A review by just_tommye
Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan

4.0

SPOILER FREE
Having purchased the third book of this series recently, I thought it was about time to read the first one, Thief’s Magic. The second best part about reading this book was that when I first bought it, about 4 years ago, I must have put £25 inside it – no idea why – but it was a nice surprise!

The best part, however, was obviously the book itself.

To anyone who knows me, It is no secret that Trudi Canavan‘s fantasy is what made me fall in love with the genre.

Her books are so accessible, relatable, and have a wonderful way of mirroring some of the issues cultures and societies around the modern world suffer from.

Thief’s Magic is no exception to what I have come to expect from Trudi Canavan’s work.

Rielle is a wonderful character
She is so invested in her faith and struggles desperately not to disappoint her family or the Angels she worships – even though it is not her fault.

You could see her inner conflict and it was great to be inside her head. I did not see her character change very much in this first book, which is shame, but I am hoping she has more of a development in the second book.

Tyen’s character, in comparison, has a decent character arc
Yes, it is rather subtle and not much is done with it, but again, I am hoping to see more development in the future.

The book as a whole feels less like the first book and more like the first few chapters of a story. I burnt through the book because of how easy it is to be lost in Canavan’s writing, but that did not hide that little of significance really happened. It felt like 500-odd pages of an infodump.

The worldbuilding is fantastic but the book seems to focus on that, rather than the stories themselves.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and I’m not upset that not much happened because it didn’t take long to read. If the book had been longer and more dense I would have struggled to see where it was going.


View the full review at The Fantasy Review