The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

5 stars.

Age Recommendation: 12+

Series: The Queen's Thief series

Related Review(s): The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief, book 1 in the Queen's Thief series, is mostly vibes. Good vibes. I wanna stay in this world with this guy, Gen, vibes. I want to hear him complain about not getting enough food, or having to walk a lot, or having to ride horses because he hates horses. I want to read more about how useless Useless the Elder is. Give me more Gen. That is the brilliance of Megan Whalen Turner's writing.

Like the last book I attempted to read and was unsuccessful (that review is just before this one), The Thief is in first person. The difference between that first person and this first person is that Gen as the narrator never tells the reader how they should feel about what he's saying. He only tells the reader how he's feeling, and he gives you little crumbs along to the way to let the reader figure out why he's feeling that way. In fact, Gen as the eponymous thief, is more inclined to lead the reader astray than to give them straight facts. Because that is what good unreliable narrators do--they take you for a ride.

The story starts with Gen in prison after bragging about stealing the King's seal. An opportunity arises when the King's magus offers him freedom in exchange for stealing something very precious on behalf of the crown. So there starts the journey of Gen, the magus, Pol (a high-ranking soldier), and Sophos and Ambiades, two of the magus's apprentices.

Here's where the vibes start. The journey to get to this precious thing that Gen must steal is long, and not a whole lot of action happens along the way. I can understand those who say The Thief is slow, and normally this type of slow would bother me as well. But Gen is such an amusing character, and bratty and sarcastic in a way that you think perhaps you might be too if you were being dragged along across the land when you just wanted to sleep and eat. You want to stay in his head, observing these people he's metaphorically (and literally at times) chained to just to hear all his various hot takes. He would kill on social media if that was a thing.

The Thief is a fast read at a little under 300 pages in the standard trade paperback. It was written in 1996, and it is a style of writing that you don't see a lot of today in young adult fantasy--a character study. That said, there is enough action, and enough twists and turns, that the narrative never stagnated. The pacing, although slower, felt right throughout. Highly recommend for both teens and adults, especially those who can relate to not wanting to get up in the morning and do... well... anything. Gen is the narrator for you.

There are 6 main novels in The Queen's Thief series, with a smattering of novellas., the latest of which was released in 2022.