My Bookshelf: "The Thief"

THE THIEF

**I made a resolution that the above is going to be the only use of caps lock in this post. I may or may not succeed, but I shall try.**

I first read The Thief a long time ago. And by "a long time ago" I mean maybe last year or the year before. It's the first in a series with (to date) four books in it, by Megan Whalen Turner. I'm posting about it for two reasons:

1)  I just reread it today and I really-really-really want to talk about it, and I don't want to annoy my family

2) The Thief's fanbase is not as big as it should be

The new, cooler cover.

My introduction to The Thief came when I was meandering in the bookstore and I saw a book with a cool cover. It wasn't The Thief. It was actually the fourth book in the series, A Conspiracy of Kings. I didn't know that, however, and the synopsis on the back didn't say that it was the fourth, so I bought it. As I read, I was completely confused but entranced at the same time. I didn't know the backstory to what was going on but I followed the action and I liked and rooted for and understood all the characters as I met them, and I loved it.

Honestly. I am literally getting shivers of excitement as I write this. I want to jump up and down and yell, but I won't because I promised not to use caps lock. Also my mom would think I was dying and come running to my room.

Of course I went to the bookstore again and bought all three of the others, because I knew they were all going to be worth it because A Conspiracy of Kings gave me that much faith in MWT. And that brings me to The Thief itself.

The Thief, as a book, is significantly different than the other three in the series. First of all, it's first-person narrated.* Second, for the other three books you kind of know who everyone is and what is generally going on.** Yeah... not so much of that in The Thief.

Let me explain -- no, there's too much.

Let me sum up.

The lame, older cover.
(The one I have.)

The book is set in a made-up, medieval world with a rather Byzantine flavor to it. Kings, queens and swords are the order of the day. (There are guns, but they're rudimentary.) Anyway, three countries concern us most at this point. There's Attolia, the northernmost, and Sounis, the southernmost. Eddis is a littler country set in the mountains between the two others. These three countries are ruled by a king and two queens, respectively.

Our main character and narrator is Gen***, who is a thief in the King of Sounis's prison. Supporting characters include the Magus, who is a chief adviser and scholar in the service of the King of Sounis, and who wants Gen to steal something for him. Also, there are the Magus's two apprentices and a soldier.

The Thief follows Gen and the other four on their quest to steal the aforementioned "something".

The things I liked about The Thief:

• GEN****. Otherwise known as the "Reigning Epic Trollmaster of First-Person Narrators". As one tumblogger said memorably, "Everybody go home. Pack up your things. All attempts to be this awesome are futile." 

My reaction to Gen's complete and
utter domination and pwnage
of... everything.

I want to say so much more about this -- you have no idea how much self-control I am employing at this moment. You can thank me later, after you read it. READ IT. NOW.

• All the other characters, except the ones you weren't supposed to like. Honestly, most of the named characters in this book have a special place in my heart.

I would go on. I would tell you about every character and what I thought of them. I would discuss every suspicious description that was oh-so-unsuspiciously worded. I would exult over every moment of beauteous cleverness. However, I can't do so without giving away everything. Tragic, I know.

All I can say is GO READ THE BLOODY BOOK. DO IT.

What I didn't like about The Thief:

A beautiful drawing of Gen by DeviantART
user andrielisilien.

You might think that, by my overall reaction to the book, that I would have nothing to say in this section. Not so, my friends, not so!

• The pantheon of gods. The old gods, the new gods, the invaders' gods, the gods' temples, the god stories. THAT is one part of The Thief that I could really live without.

Now I'm going to cheat and talk about what other people have disliked about The Thief. The most common complaint I've heard from any friends and acquaintances and relatives who've read this book is, "Too much description. It was boring." Other things I've heard include, "The whole thing was about their trip, and I didn't even understand the end," and "Gen spent the whole book whining."

Lies, I tell you. Vicious lies.

One warning I will give, though: there is description. It's not Ben-Hur stop-telling-me-about-the-marketplace-already-I-don't-care-about-the-hairstyle-of-every-single-person-in-Jerusalem description, but I'm not going to pretend there isn't any. I don't want to hear whining about the description, so if you're the kind of person who gets bored easily, don't read it.

If, however, you like characters and relationships and picturing a place in your head and wondering what in the world is Gen doing? What does that mean? ...Then FOR GOODNESS SAKES READ THE BOOK.

And if you do, talk to me about it! Please! Read the next three books. I want to laugh about Gen's jokes and exchange favorite quotes and characters and moments and talk about clever writing and Costis and Dite and Sophos with you! XD

*ahem*

Now that I've composed myself... rating time! On a scale of "It was the worst book I ever read" to "I AM NOW A RABID FAN", how would I place The Thief?

Hands down, "I AM NOW A RABID FAN"!

And I will always be a rabid fan.

------

*A Conspiracy of Kings is partially first-person narrated, but in a different way than The Thief.

**Emphasis on "kind of". You never really know what's going on with Gen. Ever.

***Apologies to Gen. I had to use this version of his name to avoid spoilers.

****I have failed. Caps lock overcame me -- I'm sorry. *hangs head in shame*

My Bookshelf: "Leviathan"

The last book, actually books, that I read were Scott Westerfield's Leviathan trilogy. Now, for all you lucky people's enjoyment and edification, I am going to tell you my thoughts on the aforementioned books.

Is that Alek or Deryn on
the cover, you ask?
Beats me.

The Younger Brother bought Leviathan when it was first out. He read it, liked it, and put it on his shelf; however, he did not care enough to buy the next two as they came out. The Younger Brother recommended it to me, but for a long time I was like, "Meh, I'll get to it someday."

This last week was that someday.
Even though a week isn't a day.
I had no books to read, so I finally picked up Leviathan and, unlike the Younger Brother, when I start a series I need to finish it. So, I lobbied for a visit to the bookstore and summarily purchased the other two books. That's what's nice about discovering a good series late: you don't have to wait in agonies of suspense for the subsequent books to come out.

For the five of you who haven't read/haven't heard of this widely-dispersed series, I shall give a synopsis.

It's WWI times in a steampunk world. Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire are Clanker powers -- countries that run on "mechaniks", "electriks" and machines. The most important character is Prince Aleksandar of Hohenberg, who's the son of the Austrian archduke whose assassination by a Serbian starts WWI. In the first few pages, he's awakened from his bed in the dead of night, shoved into a military "walker" and starts running for his life.

Then there are the Darwinists: England, Russia, Italy and most everyone else. Using the principles of the theory of evolution, Darwinist scientists known as "boffins" fabricate all kinds of hybrid "beasties", upon whose mutant backs the Darwinists' empires are built. Our Darwinist friend is Deryn Sharp, a girl who wants to fly. She disguises herself as a boy, Dylan, and (after a bit of an adventure) becomes a midshipman on England's biggest airship, the Leviathan.

As far as the things I liked about the book... well, there were many. The very first thing that leaps to mind is, of course, the drawings! Now I personally am the kind of person who likes a really thick, substantial book. Books the size of Brisingr make me happy. However, I do appreciate good illustrations, and these are certainly good illustrations. Illustrations complete something about a story for me; I am generally not very successful at picturing characters from written descriptions, and all the strange machines and beasties in this book would have been rather confusing to try to imagine without the drawings.

Illustration sample: It's Deryn in a Huxley.
(Sorry -- kind of fuzzy.)

The accents. Deryn is Scottish and I love how the way she talks has its own vocabulary and feel. ("Barking spiders!") The Americans who appear have their own talking pattern too, and Dr. Barlow's speech is unique. The different ways of talking make the story more alive. The author does a good job of being consistent, too, which is sometimes a problem for me in my writing.

The history. I like having historical characters appear in my fiction -- can we say Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, anyone? That way, whenever I read about them, I feel as if I know them. Since this is alternate history, it only makes sense, and I enjoyed meeting the various historical figures. (I would name them here, except they would be spoilers.)

There's not much to talk about as far as what I didn't like.

Since I put in one of Deryn, it's
only fair to include Alek too.

I'm not much of a picky reader. I'm not going to rail on and on about how girls dressing up as boys is a tired old cliche. I would include a mini-rant about Goliath... but I'm going to restrain myself for the sake of spoilers.

However, one thing I will mention: I don't understand why he mixed WWI and WWII. Why is Churchill waging war against the Kaiser? That's only going to lead to confusion, and it wasn't really necessary.

Anyway, what rating would I give it on a scale of "It was the worst book I ever read" to "I AM NOW A RABID FAN"?

I'd say... "I liked it; it was entertaining and definitely worth the money".