Megan Whalen Turner

I changed my mind. I'm glad I didn't read this series when I was a kid.

Because damn, this book is dark. It's messed up and twisted and incredibly depressing. Everything lovely and happy from the first book gets viciously beaten up and then dragged through the mud.

But when it comes out the other side, The Queen of Attolia is also a much more mature book. It takes the lightness of the first book and thinks long and hard about the consequences.

The Thief was a book for children. The Queen of show more Attolia is a book for the adults they grew into. show less

I had very little expectation going in, and it won me over very quickly. This is a textbook example of how to create character in the best way possible (I've read too many books where the inhabitants differ in name only), yet without labelling or telling, it's so skillful.

The plot is pared down to its essentials--so great to read something so streamlined and perfect--and then she delivers a masterful, unpredicted turn-of-events near the end--it's just exquisite writing, from conception, show more character development, plot pacing, sentence structure, dialogue--I bow down.

Complete unexpected treasure. (Thanks, Goodreads.com's recommendation engine, for recommending this one!)

(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!) show less

Gen is a thief. By profession, I mean, not just opportunity. But his confidence in his own skill gets him in trouble and he winds up in the king's prison. When he suddenly finds himself released, he is very happy. But then he finds out that there are strings (and sometimes shackles) attached - his release is conditional on him stealing one more item. A very important item that the king and his magus want for their own. But they won't say what the item.

Gen is confident in his ability to show more escape, if the chance arises, and smart enough to know that this could be his chance. He accepts the offer (like he had a choice) and is soon off on a journey for the unknown item. Along the way he becomes better acquainted with the magus, Pol, a soldier, and the magus's two apprentices. But nothing and no one on this journey is as simple as it might seem.

I heard about this series at the library and had to wait for book one to be available. It is well written and so compelling that I stayed up until 1 am to finish. There is a little swearing in the book, but it is otherwise clean. I noticed it either won Newberry Award or was a nominee, because it had a sticker. So good, and I can't wait for the next book. Just when you think you know where the story is going, it suddenly twists in a different direction. Really fun. show less

"Do you mean," I squawked, "that we are out here in the dark looking for something from a fairy tale?"

In the genre of young adult fiction, one sometimes runs across a Newbery Honor book that is so overwhelmingly good, it makes one wonder why it did not win the Medal. Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief (1997) is one such book.

The thief of the title is Gen, a young pickpocket who has stolen the king of Sounis' seal and, after giving himself away by bragging about it, is now serving time in the show more royal prison. Gen boasts that he can steal anything, even himself out of prison, but he has not quite gotten around to doing so when he is summoned away by the king's magus, who is not so much a magician as a scribe and advisor. He offers him an opportunity for freedom, providing he make good on his boast, and steal that which no one else has yet found; but if he cannot make the theft or tries to run away, the king will give him cause to regret it. The idea flatters Gen's vanity and, so he sets out with the magus in quest of the mysterious object. Accompanying them are Ambiades, the magus' standoffish pupil, Sophos, a nobleman's son, and the warrior Pol. As they travel, the difficulties and conflicts of their journey are intermittently lightened by stories that the magus and Gen tell about the ancient gods, deities who have long been forgotten outside of their cultic rituals. The characters' minds, however, are firmly set on the trials ahead.

I had the most terrible attitude in approaching this book. Perhaps due to the overwhelming amount of praise I had heard showered upon it, I worried it would be a letdown. Even after the lovely opening description of light changing in the dark prison, I thought that this was going to be a typically dry YA book (a ridiculous notion, since for the most part I love YA). But after the setup of the first chapter I was intrigued by the central predicament, and soon the characters themselves began to win me over, Gen particularly. He is a humorous but flawed narrator, making both a multi-dimensional character and a spellbinding storyteller. I cannot recall laughing so much at a book since I read a P. G. Wodehouse novel last semester. Everyone else is similarly well-defined and -developed, though none are as they seem.

Though I had been forewarned about twists, I had not expected so many—and I would not have guessed the final one in a million years. When I read it, I blinked at the page and thought, Is she even allowed to do that? But it works. Trust me, there is nothing like it.

I read The Thief in one day, going late into the night in order to finish it, and when I was done I could not believe it had taken me so long to discover it. I turned around immediately and recommended it both to a preteen neighbor, who is an avid book lover, and to my sixteen-year-old brother, who is not. This is a compliment I rarely pay, to urge others to read a book as soon as it's finished. The Thief is a treat for people all ages who love adventure and intrigue. Some mild swearing aside, there is no reason not to put this treasure on your family's bookshelf. show less