lot of techniques that you don't normally see in those types of books. There's a lot of description, to the point where I did skim some sections, and the action takes quite a while to get going. It really isn't until 2/3rds of the way through the book that I got "hooked" (I usually term that as - did you lose sleep because you stayed up reading?). Once I got to that point and through the end, I had a delightful time reading it, but getting there was a bit tough, which I think might be why younger me always skipped over it in favor of the second book.
I think the other reason is that the unique structure of the book means that we don't really know or truly understand the main character until nearly the end of the book. If you like a good crime caper movie where "how they did it" is all revealed at the end, it's quite satisfying. But, I feel like in favor of keeping the mystery alive, I didn't connect with Gen as strongly as I think I needed to in order to get through those early portions of the book, when so much is obscured. That said, I did thoroughly enjoy the ending and now I'm anxious to read the others in the series. I'd just recommend some patience on first-time readers for the first book, because the second one is so much better.
The Thief is an interesting book, especially as the first entry into a series, partly because it engages in a lot of techniques that you don't normally see in those types of books. There's a lot of description, to the point where I did skim some sections, and the action takes quite a while to get going. It really isn't until 2/3rds of the way through the book that I got "hooked" (I usually term that as - did you lose sleep because you stayed up reading?). Once I got to that point and through the end, I had a delightful time reading it, but getting there was a bit tough, which I think might be why younger me always skipped over it in favor of the second book.
I think the other reason is that the unique structure of the book means that we don't really know or truly understand the main character until nearly the end of the book. If you like a good crime caper movie where "how they did it" is all revealed at the end, it's quite satisfying. But, I feel like in favor of keeping the mystery alive, I didn't connect with Gen as strongly as I think I needed to in order to get through those early portions of the book, when so much is obscured. That said, I did thoroughly enjoy the ending and now I'm anxious to read the others in the series. I'd just recommend some patience on first-time readers for the first book, because the second one is so much better.