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The Wedding Gift - an Einarinn short story and portfolio of pictures |
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REVIEWS |
Remember playing at swashbuckling, going on quests and the like as a child? Well, The Thief's Gamble is a pretty good amalgam of all those games, omitting only the pirate bit. "Romp" is the word that comes to mind.
The main protagonist is the shady yet decent ex-thief turned professional gambler, Livak. Separated from her hustling partner, Livak has to find some way of making enough money to keep going until they can be reunited, Returning to her old ways for long enough to steal a much-sought-after antique, she reluctantly finds herself caught up in a business deal with a posse of questing wizards. Together they search for the remaining relics of a secret history that can explain the fall of an ancient empire...
This is only the first title in the "Einarinn" series, and Orbit obviously have high hopes because they've already commissioned four more from McKenna. Generally, her prose is very good, remaining fluent despite the odd lapse, and her characters all well rounded. The central figure has the task of narrating her part of the story, and the author slips from objective to subjective angles rather well. It's also pleasing to find a female lead who's properly representative rather than the usual tepid mix of heroine and victim.
The Thief's Gamble is fun and comparatively light and presents an enjoyable introduction to characters who look set to develop intriguingly as the saga matures.
This is Juliet E. McKenna's first novel. On the cover Jenny Jones calls it 'A Wonderful Debut', for once I actually agree. The Thief's Gamble presents a beautifully drawn world with a rich history, interesting and realistic characters and a plot that drags you along at breakneck speed. The main character, Livak, is a thief (part-time gambling cheat, too). One common problem with fantasy which uses thieves for characters is that too many others accept them without making moral judgements. This is partly overcome in this book by having the thief as the main character: she obviously doesn't have any serious moral qualms about her way of life. The characters she falls in with - part of an organisation of wizards, which takes them somewhat out of the normal moral framework as well - are in desperate need of a thief. Besides, she only steals from those who can afford it, mostly. That's my excuse for liking her, anyway.
The main plot follows Livak, a wizard (Shiwalan), one of the archmage's non-wizardly agents (Darni) and an academic historian (Geris) as they investigate an older form of magic than the one current with the archmage and his people (a fairly standard elementalist magic) and come up against some interesting opposition. The elementalist mages can't use the older form of magic, whose practice was lost in the downfall of an empire some time previously.
This may sound fairly standard, but then there's nothing new under the sun. What's different and interesting about this book is what Ms McKenna does with it. Since the thief is the focus of the story, she is less interested in what's going on around her than in her own life and her friendship with Geris, which rapidly develops but doesn't descend into adolescent silliness (on her side at least). She is initially blackmailed into the group by the their knowledge of her less than legal activities, later she becomes involved for more personal reasons.
None of the characters are long-lost heirs to anything. While Livak is able to use the old magic (it appears that might be possible for anyone other than an elemental mage) she is not some sudden incredibly powerful wizard whose light has been under a bushel for years. Planir, the archmage, is a subtle politician concemed with the welfare of the mages as well as his own aggrandisement. Even the bad guys, when they finally make an appearance as something other than marauders, are well-drawn and justified (from their own point of view), while remaining the enemy. Even their computer-game-like abilities to appear and disappear from the scenes is well explained later on.
The history of the world will move on. We may or may not get more books featuring Livak the Thief, but the series can stand with or without her. She was involved in the events of The Thief's Gamble but is not central the way Garion, Frodo or Pug are. Whether Ms McKenna continues the story from Livak's point of view or not, I expect her to continue with this series in a lively and interesting manner. A wonderful debut.
Please note that all material reproduced here remains copyright the original author and is used with permission.
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