There are books with good characters that you remember and like, and then there are the books with characters so amazingly real and wonderful that you will never forget them. If I could meet ten characters face-to-face, then Gen, the thief of Megan Whalen Turner’s tale, would unquestionably be among them.
There are currently four books in Megan Whalen Turner’s outstanding series, and I have just finished the latest, A Conspiracy of Kings. Though what I want to do most is write about all of them, I don’t want to give anything away, so I will only tell you about the first book, The Thief.
The land that the characters inhabit is a magnificent blend of ancient Greece and the imagination, with gods and goddesses stepping in to stir up the course of history, causing the people unfortunate enough to catch their attention to lead decidedly interesting lives.
Gen is a thief thrown in jail after bragging about his thieving prowess. After almost half a year in a highly secure cell in Sounis (one of the countries in the book), he is unexpectedly released under the condition that he help steal a mythical object for the King. For a boy who values his skin over everyone else’s, he managed to find the job that just might get him killed.
With travelling companions ranging from naïve to wise, prickly to stalwart, the long journey across the face of three countries (and two of them illegaly) could be the making of life-long friendships…or perhaps life-long adversaries.
Surrounded by enemies and danger, misunderstandings and lies, somehow, someway, Gen always manages to find something trivial to complain about, from the food to the company, but if this character doesn’t make you laugh out loud and root for him all the way, then I don’t know what will.
This book is among the few that have caught me by surprise, with an ending so deliciously unexpected that it wasn’t until I read it again that I realized the truth had been there all along.
No matter your reading preference, The Thief and all the other equally amazing books in the series are too incredible to miss. All I can say is, I pray that Megan Whalen Turner will never stop.
There are currently four books in Megan Whalen Turner’s outstanding series, and I have just finished the latest, A Conspiracy of Kings. Though what I want to do most is write about all of them, I don’t want to give anything away, so I will only tell you about the first book, The Thief.
The land that the characters inhabit is a magnificent blend of ancient Greece and the imagination, with gods and goddesses stepping in to stir up the course of history, causing the people unfortunate enough to catch their attention to lead decidedly interesting lives.
Gen is a thief thrown in jail after bragging about his thieving prowess. After almost half a year in a highly secure cell in Sounis (one of the countries in the book), he is unexpectedly released under the condition that he help steal a mythical object for the King. For a boy who values his skin over everyone else’s, he managed to find the job that just might get him killed.
With travelling companions ranging from naïve to wise, prickly to stalwart, the long journey across the face of three countries (and two of them illegaly) could be the making of life-long friendships…or perhaps life-long adversaries.
Surrounded by enemies and danger, misunderstandings and lies, somehow, someway, Gen always manages to find something trivial to complain about, from the food to the company, but if this character doesn’t make you laugh out loud and root for him all the way, then I don’t know what will.
This book is among the few that have caught me by surprise, with an ending so deliciously unexpected that it wasn’t until I read it again that I realized the truth had been there all along.
No matter your reading preference, The Thief and all the other equally amazing books in the series are too incredible to miss. All I can say is, I pray that Megan Whalen Turner will never stop.