The Magic Thief

Sarah Prineas (author)

Antonio Javier Caparo (illus)

Quercus, UK: 2008; 411pp

ISBN: 9781847247513

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: crime, corruption, friendship, identity, loyalty

When Conn steals a wizards locus magicalicus out of his pocket, he doesn't realise he's changed his life forever.

Intrigued by the fact that the stone doesn't kill the boy, Wizard Nevery, returned exile of Wellmet, takes Conn as a servant - and then an apprentice. Finding his own locus magicalicus, the focus of a wizard's magic, leads Conn into places of darkness - and of the highest power in the land.

The magic that is the essence of Wellmet is declining and if Nevery and Conn can't work out why, the city will die. Despite his inexperience, Conn's intuitive understanding of the nature of magic leads him to explore people and events that Nevery ignores, believing them irrelevant. But then Conn has a unique connection to the Underlord, the crime boss who runs Twilight, the poorer side of the city, and so has a better understanding of the levels to which this merciless man will go.

Told principally in the first person by Conn, interspersed with dry, terse letters and journal entries by Nevery, this fantasy adventure is both absorbing and entertaining. Conn's independent spirit and complete personal honesty and unsual abilities make him something of a change from most fantasy heroes. While he is the archetypal orphan-fated-for-great-things, he is much less of a puppet than many such figures in this genre. Conn has his own ideas and opinions and is quite prepared to investigate them in order to prove to far more experienced and educated people that he is right. He has a rare capacity to see the best in people but is also oblivious to charm when he knows there is darkness at the core.

Prineas uses wonderful composite words to give Conn an idiosyncratic but extremely descriptive voice: ‘Nevery loom-doomed before me', ‘he stood all-tall', ‘bag-dragging'. This, in addition to Conn's reports of various conversations and Nevery's journal, gives the reader almost as clear a picture of the major characters and events as is normally gained from an omniscient narrator.

For the keener readers there are notes in code at the bottom of most of Nevery's pages, with the ‘Wellmet Unic Alphabet' at the back of the book to assist translation. While these are not essential to plot, they are fun to interpret. The first in what promises to be a very entertaining trilogy, The Magic Thief is an exciting story that will appeal to many readers, not just fantasy fans.

Hint: If you like this, try Diana Wynne Jones' novels.