I picked up The Magic Thief at WisCon, where I managed to snag a really cool autograph from Sarah. She signs it in the runes she uses in the book, which I thought was a totally cool way to sign for someone. I doubt she did that just for me, but I like to pretend that she did.
Anyway, the book… Here’s the product description, via Amazon:
In a city that runs on a dwindling supply of magic, a young boy is drawn into a life of wizardry and adventure. Conn should have dropped dead the day he picked Nevery’s pocket and touched the wizard’s locus magicalicus, a stone used to focus magic and work spells. But for some reason he did not. Nevery finds that interesting, and he takes Conn as his apprentice on the provision that the boy find a locus stone of his own. But Conn has little time to search for his stone between wizard lessons and helping Nevery discover who—or what—is stealing the city of Wellmet’s magic.
I didn’t know what to expect from the book, because I hadn’t read anything about it before buying it, but I’m familiar with Sarah’s writing from her short fiction (as well as trading a few crits on good old OWW). I was certainly not let down. The Magic Thief was a wonderful ride through the city of Wellmet told through the eyes of Conn. It’s being marketed as a middle-grade novel, but to me it holds its own to "older" YA novels. It is difficult for me, as a writer, to attain that trancelike state of reading where the world falls away and you live the book. But with The Magic Thief, it did so practically from cover to cover. If I had to make any comparisons, which are often unfair but useful for those who haven’t yet read the novel, I would liken it to The Thief, by Megan Whelan Turner. There are some parallels in plot, but I’m speaking more of the simplicity and beauty of prose and story. Sarah’s style is perhaps a bit more bright and shiny, particularly early in the story, and so I think it lends itself more readily to younger readers.
I loved the interplay between Conn and Nevery. I’m hopefully not giving anything away by saying that the way their relationship grew from an initial, chance meeting into one of deep complexity was a treasure to read. The same was true of Conn and Benet’s relationship as well as a few others that revealed themselves only after the story was in full swing.
Sarah did a good job of closing the story while leaving a few unanswered questions for the rest of the trilogy. I’m certainly ready for more whenever they come out.
If you have a young reader of fantasy, or if you enjoy books written in that vein, I would strongly recommend this book.
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