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 Take a Thief: A Novel of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey |
Description: Takes a Thief reveals the untold story of Skif- a popular character from Lackey’s first published novel, Arrows of the Queen. Skif is a homeless orphan who lives with a gang of juvenile pickpockets…until he is “Chosen” by one of Valdemar’s magical horses and becomes a Herald serving the Queen… Buy From: |
Rating: 
Review:Take a Thief is a stand alone novel in the world of Valdemar. Like a lot of other novels in the series it focuses on a particular person’s view point to describe a given situation. In ‘Take a Thief’ the person is Skif, who was introduced to us in the very first Valdemar novel (Arrows of the Queen) which coincidentally was the first novel published by Mercedes Lackey.
This book expands the brief history the reader was told in Arrows. However a few things have been changed in this book as compared to the original telling with not a lot of explanation as to why this was. The only possible way (That I can think of) to explain the difference between that story and this one would be that Skif told a false story about his history so that people didn’t know all the skills he had.
As for the timeline the book is set somewhere in between Exile’s Valor and the Arrows of the Queen Trilogy. Exile’s valor was published after this one so not a lot of events from that book was referenced to in this one.
I really like Lackey’s style of writing and her way of describing the life of a dirt poor person without glamorizing it (making them into the noble poor) or making it too gritty and depressing.
Final recommendation: Great read.