The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

“The kind’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.”

I’m not sure what to make of this book. I went into it with really high expectations, which usually is never a good thing. The first half the book kind of dragged for me, a lot of time was spent with the characters traveling to their destination. Once they finally arrived at their destination things started to pick up and I ended up really enjoying the story. The second half was much better and now that I know what happens I think it would be fun to re-read the beginning to see what clues I may have missed along the way. I think since this is the first book in a trilogy a lot of time was spent on back story, which will probably pay off in the next two books.

I might have missed it, but does it ever say how old Gen is? That was a little confusing for me, I probably just missed it, but it would have been nice to have an age to go on. Another small complaint is that there are no female characters in the whole book (expect the last couple chapters). I hear the next books are even better so I’m looking forward to reading them.

Book One: The Thief
Book Two: Queen of Attolia
Book Three: King of Attolia