The Thief by Megan Whalen TurnerThis New­berry Award Win­ner–The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner was a very good  read told through the nar­ra­tive voice of Eugenides. After an ini­tial slow start, the story picks up pace and I couldn’t put it down.

The Thief opens with Eugenides or “Gen” as he is called in the King’s prison in Sou­nis. The King’s scholar, magus, comes to him with an alter­na­tive to his stay in prison: help steal Hamiathes’s Gift.  Hamiathes Gift con­fers power of rule when the gift is given to the  bearer and this has allowed coun­tries to change rule peacefully.

The pre­vi­ous King of Eddis had hid­den the stone  and died with­out reveal­ing it’s loca­tion. Based on doc­u­ments magus found, he feels that he knows where the stone is hid­den and thus he needs Eugenides skill and cun­ning to steal it to give to the cur­rent King of Sounis.

Our nar­ra­tor, Gen, is not all that he seems and is viewed by his com­pan­ions as noth­ing more than a worth­less thief but a use­ful tool. Gen is annoyed at their view of him and proves time and again dur­ing their jour­ney that he is far from a worth­less thief.  Gen’s father wanted him to be a sol­dier but Gen hated killing so instead he became a thief in Eddis.

As the story pro­ceeds, Gen shows his skill with sword when faced with death, sur­pris­ing magus and the others. Throughout the story, Gen and the Magus take turns shar­ing sto­ries of Eddisian gods and their adven­tures. The men even­tu­ally develop a friendship.

I found The Thief ini­tially slow to start but after a cou­ple of chap­ters I was hooked. This is a story filled with polit­i­cal intrigue, myth, adventure and sus­pense. There’s some humor too. The author does an excel­lent job with the plot twists and turns and added a sur­prise ending.

The Thief was a thor­oughly engag­ing and enter­tain­ing novel for the young and old alike. After clos­ing the last page, I didn’t want to leave this world that Turner cre­ated and was happy that I had the fore­thought to have the next two books on my shelf. I enjoyed Eugenides’ story and wanted to con­tinue read­ing his adven­tures. My grade would be an A. This book was a keeper and I can see reread­ing this book in future.

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