The Thief (Queen's Thief, #1)

by Megan Whalen Turner

[sa090]

I didn’t actually plan to read this series now, but since I needed a lot of breaks with a quick book to read at work while I read the last book of my TBR at home, this one was more than enough to fulfill the vague requirement.

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If I had to describe the book in the shortest way possible, it could be easily summarized like this: “Set up book.” The plot of the book is very simple, and very straightforward. At first I assumed that the slow-ish start was going to be a buildup towards a faster middle and a strong finish, but I think that this book doesn’t really follow that basic formula. Instead, it’s basically a journey to fulfill said very simple plot line. Given the approach, a strong lead would need to fill the gaps and this book does it in a way with the existence of Gen and his sass. Since the cast of significant characters is also pretty small, his amusing way of taking everything around him and more importantly the witty comebacks makes almost every conversation an interesting one... Even when it sometimes backfires lol.

That being said, there were multiple times when I thought that it would’ve been so much better if there was a bigger plot line to follow than this one. To me personally, his personality and the fact that his sass is masterfully done makes me want to see him in different situations that will surely have me see more of that side. In clearer words, Gen is an interesting and amusing character, but the situations where that side of him is shown are very similar to each other than I hoped to see him in different ones from time to time.

I think to compensate for that, the stories of their deities being retold several times in the book was a necessity. On one hand, it will break the somewhat repetitive way the story is following in and on the other hand it will be building Ms. Turner’s world. I found the stories pretty interesting, some more than others of course but none of them were actually boring to read for me which is a definite plus. The political side of things is another aspect the book delves into and personally I do want to see what one of the sovereigns will be up to in the upcoming books based on what happened here, although I can imagine a few possibilities.

The book is incredibly difficult to discuss without spoiling what happens in it, given the format it was told in. I do think that it was an interesting introduction to the world, and the length makes what happens in it understandable, but throughout the book I kept hoping for something “more” which will surely (and hopefully) be coming in the sequels; given how much of a foundation setting this one felt like, so hopefully it’ll be an interesting journey whenever I find the time to pick up the rest of the series.

Final rating: 3/5