A review by megsbookishtwins
Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan

3.0

I received a copy free from the publisher via NetGalley

I am blind and deaf, trapped in the darkness with no sense of time passing. Not even sleeping. Not quite dead. The years of my life slipping past - wasted.

Thief's Magic revolves around Tyen and Rielle. Tyen is a archaeology student also studying sorcery. Tyen lives in a world where technology is powered by magic, but the magic isn't replenishing itself fast enough at the pace that it is being used. Tyen finds a book, who was once a girl called Vella. This book changes his life, and he beings to question the authority he believed in. Rielle lives in a world ruled by priests. It is not allowed for those who are not priests to use the magic in the world, yet there is a corrupter going around trying to tempt people. Rielle is also faced with decisions which change her life and she learns who she can and can't trust.

I had really high hopes for Thief's Magic. I had heard great things about Trudi Canavan, and as a fan of high fantasy I was really looking forward to reading this. At nearly 600 pages, it was a little intimidating. However, I was sadly disappointed. It had both good and bad times. It seemed more of a steampunk that a high fantasy, which is what I was expecting, but that wasn't one of the reasons that let this down, it was actually quite a nice addition. Thief's Magic really struggled to capture my attention. The beginning had a lot of info-dumping that made it a little hard to keep interested or on track. The story and plot didn't really start picking up until about 20-25% in. It started to get very intense. But then it lost it's magic at about 60% and I felt myself getting bored, and this book seemed to go on for ages. It is not that it was bad, but it could have been better. I still felt a connection with the characters which kept me going.

I really did like Tyen and his connection with Venna. He was passionate about archaeology and sorcery. Eventually though, I did get a little bored with his story, but I still cared what happened. He managed to get a relatively happy ending, and that was nice. Rielle was also a good character. The first and last parts of her story were the best. I preferred them over Tyen. Both Tyen and Rielle's stories were completely different, and I am assuming, in completely different worlds. I wasn't really sure about it, perhaps if there was just one story, it may have held my attention for longer. At nearly 600 pages, this would have been halved if it was just one story. No matter, though, I did enjoy each separate story, even if I lost interest at points.

The world building was one thing which was done really well and I do applaud Trudi Canavan for doing it so well.

Overall, it was an OK read, with some enjoyable parts and I probably would recommend if you are a fan of the author, or of high fantasy.