{"id":4151,"date":"2013-10-27T15:07:32","date_gmt":"2013-10-27T20:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4151"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:09:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:09:44","slug":"the-thief-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4151","title":{"rendered":"The Thief"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Thief<\/a><\/em> (1996) Megan Whalen Turner<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I’ve been feeling out of sorts, and every book I start to read I put right back down, because it’s not what I’m in the mood for.<\/p>\n

Which is how I ended up re-reading The Thief<\/em>, because it sucks me in and doesn’t let go.<\/p>\n

I keep trying to write a synopsis for this, and failing miserably, because any description sounds stupid and trite and nothing like the story.<\/p>\n

Gen is a thief. The best thief around, according to him. He can steal anything. Except, apparently, himself out of prison. Luckily, the King’s magus is in need of a thief, to recover an object that has been lost of centuries, and should give the his king the right to rule neighboring lands.<\/p>\n

It’s strange, re-reading this story. I see so many things I missed the first time, or ignore the first time as unimportant. But of course nothing is important, and Gen gives hints as to who he is–especially as he can’t control his temper.<\/p>\n

There are just so many marvelous lines in this tale, it’s hard to pick a couple to convince you why I love this book so much.<\/p>\n

For instance, they tell tales of the gods and men as they travel.<\/p>\n

It is one thing to meet the Goddess in the forest and another thing to convince your wife that you have done so.
\n…
\nIt is one thing to humor your husband, who has suddenly gone crazy, but it is somethign else to let all the neighbors know that he is crazy…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And there’s this bit Gen says of himself.<\/p>\n

I am a master of foolhardy plans, I thought. I have so much practice I consider them professional risks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s quite possible the best quick synopsis of Gen you can get.<\/p>\n

Perhaps those two quotes haven’t enticed you, but I beg you to read this story anyway. It is really one of the best books around.
\nRating: 10\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Greenwillow Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Thief (1996) Megan Whalen Turner I’ve been feeling out of sorts, and every book I start to read I put right back down, because it’s not what I’m in the mood for. Which is how I ended up re-reading The Thief, because it sucks me in and doesn’t let go. I keep trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,292,2,291,41,20],"tags":[334],"class_list":["post-4151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-10","category-ebook","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-reread","category-young-adult","tag-megan-whalen-turner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-14X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2555,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2555","url_meta":{"origin":4151,"position":0},"title":"The King of Attolia","author":"Michelle","date":"September 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The King of Attolia (2006) Megan Whalen Turner The sequel to The Queen of Attolia and The Thief, we see Gen this time from the outside--from the view of a guard who doesn't like--but yet must work with--Gen. As with previous books, there is a great deal of intrigue, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/King-of-Attolia.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2898,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2898","url_meta":{"origin":4151,"position":1},"title":"A Conspiracy of Kings","author":"Michelle","date":"April 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A Conspiracy of Kings (2010) Megan Whalen Turner Although Eugenides makes many appearances in this story, it is about Sophos, the heir to the throne of Sounis. Sophos had disappeared, and this story is told, in large part, as his retelling of what happened to him. As with every other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Conspiracy-of-Kings.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2374,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2374","url_meta":{"origin":4151,"position":2},"title":"The Thief","author":"Michelle","date":"May 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Thief (1996) Megan Whalen Turner My friend Natalie has been pushing me for quite awhile to read this book. However, I haven't been in the mood to read much in the way of fantasy, so although I bought the books months ago, it sat unread on my shelf, until\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Thief.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2459,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2459","url_meta":{"origin":4151,"position":3},"title":"The Queen of Attolia","author":"Michelle","date":"July 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Queen of Attolia (2000) Megan Whalen Turner I really loved The Thief, so when I realized The Queen of Attolia was a sequel, I wanted to read it, in the hopes that Eugenides would be one of the main characters. He was. And as with the previous book, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Queen-of-Attolia.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2542,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2542","url_meta":{"origin":4151,"position":4},"title":"Instead of Three Wishes","author":"Michelle","date":"September 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Instead of Three Wishes (2006) Megan Whalen Turner This is an absolutely wonderful collection of fantasy short stories for the pre-teen set. Although some of the stories are dark, they are still fabulous, and far less dark than real life. The story \"A Plague of Leprechaun\" had a feel reminiscent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Instead-of-Three-Wishes.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4134,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4134","url_meta":{"origin":4151,"position":5},"title":"Books for Kids: Part III","author":"Michelle","date":"October 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are books for middle grade readers and older kids. A lot of these I can recommend for adult readers, they're really very good (and with online ordering, you don't have to skulk into the kids section, feeling like a creep who doesn't belong). Part I - Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Kids"","block_context":{"text":"Kids","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/kids"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/The-Old-Man-Mad-About-Drawing.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}