Jul 21, 2016

Magic of Thieves by C. Greenwood

Rating
Well, it ain't Robin Hood.
Synopsis Ilan must hide from the Praetor's soldiers, that's what she remembers about her parents and the rush to leave the province. Upon detection, her mother passed a memento into Ilan's possession and she has kept it throughout her young life. She kept it from guardians who didn't know what to do with her, a greedy peddler, and fierce brigands. But while the thieves are fierce, she has made her home with them. In the Dimwood, she found a name and a purpose only to have those tested by a priest boy and the threat of her childhood.
Characters Ilan is a selfish, spoiled brat who does kindness only to use that single act of kindness as a club to beat her only friend down. The man who protects and guides her receives nothing but defiance, jeers, and pain for his trouble. She's impulsive and headstrong with misplaced loyalties and priorities--in other words she's a teenager. Because the book is written in first person point of view, Ilan is the only character worth talking about because she focuses on herself. The priest boy she saves is the next most fleshed out character, unfortunately, he is seen through her eyes so his characteristics may or may not be exaggerated.
World The world is traditional fantasy, with magic being outlawed and cutthroats living in the woods. There may or may not be another race besides humans, there's not enough detail given to know for sure. In fact, the entire story lacks in world detail. An example even though Ilan lives in the woods and knows the names of all the trees, she can't be bothered to give the reader the names.
Pacing Pacing was real life, in other words molehills become mountains that a reader has to trek right along with Ilan. All events are given the same importance from building a shelter to save a young priest's life to pouting in the woods for three days while significant events take place elsewhere.
Writing First person point of view, focus was on how the character felt not on actual details. The actual significant events were lost in a sea of every days life and teen angst. Characters, events and surroundings were filtered and reduced to what the main character deemed important. There was no sensory input other than what was seen, as the internal landscape took cardinal focus.
Plot There may be a small plot, but it's three events in a sea of minor events that are treated as major ones. Subplots and unanswered questions that are driving the real plot are unresolved and left to the next book. This book introduced and established characters, contained an inciting incident and started the ascending actions. The rest of the ascending action, climax, descending action, and the denouement are hopefully in the next book, but will probably be chopped up as well. There is a difference between arcs and plot. Arcs usually involve minor characters, or if involving the main character create a dynamic shift in circumstances and character growth. Plot: Chosen One defeats the villain and saves the world. Arc: Chosen One goes from gawky farm boy to wise, powerful, rich world changing wizard.
The Good Not much, it's free on Amazon for Kindle.
The Bad I don't know if it's greed or apathy that leads publishers, mass market or self, to cut up a plotline and shove it into several books, but it has to stop. Books that get turned into movies are fine to be cut up. A movie is maximum two hours and change long. So it's either chop it up and show the entire book in two films, or edit out details and minor plot points to fit the book into one movie. But a book can be filled with detail galore that showcase the author's world, subplots, minor character's details, and all the glorious input that make a book come alive for the reader. So when a publisher decides to cut off a book just as it's getting good, they are either saying to me that they don't care that I'm involved in the author's world and story line. Or they are saying they want to squeeze as much money out of me as they possibly can. Either way, this publishing strategy backfires on me. If the publisher doesn't care enough about me to give me a complete book, then I don't care enough about them to read books that they have published or continue the series. Readers can read thousands of other books why are publishers handicapping themselves. And if it's greed that is the motivation, then be smart about it. Don't chop a book series up at the beginning chop it up at the end. Recommendations
My recommendations are both young adult and written in the first person by the female main character, and if you haven't read them then you really should.
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
Being a college freshman sucks especially when you stumble on the fact that the town is ran by vampires. This book is a little nutty like all of Caine's writing, but that's what makes it unique and awesome. All the characters are likeable or completely unlikeable there is no in between. And the book ends on a cliffhanger set up for the next book.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I know how dare I recommend The Hunger Games, as if everyone hasn't either read the book or seen the movie. Maybe, but if you've only see the movies then you'll not like my next comments. Katniss is like Ilan, a completely selfish person. But the difference is Collins makes the world and everything around Katniss awesome so, you don't care that you don't like Katniss. Katniss cares only about Prim. She only befriended Rue because she reminded her of Prim. She likes Gales, maybe romantically but only likes him. She's not a hero; she's a survivor. Want to know the difference? Read the book.
I'm not saying Magic of Thieves was a waste of paper, but it wasn't a complete novel. There were too many beginnings and not enough resolution. This entire novel could have been backstory, and I'm guessing that if I were to continue to read the rest of the series it will probably be treated as such. But nothing in this book made me want to continue on, so I gave it a two. Want to debate plot versus arc? Want to defend Katniss? Then comment below.

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