Awards, Reviews, and Author's Note. The Thief
Greenwillow Books, 1996.
196 pages, ISBN 0-688-14627-9 $15.00Newbery Honor Book Award, 1997.
American Library Association List of Notable Books, 1997.
Best Books for Young Adults, 1997
(Young Adult Library Services Association).
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books,
Blue Ribbon List (Best books of 1996).
Horn Book Fanfare List (Best books of 1996).
Books for the Teen Age, 1997
(68th Annual Exhibition,
Nathan Straus Young Adult Center, New York Public Library).
Selection of the Junior Library Guild.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award
Master List, 1997-98.
The Horn Book (starred review)
A tantalizing, suspenseful, exceptionally clever novel is set in a Mediterranean-like country called Sounis in a time when the old gods have just been supplanted. (So vivid are the geography and the details of daily life that the reader can easily believe in the existence of this imaginary landscape.) Gen, a thief languishing in the royal dungeons, is summarily reclaimed by the king's magus, who wants him to steal the unstealable: a legendary stone conferring the power of the throne of Eddis, a rival neighboring country, on its bearer. The magus and his companions set off, with Gen brought along as a "useful sort of tool," to find the remarkable maze/temple (underwater except for a few nights a year) inside which the stone is hidden; Gen has three chances to steal it, achieve a measure of fame - and remain alive. That's about as much plot as can be told, because it's Gen who is telling the story, and Gen is clearly not what he seems. The author's characterization of Gen is simply superb: she lets the reader know so much about him - his sense of humor, his egotism, his loyalty, his forthrightness, his tendency to sulk - and yet manages to hide the most essential information. Which is not to say that either Gen or Turner deceives the reader: both tell part of the truth at all times. And so, unlike many other novels of surprise, which don't bear up to a second reading, Thief is even more fun to reread - you can see all the clues to Gen's identity and mission and delight in the author's ingenuity.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
There is nothing that the thief cannot steal . . . except himself out of the king's prison. Fortunately, the king's magus assists Gen in this regard, enlisting him to steal Hamiathes's Gift, a legendary stone that will give the king leverage over neighboring monarchs. As Gen journeys with the magus and his two apprentices, Ambiades and Sophos (dubbed Useless the Elder and Useless the Younger by Gen), toward the temple maze that houses the Gift, Gen's wry humor and pithy commentary convince us to question his cohorts' motives. The ultimate irony is that we don't question the thief, which makes Turner's expertly foreshadowed but nonetheless surprise ending all the more elegantly effective. An original mythology, emphasizing the story of Eugenides, the god of thieves for whom Gen was named, drives the intricate politics of the novel; the intervention of the gods and goddesses on an incredulous Gen's behalf is deftly incorporated. While the tangle of personal and national histories and mythologies is occasionally unclear, Gen's wit and wile overshadow such technicalities. To miss this thief's story would be a crime.
School Library Journal:
Gr 6 Up - Things are not what they seem in this story of wit, adventure, and philosophy. Gen, an accomplished thief incarcerated for stealing the king's seal, is dragged from his cell by the king's magus, who is on a quest. The prize is Hamiathes's Gift, said to be a creation of the gods that confers the right of rule on the wearer. During the quest, the magus and Gen take turns telling the youngest member of their party myths about the Eddisian god of thieves. Turner does a phenomenal job of creating real people to range through her well-plotted, evenly paced story. No one is entirely evil or completely perfect. Gen is totally human in his lack of discipline, seeming lack of heroism, and need for sleep and food. The magus makes the transition from smug, superior scholar to decent guy in a believable fashion. Turner also does a neat job of puncturing lots of little prejudices. There are many deft lessons in this story. As absorbing as it is, the best part lies in the surprise ending. Though it is foreshadowed throughout, it is not obvious - its impact is more like morning sunlight than a lightning bolt. This book is sure to be a hot item with adventure and fantasy lovers, and YAs who like snide, quick-tempered, softhearted heroes will love Gen.
Kirkus Reviews (pointer review)
A thief's quest for a priceless gemstone forms the background for a tale of redemption, tolerance, and cooperation in this first novel from Turner (Instead of Three Wishes, 1995).
Gen the thief is released from prison in the imaginary medieval land of Sounis by the king's magus, on the condition that he join an expedition to recover the legendary Hamiathes's Gift Stone, said to be hidden in an elaborate maze underneath a river. For the chance at regaining his freedom, Gen agrees. The journey at first is fraught more with psychic than physical dangers: The magus and the other king's men on the trip - soldier Pol, aristocrats Sophos and Ambiades - insult Gen for his low birth and choice of profession, even denying him proper food and medical care. No adolescent will be able to ignore Gen's resentment, embarrassment, and pain, made palpable through Turner's compassion and crystalline prose. Similarly, Gen's narrative voice, at turns snide, sharp, then sad, will seem familiar to young adults. His ultimate discovery of the legendary stone and the clearing of his reputation are as grand as the fantastic myths the travelers tell on their fateful trip. This is an uplifting book, a literary journey that enriches both its characters and readers before it is over. (Fiction, 10+)
Publishers' Weekly
The bragging thief Gen is sprung from prison by the king in order to carry out a mission - steal the precious stone Hamiathes's Gift from an impossible hiding place. If he succeeds, he'll be rewarded. If he fails, he will be killed. If he runs away, he will be hunted down. Half prisoner, half outlaw legend, Gen goes along with the king's assistant in the risky plan. Set in a semi-Mediterranean realm of old and new gods and goddesses, this compelling adventure propels readers along through the enemy lands of Sounis, Eddis, and Attolia. Gen, a beguiling narrator, is afraid of horses but not of entering a locked labyrinth; he comes from a long line of thieves but puts honor first. Turner's (Instead of Three Wishes) device of having Gen and others tell god and godess stories around the campfire bumpily draws the reader away from the main story, yet the plot is strong enough to survive the wanderings. In addition to its charismatic hero, this story possesses one of the most valuable treasures of all - a twinkling jewel of a surprise ending.
American Library Association Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Set in a time long ago and far away, this first-person novel tells of a gifted young thief, imprisoned for life, who is offered one chance to win his freedom. If Gen can steal for the king's magus a legendary stone hidden in a mysterious temple, the magus will set him free. Portrayed as a likable rogue, Gen endures the difficult trek to the stone's hiding place with much complaining and little grace, but shows his mettle when he steals the stone twice and risks his life for his companions. Still, the revelation of Gen's identity surprises the magus (and readers) even more than his deeds. From the believable characters to the well-realized setting, this fantasy offers a refreshing change of pace for readers who enjoy adventure stories with a touch of magic.
KLIATT Reviews.
A 1997 Newbery Honor Book and an ALA Best Book for YAs, this is an exceptional adventure story that is a perfect choice for just about every YA, especially in middle school. Above all, Whalen has created an intricate, superb plot that excites the reader and demands involvement. I won't dwell on the plot details here, except to assure you that action and suspense prevail. The setting and placement in a historical context are slightly mystifying, in a tantalizing way, and the author explains some of this in an endnote. Because the setting is frequently the product of Whalen's imagination, the novel could be placed in the fantasy category, but I hesitate to do that because it may discourage some readers. The actual journey the thief undertakes is over quite realistic terrain based on the Greek countryside, and the use of horses, swords and knives (though there is the appearance of a primitive gun) puts the story sometime in the past. Whalen has created a mythological framework all her own that is compelling to us and to the young thief, Eugenides, known as Gen. And Gen is a memorable character we can admire for his wit, intelligence, and sense of honor. KLIATT Codes: JS*--Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. Reviewed by Claire Rosser.
Explorations: The Best in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Graphic Fiction
Quite simply, this was the best fantasy novel I read in 1997!
"Too Good To Miss," a column in Children's Books
The Thief fits the international focus of this column with its fantasy setting in a land much like ancient Greece. Aptly titled, this novel is filled with stealth, intrigue, and high adventure. Ostensibly, Gen is a thief liberated from his jail cell to perform a special mission: obtain a powerful treasure for the kind. Gen accompanies the king's magus, a guard, and two of the magus's apprentices on a dangerous journey to another kingdom to the site where the magus believes the treasure is located. Readers who follow the numerous twists of this suspenseful plot will find themselves breathing a sigh of relief more than once, only to find that there is more to the story than first appears. The resolution offers a satisfying, if surprising, conclusion to what turns out to be a mystery that one may feel compelled to reread for the clues first overlooked.
Children's Book and Play Review
This is an adventure/fantasy with excellent characterization that treats the question of loyalties. It also asks: "What is the value of reading, writing, and the study of history, languages, and cultures?" Gen discovers that the dual brain-and-brawn combination outwits the singular emphasis of one or the other.
"Books to borrow, books to buy," syndicated column
Filled with suspense, adventure, intrigue, and surprise. Readers will devour this fascinating novel, leaving little doubt as to why this novel by Megan Whalen Turner has been awarded the prestigious Newbery Honor.
The Companion
The legends about the god of thieves are woven skillfully into the plot and add a new dimension to the main character. The surprise ending tops off a wonderful book and makes the reader wonder why he or she didn't figure it out sooner. A great choice for fantasy lovers everywhere.
Author's note to The Thief
Nothing in The Thief is historically accurate, but I have taken bits and pieces out of the history of Greece and fitted them into my story. The landscape that Gen travels through is very much like that of ancient Greece and like some parts of modern Greece as well. The gods he meets were never the gods of the Greek Pantheon. There was a god of fire, Hephestus, who became the Roman god Vulcan and gave his name to Volcanoes. I changed the name to Hephestia and used it for my ruling goddess, and called the volcanoes the Hephestial Mountains, but my goddess and the Greek god really don't have much in common. He was the jealous husband of Aphrodite and was always low in the hierarchy of the gods.
Whether Moira was a Greek god is a fuzzier question. Her name means "Fate" and she was sometimes personified as the messenger of the three fates who were spinning and weaving the fate of the world. Sometimes she was one of the fates, but she was never described as she is in The Thief. Asklepios, to whom the palace physician swore an oath to use his powers for healing, is another mythic figure. He was supposed to have been the son of Apollo and a mortal princess. He was educated by the centaur Cheiron and was skillful enough to resuscitate the dead. Hades and Zeus were anxious to keep the power of the gods for the gods alone and Zeus sent a thunderbolt to strike Asklepios and kill him. Nonetheless, he became the god of medicine and was pictured carrying a staff with a magic serpent wrapped around it, and this is now a symbol for doctors all over the world.
Archimedes was real. He was a mathematician, mechanic, and physicist in the third century b.c His work survives to this day. One of his theories was that a constant amount of water must pass each point in a river in a fixed amount of time. Therefore the water in a river runs fastest at its narrowest point. Gen had this in mind when he and the magus and Athonis crossed the rapids of the Seperchia.
Ancient Greece had many more trees and better soil than modern Greece has. Thousands of years ago the forests were logged and the soil eroded, leaving much of Greece rocky, but even in the poor soil, olive trees thrive. Between the shore of the Corinthian Gulf and the ancient site of the Oracle at Delphi there are eleven miles of olive groves, called the sea of olives. There isn't, as far as I know, anything like the dystopia.
In the city of Sounis that I described there were once walls that defended the road between the city and its harbor. The city of Athens in Greece had walls like these. Stones from these walls were used to build various parts of the city, but there are still signs of them today, something like two thousand years after they were built. There is a lion gate like the one in Sounis, in the ruins of the city of Mycenae which was real. Meneleus was king of Mycenae. Helen of Troy was abducted from there. Its ruins are on the eastern most peninsula of the Peloponnese, that little hand-shaped piece of land attached to the mainland of Greece. The gate is just as described by the thief. Carved into a solid stone lintel, most of the detail has worn away and it is impossible to tell if the figures are really lions. They may have been griffins like those I mentioned on either side of the Eddissian throne. Those griffins are like the ones painted on the walls beside the throne in the palace of Knossos on the island Crete. The walls of Knossos were also decorated with paintings of swallows and lilies and a mural called the Great Procession. The civilization that built that palace was older than the one at Mycenae. It was obliterated, some people think by a volcano erupting in the Mediterranean around fourteen fifty b.c. The ruins of its many many rooms may have been the source of the myth of the Minotaur and the maze.
The megaron at Mycenae was nowhere near as elaborate as Knossos. It was just a single room with stone walls, a throne, a circular hearth in the middle of it, and a porch outside. It was built at the top of a hill so that it would be easy to defend from enemies. Beside it was a temple. The road that led from the walls of the town up the hill to the temple was called the Sacred Way. Most of the ancient towns of Greece had a megaron for their king, and a temple for their patron deity and a Sacred Way, as well as strong stone walls. Mycenae was abandoned before it grew very big, but if it had survived it might have become a city like Sounis, and its Megaron might have grown into a palace like the king's.
There were three different kinds of Greek Temples: the Tholos, which was round and had columns around the outside, the In Antis, which was small and square and only had a column or two in front, and the Peripteral, which was rectangular and surrounded by columns. The Parthenon is an example of a Peripteral temple dedicated to Athena. It has two porches, one at either end. One porch leads to the pronaos, which in turn leads to the naos which was the main room of the temple and held a statue of Athena. The other porch leads to the opisthodomos which was the treasure room. Rooms like these were what Gen expected to find in the temple in the dystopia.
The fibula pins that Gen's grandfather used to steal to leave on the altar were shaped like wishbones, or like the bones in the bottom part of your leg. One shaft of the pin was driven through the fabric and then the open end hooked closed. What I don't know is if the pins are called fibulas because they are like the shape of the fibula bone or if the fibula bone is called what it is because it reminded somebody of the shape of these pins.