The Thief

Remember the mental ice cream I bought? Well turns out the Newberry Honor book was great: Megan Whalen Turner's 'The Thief' series. The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. My heart has been stolen!

The setting is pseudo ancient Greece, in an alternate sort of planet Earth. There is no electricity, and the heliocentric theory is still fairly new, but watches and guns are already in use. The stories revolve around a boy (we don't know how old he is, at the start probably 14-16 years old) named Eugenides. The first book opens with him in prison, for boasting that he can steal anything... even the King's seal. For this, he is thrown in jail (both for the bragging and the actual stealing). And then one night, the king's adviser approaches him with an offer he can't possibly refuse.

And so the story unfolds, with Gen narrating from a first-person-point-of-view, and we are treated to his sharp-eyed observations, acerbic opinions, and often irreverent sense of humor about everything that goes on around him. He is a surprisingly engaging character; at first I had my doubts as to whether I would like the book, but I ended up finishing it a few hours after I got past the initial slowness of the first few pages. Because I was seeing events through Gen's eyes, and he's a very entertaining narrator.

In fact, Gen's narration is one of the more ingenious narrative devices I've come across in a long time. Although we read the story from a first-person-point-of-view, the author successfully skirts around the question of who Gen really is (oh drat, now I've blown the cover) without appearing to hide anything in particular. And so the final surprise, the final twist to the plot at the end is both wholly unsuspected and yet not wholly surprising either. We know there is something more to Gen; we just didn't know how much more.

So I suggest for those of you out there who like reading 'kids' books,' to read this one. The 1996 Newberry Honor award recipient: The Thief. And for sheer pleasure, move on to the two sequels: The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. The series doesn't look to be over; which is a good thing, except that I would probably have to wait another 4-6 years before I see the next story. The gap between books is about that long. Sigh.

Go! Go! Go! Read!