The Thief-Taker's Apprentice - Stephen Deas
The Thief-Taker's Apprentice - Stephen Deas
I found this book to be highly enjoyable and gripping. It is clearly intended as a fantasy novel and has strong, consistent characters and plot throughout.
As the title would suggest the main character is the apprentice of a thief-taker, no prizes for guessing what that job entails.
The characters appear to be well thought out as good descriptions are given, however I found it hard to connect with the main character as specifics were not given regarding his age, but aside from this each character was different and bore little resemblance to others in the book.
The setting is well described and the descriptions even make the reader feel like they are the main character, or travelling with him, as when he has to hurry you get an almost hurried description, or if he is leisurely examining his surroundings you get a description that doesn't miss anything out.
The story is able to keep moving along thanks to the recurring theme of pirates. Characters are sent to numerous places within the fantasy city created by Stephen Deas keeping a fast pace.
I believe that the book is targeted more towards readers between thirteen and eighteen although there is no reason for other avid readers not to enjoy it.
The ending of the novel is somewhat disappointing as it kind of leaves the reader hanging, but then if we were just given all of the answers we would not buy the sequel. Despite the cliff hanger ending, which is a bit annoying the book is well written and leaves the reader wanting more.
4/5 stars – A good read but there are others that I would reach for first.
Liam
