To be honest, this book was a disappointment. The writing wasn't bad, but it was bland. And the story was bland. And the characters were bland. It had potential, but it never met it. It was basically the opposite of the last book I read (Ship Of Destiny - Robin Hobb).Don't expect any nice descriptions, or writing about any of the characters thoughts and feelings beyond the obvious. The are presented as simple stereotypes, and are given no opportunity to prove themselves any more, let alone work on development. You never got to know them, which makes it very hard to care about them. And none of them do anything clever.If the dialogue was supposed to be witty, it failed in every respect.As for the plot, well... again, it had the potential to be interesting... but when you have a stereotypical power hungry villain, and your protagonists' plan is to disguise themselves and break into the castle to stop him, you know it's not going to be anything special. The one good thing I can say is that it was a very easy read, possibly because it was short and never paused for descriptions or any attempt at depth, but there you go... It's easy to read, but it's not interesting, exciting or clever.This is the kind of book that makes me think 'if this is published, then surely being a writer can't be that hard'. I have no idea if the sequels are any better and I have no intention of finding out. This was a fun book from beginning to end, but I have to admit that the best moments of the book are in that first chapter.Eli is a very engaging character. I loved his POV, I loved watching him interact with spirits, and I loved the sleight of hand he applies from time to time. But much of this story, believe it or not, revolves around another character, Miranda. I'd say more of it than that of Eli and his gang. I wanted to see more of them. I wanted to get more in both his and Josef's heads, but more often than not, we were watching him through someone else's eyes (Miranda, the king, or even Gin). And that's cool. A story about a thief can do well from the POV of the one trying to catch him, but that wonderful first chapter made me long for more.I thought the world-building/magic system was impressive. There was one point where some magic affected Miranda but not Eli, and it made sense in the world, and I thought, "I would never have come up with this situation, but it completely works in this magic system!" However, I was a little wary of the way Miranda conveniently found someone to explain how magic works in long monologues of exposition. But really the only nitpicky problem I had with the world-building was the constant one-upping of the spirits. You thought that one was powerful? What about this one?I felt like we probably could have gone deeper into the characters, like everyone was just characterized a little too simply. Perhaps this is overcome in the sequels, when I imagine we'll learn more about the major characters, but for this book alone, I felt there was no subtlety.More nitpicks: I was quite relieved to leave Marion behind early on because I had difficulty telling her name apart from Miranda's when they were in the same scenes (which they always were). I would have liked to see more variety in names (Eli, Eril, Alric, Allinu, and Mellinor all feel very similar). Despite the nits, I highly enjoyed the book. If it had been as delightful as the first scene or maybe if it had felt more like it was about Eli to me, it would have been an easy 5 stars, but still an appreciative 4 stars from me.Recommended for fans of: fantasy, unique magic systems, charismatic title characters, thieves, talking inanimate objects, wizard councils, kings, kidnappings, unique motivations, title characters not given much POV time, badass swords, demon-possessed companions, and fangirl trees
What do You think about The Spirit Thief (2010)?
I found this book extremely boring, and I'm not sure why.
—rahul_nyk4
