Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief has been on my TBR for years, I’ve had multiple people recommend it, but I’ve only recently gotten around to reading it.
Gen is a young thief in an Ancient-Greece-like world. At the beginning of the novel, he’s imprisoned, as a result of him publicly bragging that he can steal anything (and causing him to get caught after successfully stealing the king’s seal). The king’s magus (sort of a scholarly advisor) releases him from prison, with an agreement that he will help steal a mysterious object that will compel the queen of a neighboring country into an alliance. Gen travels with the magus, his apprentices, and a soldier escort, and they tell each other tales of the gods along the way.
The book took a little while to grab my interest – the first half is mostly descriptions of the travel, and while some of it was interesting (the interspersed myths told throughout), I found it dragging on a bit too much. However, in the last half, things really kicked up a notch, and there were various plot twists that I did not see coming. What really makes this book though is Gen as a character and his narration. He’s likeable, but also deceitful, both to his companions and to the reader. For such a short book, the world also feels fully fleshed out and believable.
This is the first book in a series of novels in the same world (though, this book absolutely stands on its own!), and I’m looking forward to reading the next one.