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A review by toggle_fow
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
5.0
IF YOU'RE GOING TO READ THIS BOOK DO NOT READ ANY OF THE REVIEWS UNTIL AFTER YOU'RE DONE. INCLUDING THIS ONE.
7/8/2017 Edit: Okay. Full disclosure. This is one of my favorite book series of all time, but in my opinion, this book is not as much fun as any of the subsequent books. It might be better than Thick as Thieves but at this point my perspective is too warped to be able to assess that accurately. It's great on re-reads because it's more like a treasure hunt or studying a mysterious ancient manuscript than just reading a story.
But I have to admit that, the first time I read The Thief, I was lowkey bored until I got to like page 172 and then I was like WAIT OH MY GOSH. So. If "lowkey bored" sounds like you, do not hesitate -- ABSOLUTELY go on to Queen of Attolia. It doesn't pull punches like The Thief, and I can promise it will rip the lungs from your chest immediately.
Things That Were Noticed:
And okay, in my review of The Runaway King I said that Jaron might be better than Eugenides at mouthing off so I have to address that. I'm going to reserve my final opinion until I get through The King of Attolia because, although I think this is the gold standard book for mouthy Gen, I feel like there's also some quality backchat in the next two as well. HOWEVER, my preliminary judgment is that yes... I think Jaron probably delivers more, sharper, and funnier comebacks per capita. Not necessarily in The False Prince, which is the The Thief analog of the Ascendance Trilogy, but in books #2 and #3.
This, I think, is partially because Jaron is stupider than Eugenides. In my re-read, I found a ton of examples of Gen thinking something and then restraining himself from saying it, which Jaron doesn't really do at all. But also... when Eugenides is criticizing the magus for doing something a successful thief wouldn't do and the magus comes back with, "A successful thief? How would you know?"
Like DANG. Let's be honest, that's a better burn than anything Eugenides dished out in this book.
7/8/2017 Edit: Okay. Full disclosure. This is one of my favorite book series of all time, but in my opinion, this book is not as much fun as any of the subsequent books. It might be better than Thick as Thieves but at this point my perspective is too warped to be able to assess that accurately. It's great on re-reads because it's more like a treasure hunt or studying a mysterious ancient manuscript than just reading a story.
But I have to admit that, the first time I read The Thief, I was lowkey bored until I got to like page 172 and then I was like WAIT OH MY GOSH. So. If "lowkey bored" sounds like you, do not hesitate -- ABSOLUTELY go on to Queen of Attolia. It doesn't pull punches like The Thief, and I can promise it will rip the lungs from your chest immediately.
Things That Were Noticed:
• " 'Tell me,' I said, 'or I'll get up and strangle you with one hand.' "
• Gen is so good at creating a false impression without actually lying. You think he made x claim or lied about y thing, but when you go back you see that through careful word choice 99% of the time he NEVER LIED.
• "no one was going to start a war over me"
• Most of the time I feel kind of okay about the narrative moving progressively further away from Eugenides with every book, until I go back and read this and then I GRIEVE.
And okay, in my review of The Runaway King I said that Jaron might be better than Eugenides at mouthing off so I have to address that. I'm going to reserve my final opinion until I get through The King of Attolia because, although I think this is the gold standard book for mouthy Gen, I feel like there's also some quality backchat in the next two as well. HOWEVER, my preliminary judgment is that yes... I think Jaron probably delivers more, sharper, and funnier comebacks per capita. Not necessarily in The False Prince, which is the The Thief analog of the Ascendance Trilogy, but in books #2 and #3.
This, I think, is partially because Jaron is stupider than Eugenides. In my re-read, I found a ton of examples of Gen thinking something and then restraining himself from saying it, which Jaron doesn't really do at all. But also... when Eugenides is criticizing the magus for doing something a successful thief wouldn't do and the magus comes back with, "A successful thief? How would you know?"
Like DANG. Let's be honest, that's a better burn than anything Eugenides dished out in this book.