Disclaimer: This is a review, and as such will contain opinions, spoilers and (often) general shit talking. (If you talk about what you don’t like about a work, you learn a lot. When you think through a work with the stakes presented to you by the creator, by the context of the work, you learn a lot. I review things, not because I love to dislike things, but because dislike contains rich and vital information for the process of experiencing something, but I cannot access it without interrogating it.) So, if you don’t want to have this thing spoiled for you, or don’t know how to behave when a person on the internet, that you don’t know, has opinions that don’t line up with yours, this review is not for you. It’s also not for the author/creator of the work. Please and thank you.
If you’re a new to fantasy, Among Thieves by M. J. Kuhn has a headstrong, axe-wielding female main character and a heist featuring a found family, where everyone is chasing their own motive.
After the vampires and dystopian themes swept through YA, fantasy heist books in the vein of Six of Crows (which took after the likes of Gentlemen Bastards) became the trend.
But unlike a lot of the dystopian and vampire books, the fantasy heist wave produced some fun, memorable books (The Last Magician series among my favourites.)
From the start, the inspiration Among Thieves leans heavily into the fantasy heist tropes.
In addition to that, I felt like it leaned really heavily on Six of Crows itself, to which Among Thieves has a similar set-up, both in terms of characters and the world-building.
(I also can’t read Thamorr without thinking Camorr, though I can’t tell if that’s an intentional nod or not.)
The characters are similar enough to the Six of Crows cast and follow the same archetypes that they can easily be confused. If you’ve read Six of Crows, you’re probably going to see nothing but similarities.
The characters feel underdeveloped and weren’t really memorable on their own.
Every time I try to remember something about Among Thieves, I realise I’m thinking of Six of Crows instead where the character development was stronger (though not without issues) and the world-building much clearer.
The world-building was quite muddy, the nations vaguely European in origin. But nothing is described with enough detail that I could really get a grip on what the individual countries were and how they differ from and relate to each other – which is a problem when the plot is dependant on international politics.
Among Thieves uses some German words, but assigns new meaning, which just feels disrespectful and like sloppy research. This probably isn’t an issue if you’re not familiar with the origin-language for the fantasy language.
How this book deals with slavery is a major issue for me.
Throughout the book, the driving force behind the plot and much of the world-building, is slavery, yet there’s never any specific motivation given for the enslavement.
We’re left to assume that it’s because powerful, rich people want more power and riches, but this is never made clear and remains mostly a convenient plot device driving the protagonist.
Adepts are people with magic and they’re all enslaved by the strongest Adept in the world, The Guildmaster. The Guildmaster subjugates Adepts and strips them of any autonomy, essentially turning them into obedient puppets – left slack-faced and hollow-eyed by the dark magic – and sells them to non-magical people.
The descriptions of the enslaved Adepts are quite graphic – being stripped of name and family and referred to as “it”, being branded, tattooed, and forced to fight other Adepts to the death.
This set-up was primed to bring a strong message, but slavery seemed more like quaint window-dressing than a real issue in this world even though it drives the plot and shapes character motivations.
The biggest disappointment was when two of the main crew decided to side with the slavers in the end, and slavery continued as a practise despite Ryia having spent the entire book trying to put an end to it.
As soon as I finished it, I started googling to see if it was the first of a duology, but was faced with the author herself stating that it was a stand alone novel. In that light, the ending is really messy, the plot lines poorly tied together, and it’s just generally disappointing.
However, there’s suddenly a sequel set to come out in July 2023, despite claims to the opposite, but this does make sense as the story in the first book seemed so unfinished.
Did I enjoy it?
Parts of it, yes. The writing was solid, though it got buried under the issues.
The most enjoyable part was Ryia’s relationship with her axes and how the heist crew wasn’t aligned in their motivations.
The world in general seemed to be more wannabe-dark-and-gritty than actual dark-and-gritty because every time I fell out of my suspended disbelief, it became a little less credible.
Especially towards the end, the characters also seemed to have an awful lot of time to ponder the meaning of life in the midst of a fight, which really ate at the pace. I zoned out several times and had to go back.
The secrets and plot twists are fairly obvious and I guessed how things will turn out early on.
It wasn’t particularly remarkable, but it’s an easy read and I’d imagine particularly suited to younger readers and readers who are new to fantasy.
The LGBTQIA+ rep wasn’t as strong as it seemed from the marketing, but perhaps the sequel to this stand alone will expand on that.
Rapid-fire round:
- Did the book meet your expectations? I was a bit disappointed because I really liked the cover and the blurb.
- Who was your favourite character in the book and why? Ryia’s relationship with her axes.
- Who was your least favourite character in the book and why? Cal. He was just sort of there.
- Did you relate to any of the characters? Not really.
- What themes or messages did you take away from the book? Don’t lean too heavily into the tropes or risk being compared to the best performing book in your category for eternity.
- Was there anything in the book that surprised you or that you didn’t expect? No, it was very predictable.
- What did you think of the ending of the book? It was disappointing, considering it was a stand alone.
- What do you think the author’s intention was with the book? What message or theme do you think they were trying to convey? I didn’t get any theme very strongly, “found family” was used more as a trope than a message.
- Which part of the book did you find most memorable? How they had so much time to philosophise when in a life-and-death-fight.
- Did you find any aspects of the book confusing or unclear? The motivations of the antagonist were poorly explained, as was the limitations of the magic system.
- Were there any moments in the book that made you emotional or had a strong impact on you? Ryia’s relationship with her axes was probably the best thing.
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