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Review: Megan Whalen Turner - The Thief (1996)
This book was interesting. It was good light reading. It was labelled as a young adult fantasy novel, but I thought of it more as an adventure novel. It barely had much fantasy, except for the mysticism to do with the gods. As for the young adult aspects of it, this book was published in 1996, so I think that is why this sort of young adult novel is so different from the kind of young adult novels that are popular now (a la Hunger Games).
I would recommend this book as good light reading. But while I enjoyed the novel, I wouldn't say that I was obsessed with it. I may get around to reading the sequels, but it's not really something that's top priority for me.
Spoilers.
Story
The story was very simple. Gen was a thief who was assigned by the Magus to steal a stone for the King of Sounis. Gen succeeded in doing so, but it was revealed that he was actually working as the thief for the Queen of Eddis.
The book itself is extremely short. As a result, the story was incredibly focused on Gen and the people he was travelling with, the Magus, Pol, Ambiades, and Sophos.
Writing
The writing was good. It was a very easy read, of course because it was a young adult novel, but it was still entertaining.
Characters
Gen/Eugenides
Eugenides was our main character as well as our narrator. He was a sort of a ruffian, a delinquent. Basically the guy to bend the rules in the presence of tons of stuffy upper class people.
As a main character, I thought he was good because he was reasonable but human. He thought logically, but he had feelings too, could get annoyed or hurt by those he was travelling with.
The tricky thing with writing Eugenides was how the author was going to hide his true identity when we as the reader were supposed to be inside his head. I think Turner succeeded in doing so by making the scope of the story very focused. The story mostly spoke of the task at hand, which was travelling to the temple and stealing Hamiathes' Gift, so it did not give Eugenides a lot of space and time to think about his true motivations, why he was doing all of this.
I enjoyed the end of the book a lot when Gen was finally allowed to be Eugenides. The fact that who we thought was a lowlife thief was actually of high birth was very amusing.
I also really loved Eugenides' and the Queen's relationship. Finally, a relationship between a male and female character in a young adult novel that is not romantic! They are cousins, but maternal cousins in this world (and in parts of our world) are considered eligible marriage partners. But I just thought it was sweet that they had a special bond, completely platonic. If I were to pick up a sequel to this series, it would be because I want to read more about Eugenides and the Queen lol. (So much for me complaining about relationships in young adult novels)
The Magus
The Magus was portrayed as a mastermind for the King of Sounis. But as the story progressed, we saw that he too was just winging everything and wasn't as smart as he wanted others to believe him to be.
My gripe with the Magus was how apparently he had come to be bros with Eugenides by the end of the book. I am skeptical of that, because I had never once trusted the Magus. He made it clear to Gen how much he didn't value him, and I couldn't really pinpoint the moment that convinced the Magus that Gen wasn't just some random, that he was a man worthy of respect.
That being said, the Magus was still a smart man, just one on the wrong side. The King of Sounis apparently wasn't very smart or savvy and the Magus basically needed to babysit him. It's just that the Magus has been humbled by the Queen's Thief and is probably now a bit more careful about how he goes about his political strategies.
Pol
Pol was Sophos' bodyguard, and was taken on the journey because of that. Pol seemed to be the only guy on the trip that Eugenides actually respected, since he could see that he actually was a capable man.
He died while fending off Attolian soldiers, which made Sophos very sad and Eugenides was a bit regretful about it.
Ambiades
Ambiades, originally named "Useless the Elder," was the son of an aristocratic family that was out of money. I think Eugenides' impression of him was that he was a "me first" kind of guy. The only things he retained from his education with the Magus were things of practical nature to him, which did not include plant science, for example. I think he was more of a capable fighter than Sophos, but it was also because he was bigger and older.
Ambiades was a traitor, who'd sold out to the Attolians. He had tipped off the Attolians on their journey, and would purposely stall the group when they were moving too fast for the Attolians to catch up. He was killed by Pol.
Sophos
Sophos was the meek son of a duke. That duke ended up being the brother of the King of Sounis. Since the King of Sounis was childless, Sophos was the heir to Sounis.
Anyway, Sophos was definitely supposed to be the uwu boy of the group. He blushed a lot, was kind of shy, etc. But I wouldn't say that Eugenides liked him, but I think he was neutral about him.
Sophos was the very sensitive kind of guy, and by the end of the book he was telling off Eugenides' cousins talking about what a sick swordfighter the guy was.
I think I didn't love him particularly because he was obviously supposed to be the resident softboi.
Queen of Eddis
The Queen of Eddis was Eugenides' cousin, the one that Eugenides had stolen Hamiathes' Gift for. She was portrayed as a woman who was practical but insecure about her beauty, as opposed to the Queen of Attolia, who was kind of like, a thorny rose, beautiful but cruel.
I would be interested in reading about her, particularly since we only saw her for a brief moment at the end of the book. Like I said, I'm interested in her relationship with Eugenides, but I am also interested in her as a ruler. After all, I do love myself a good political thriller.
Overall
This was a good read. Recently, I was watching a show where a writer said that the most important attribute of light novels is whether they entertain, and this book certainly did. I would recommend it as a quick read.
I would recommend this book as good light reading. But while I enjoyed the novel, I wouldn't say that I was obsessed with it. I may get around to reading the sequels, but it's not really something that's top priority for me.
Spoilers.
Story
The story was very simple. Gen was a thief who was assigned by the Magus to steal a stone for the King of Sounis. Gen succeeded in doing so, but it was revealed that he was actually working as the thief for the Queen of Eddis.
The book itself is extremely short. As a result, the story was incredibly focused on Gen and the people he was travelling with, the Magus, Pol, Ambiades, and Sophos.
Writing
The writing was good. It was a very easy read, of course because it was a young adult novel, but it was still entertaining.
Characters
Gen/Eugenides
Eugenides was our main character as well as our narrator. He was a sort of a ruffian, a delinquent. Basically the guy to bend the rules in the presence of tons of stuffy upper class people.
As a main character, I thought he was good because he was reasonable but human. He thought logically, but he had feelings too, could get annoyed or hurt by those he was travelling with.
The tricky thing with writing Eugenides was how the author was going to hide his true identity when we as the reader were supposed to be inside his head. I think Turner succeeded in doing so by making the scope of the story very focused. The story mostly spoke of the task at hand, which was travelling to the temple and stealing Hamiathes' Gift, so it did not give Eugenides a lot of space and time to think about his true motivations, why he was doing all of this.
I enjoyed the end of the book a lot when Gen was finally allowed to be Eugenides. The fact that who we thought was a lowlife thief was actually of high birth was very amusing.
I also really loved Eugenides' and the Queen's relationship. Finally, a relationship between a male and female character in a young adult novel that is not romantic! They are cousins, but maternal cousins in this world (and in parts of our world) are considered eligible marriage partners. But I just thought it was sweet that they had a special bond, completely platonic. If I were to pick up a sequel to this series, it would be because I want to read more about Eugenides and the Queen lol. (So much for me complaining about relationships in young adult novels)
The Magus
The Magus was portrayed as a mastermind for the King of Sounis. But as the story progressed, we saw that he too was just winging everything and wasn't as smart as he wanted others to believe him to be.
My gripe with the Magus was how apparently he had come to be bros with Eugenides by the end of the book. I am skeptical of that, because I had never once trusted the Magus. He made it clear to Gen how much he didn't value him, and I couldn't really pinpoint the moment that convinced the Magus that Gen wasn't just some random, that he was a man worthy of respect.
That being said, the Magus was still a smart man, just one on the wrong side. The King of Sounis apparently wasn't very smart or savvy and the Magus basically needed to babysit him. It's just that the Magus has been humbled by the Queen's Thief and is probably now a bit more careful about how he goes about his political strategies.
Pol
Pol was Sophos' bodyguard, and was taken on the journey because of that. Pol seemed to be the only guy on the trip that Eugenides actually respected, since he could see that he actually was a capable man.
He died while fending off Attolian soldiers, which made Sophos very sad and Eugenides was a bit regretful about it.
Ambiades
Ambiades, originally named "Useless the Elder," was the son of an aristocratic family that was out of money. I think Eugenides' impression of him was that he was a "me first" kind of guy. The only things he retained from his education with the Magus were things of practical nature to him, which did not include plant science, for example. I think he was more of a capable fighter than Sophos, but it was also because he was bigger and older.
Ambiades was a traitor, who'd sold out to the Attolians. He had tipped off the Attolians on their journey, and would purposely stall the group when they were moving too fast for the Attolians to catch up. He was killed by Pol.
Sophos
Sophos was the meek son of a duke. That duke ended up being the brother of the King of Sounis. Since the King of Sounis was childless, Sophos was the heir to Sounis.
Anyway, Sophos was definitely supposed to be the uwu boy of the group. He blushed a lot, was kind of shy, etc. But I wouldn't say that Eugenides liked him, but I think he was neutral about him.
Sophos was the very sensitive kind of guy, and by the end of the book he was telling off Eugenides' cousins talking about what a sick swordfighter the guy was.
I think I didn't love him particularly because he was obviously supposed to be the resident softboi.
Queen of Eddis
The Queen of Eddis was Eugenides' cousin, the one that Eugenides had stolen Hamiathes' Gift for. She was portrayed as a woman who was practical but insecure about her beauty, as opposed to the Queen of Attolia, who was kind of like, a thorny rose, beautiful but cruel.
I would be interested in reading about her, particularly since we only saw her for a brief moment at the end of the book. Like I said, I'm interested in her relationship with Eugenides, but I am also interested in her as a ruler. After all, I do love myself a good political thriller.
Overall
This was a good read. Recently, I was watching a show where a writer said that the most important attribute of light novels is whether they entertain, and this book certainly did. I would recommend it as a quick read.