This book incited some curiosity from me a long time ago. It was fantasy and with a thief, it seemed nice. But it wasn't until a friend pointed me to literary showdown of characters that I wanted to really read this one. Because, you see, Gen was the winner, and the final battle was against Howl! Who was this Gen that could be more awesome than Howl? So I set out to read this book to find out.
And I have to agree with all the voters. Gen is more awesome than Howl.
But let's get back to the book. It is fantasy, but there is a Greek influence, which was really nice. There are no clear references, but something about the plethora of gods and their stories, of mountains and hot weather, of old stones and temples, and the sheer amount of olive trees just screamed Greece to me.
The story kept me on my toes, reading page after page, chuckling a lot, and always wanting to know what would happen next. And I say chuckling because this book is also extremely funny. Gen is an amazing character, as I said before. Just because he was getting a ticket to walk out of jail, he didn't make the life of his rescuers/jailers any easier. He was obnoxious and impertinent and insufferable and an wise ass all the time. But it was an act, with him always thinking what else he could do to further annoy his companions.
His voice throughout the book (he tells the story) is amazing, and gives little away of what will happen next, or what the conclusion of the story will be. And concerning that, although the ending did not exactly surprising me, I didn't see it coming either. It made so much sense that it happened like that, that the only surprise was that I didn't notice it or figured it was going that way.
This is the beginning of a series, one that I'll keep on reading, for sure, but is a book of his own as well, not just an introduction. It ends with hints for the next book, but the thief's story is (more or less) finished (at least this first adventure is, I hope there are a lot more).
It's safe to say that I loved it.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Other Reviews: Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing | Fyrefly's Book Blog
Book recs for this book: Graceling, Poison Study, Crown Duel, Howl's Moving Castle
This Book on: LibraryThing | GoodReads | BookDepository UK | Book Depository US | Amazon UK
| Amazon US
| Gam.co
This one sounds pretty interesting. ;) *adds it to the enormous wishlist :P*
ReplyDeletePoor Howl...he must be heartbroken with your review, leaking that greenish goo and all xD
ReplyDelete@p7 it is interesting and fun :D
ReplyDelete@jen But Gen, had he any magic in him, would also leak greenish goo. He would actually leak greenish goo and make sure it landed on you so that you would be well aware of his displeasure. (It does help that the book is told by Gen, so we know his inner thoughts, with Howl it was all 3rd person, and you never knew what was happening in his head)