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A review by dark_reader
The Thief Who Wasn't There by Michael McClung
5.0
The strongest book since the first. Holgren's POV is very appealing.
This is a direct sequel to The Thief Who Knocked on Sorrow's Gate, immediately following that book's cliffhanger ending. Holgren, everyone's favourite mage, takes over from Amra's first person narration that has led the series to this point, since Amra is somewhat indisposed, and damn is his fiery and driven perspective a blast. Sometimes literally.
This book is more substantial to the prior ones which leaned toward novella length. Those extra fifty pages are put to good use. The storytelling is as fast-paced as ever. This has been my one occasional complaint across the prior two books (it wasn't an issue in the first one): that the pacing is sometimes too fast, particularly when the books would speed through emotional moments. Dialogue in particular tends to flow at a fast clip, with nary a narrative interruption. Not that it needs those; the dialogue is EXCELLENT and I would hate to see unnecessary dialogue tags or mentions of furrowed brows or pursed lips or any of that junk gumming it up. But sometimes I find I have to force myself to read more slowly and savour the exchanges, because the writing lends itself to speedy reading. Anyway, that one complaint didn't recur during this book; I felt every moment of Holgren's frustration and emotional drive.
There was a five-year gap between this book and the next one's publication in 2019, but fortunately I don't have to wait and I expect to inhale The Thief Who Went To War right soon. But after that, if the story truly requires further sequels, it's unclear when they may materialize if ever. The last update I saw from the author was in 2022 and mentioned grad school so who knows? But even if there's more story left hanging, everything I've seen so far engenders confidence that it will be a satisfying literary experience no matter what.
This self-published book had a few more errors than I usually find acceptable, mostly simple typos but notably the spelling of one character's name changed half-way through (from Marl to Marle).
This is a direct sequel to The Thief Who Knocked on Sorrow's Gate, immediately following that book's cliffhanger ending. Holgren, everyone's favourite mage, takes over from Amra's first person narration that has led the series to this point, since Amra is somewhat indisposed, and damn is his fiery and driven perspective a blast. Sometimes literally.
This book is more substantial to the prior ones which leaned toward novella length. Those extra fifty pages are put to good use. The storytelling is as fast-paced as ever. This has been my one occasional complaint across the prior two books (it wasn't an issue in the first one): that the pacing is sometimes too fast, particularly when the books would speed through emotional moments. Dialogue in particular tends to flow at a fast clip, with nary a narrative interruption. Not that it needs those; the dialogue is EXCELLENT and I would hate to see unnecessary dialogue tags or mentions of furrowed brows or pursed lips or any of that junk gumming it up. But sometimes I find I have to force myself to read more slowly and savour the exchanges, because the writing lends itself to speedy reading. Anyway, that one complaint didn't recur during this book; I felt every moment of Holgren's frustration and emotional drive.
There was a five-year gap between this book and the next one's publication in 2019, but fortunately I don't have to wait and I expect to inhale The Thief Who Went To War right soon. But after that, if the story truly requires further sequels, it's unclear when they may materialize if ever. The last update I saw from the author was in 2022 and mentioned grad school so who knows? But even if there's more story left hanging, everything I've seen so far engenders confidence that it will be a satisfying literary experience no matter what.
This self-published book had a few more errors than I usually find acceptable, mostly simple typos but notably the spelling of one character's name changed half-way through (from Marl to Marle).