Retro Tuesday: The Thief, by Megan Whelan Turner

Publisher's description:

"The king's scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king's prison. The magus is interested only in the thief's abilities. What Gen is interested in is anyone's guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses."

We have no idea how we missed this one for so long - a Newbery Award winner, and the type of historical fantasy we like. While the characters' journey may be, as the publisher's description states, "dangerous and difficult", the story itself is lighthearted and fast-paced, with a suprise ending that truly took us by surprise as well as leaving us chortling with glee (and yes, turtles do chortle with glee - as well as write really long, run-on sentences at times.)
 
We are now halfway through The Queen of Attolia, the second book of the series, and it came as quite a shock. It is just as good as the first book, but much darker - we haven't chortled once. We received an ARC of the fourth book from the publisher, and now we are playing catch-up before we get to it. Our goal is to be able to review that one Thursday or Friday, so stay tuned!