Take a Thief

Take a Thief Mercedes Lackey Date: 01 October, 2002   —   $7.99   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Fantasy

Does that cover scream pre-teen girl to you? It sure does to me. It's got the magical talking pony with big blue eyes on the cover, and it's lavender. Lavender, for crying out loud.

That's kind of interesting, since this book is about as close to a boy's adventure novel as Lackey gets. You could give it to a ten-year-old and watch his eyes light up as the protagonist, Skif, deals with extreme poverty through means of thieving.

That is, if he could get past the very very girly cover. Boys that age are sensitive to such things.

So this, then, is the story of Skif, one of Talia's friends. This is his life before he became a Herald, and how his acceptance causes much surprise in the Herald community, who aren't generally the types to have criminals, petty or not, in their midst. It's full of minor derring-do and includes the man that Fagin would have been had he cared a little more. It doesn't add a whole lot to the overall plot arc— some people complain about such things— but is an excellent character description and, let's face it, fun.