Timothy Rice


⭐The Queen's Thief Series

If we truly trust no one, we cannot survive.

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Rating: 4.5/5 – Recommended without hesitation
Read if you liked: The Goblin Emperor, The Locked Tomb Series, Character driven feel-good fantasy.

I found this series when I was browsing through Lois McMaster Bujold’s goodreads page looking for something new to read. This is one of her favorite series, and that was enough recommendation for me. I’m going to quote what she has to say about the work here:

There is not too much one can say about The Thief that is not a spoiler, and this is a book that should NOT be read with preconceptions. Set in an alternate fantasy world loosely inspired by Greece both ancient and medieval, it opens with a bedraggled young thief, Gen, being plucked from the king’s prison in Sounis to accompany the king’s magus on a peculiar quest, for which his talents will be needed. Written as a first person memoir in Gen’s engaging voice, it is classified as YA, and was a Newbery Honor book when it first came out in 1996, but really, I mention this mainly to make the book easier to find in a library or bookstore. Simply written but never simple.

Trust me. Just read it. Then read it again, because it will not be the same river twice.

“Simply written but never simple” beautifully describes the entire series. The characters are subtle and nuanced, and the stories are plotted with an intricacy that reminded me of Tamsyn Miur’s work. This is a series that rewards the careful reader and only gets better on subsequent reads, when the delicacy of the writing can be better anticipated and fully appreciated.

Trust me. Just read it.

The Thief (Book One) on Amazon
The Queen’s Thief Series on Goodreads
My Goodreads Profile