Book Review: Return of the Thief

Megan Whalen Turner’s Return of the Thief starts by introducing a new character: Pheris, the King of Attolia’s newest and youngest attendant, whom the House of Erondites has dumped on the court in something of the nature of a cruel joke. Pheris can’t speak, and limps, and grows almost too stiff to move if he sits still too long, and is so obviously misshapen that his whole family regards him as an omen of ill luck who should have been exposed at birth.

Pheris spends the first hundred pages or so being spat on and kicked, and hiding in corners close to the king because he figures that if he gets outside of the circle of the king’s protection someone will take the opportunity to do away with him (and thus the ill luck he represents). I spent a fair amount of the first hundred pages wailing “This is A LOT OF WHUMP.”

Naturally I ground to a halt just before the whump begins to let up and Pheris starts getting lessons from the ex-spymaster Relius, as I discovered when I zoomed through the rest of the book last night.

I think this is a book that will need some time to settle before I’m quite sure how I feel about it, but for now, here are some preliminary thoughts.

( Spoilers )