Starting Points: ‘The Thief’ by Megan Whalen Turner

This tale of courage, belief and mystery will steal your heart

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One of my first posts here was a list of recommendations for engaging books to begin or continue your speculative fiction journey. While I plan to offer an updated list eventually, today I want to begin diving a little deeper into these recommendations with a new periodic series, ‘Starting Points’. I’ll first offer spoiler-free praise, then briefly examine the overall themes I love with some spoilers at the end.

The Thief is a 1996 young adult fantasy novel by Megan Whalen Turner and the first part of a six-book series that concluded in 2020. I first read this novel three years ago, and ever since, I’ve been shocked by its lack of widespread recognition.

If you’ve been following for some time, you might know of my frequent gripes with young adult sci-fi and fantasy — over-explanation, overreliance on romance and so on. The Thief suffers from none of these issues, simply offering a lovely tale accessible to kids and teens as well as adults.