The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Thief
Book Review: Extraordinarily good story, for both children and adults
Summary: 5 Stars
While The Thief is marketed as a children's book it is, like other really good children's books, well worth reading by adults. The background is a fictitious world very loosely modeled on ancient Greece (with renaissance technology). The central character is interesting and well drawn. The plot ends with a twist that makes perfectly good sense, that neither I nor anyone else I know of who read the book anticipated, and that makes the whole story come together as a consistent whole.My one criticism of the book is the behavior of the Magus, one of the main characters. He believes he has located a valuable and politically important artifact hidden in territory controlled by a ruler unfriendly to his own, and wishes to obtain it on behalf of his king. To do so he requires the service of a thief, so he liberates Gen, the central character, from the king's prison, and sets off with him and three other people to steal the artifact.
This raises a problem. Gen has no reason to be loyal to either the Magus or his king. The king has told Gen that if he runs away instead of cooperating, an enormous reward will be offered for his capture. But Gen, from everything the king and the Magus know, is boastful, cocky, and rash; he got into prison by publicly announcing that he was going to steal the king's seal ring, and doing it. So there is little reason for either the king or the Magus to expect the threat to work.
The obvious solution is to appeal to Gen's vanity--what the Magus is proposing, after all, is a theft even more impressive than the one that got Gen imprisoned. Instead the Magus goes out of his way to treat Gen as a person of no importance, describe him as a tool, announce that the Magus himself intends to take the credit for the theft --do practically everything he can think of to make Gen an enemy rather than an ally. Given that he plans to travel with Gen through hostile territory where controlling him by force and threats will be extraordinarily difficult, that is simply stupid. Yet the Magus is otherwise portrayed as a reasonable and intelligent person. The only explanation I can think of is that the Magus's behavior was necessary for the plot, even though inconsistent with his character.
That one point aside, it is a very good story.
Book Review: GREAT BOOK!!! MUST READ!!! (sometimes a bit cheesy)
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is great. It is a good book to read for people that dont like reading because you kust cant stop. The part that i didnt like too much is is... well I wont give it away! YOU JUST CANT STOP READING!!!Book Review: GREAT plot, but you need a dictionary to read it.
Summary: 4 Stars
I read this book as a school asignment and at first I thought the plot was a little dull, but near the end the plot became much more interesting. I ended up reading parts over and over about five times sometimes because the author got too detailed. I struggled to read this book because of the very hard words. Reading this with a dictionary would have been much easier.Book Review: Girl in the Bay State
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a story full of adventure, roalty, laughs, romance (just kidding). It is about a boy, who is a prisoner who is asked to find a stone that can only be given to a royal person for it to work its powers. The magic it has is that it will allow the royal holder to not die in battle. The reason I rate it a 4 is because it can becomes somewhat boring, but more so entriging at times, but then it says one thing that is interesting, and you can't stop reading from then on. You HAVE to read this book, if you're willing to get hooked on a great author. Go Read This Book!!!!!Book Review: Great Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This author has a very vivid imagination. I enjoyed this book. I think it's better suited for kids 12 and older.