List Books To Take a Thief (Valdemar (Chronological) #26)

Original Title: Take a Thief
ISBN: 0756400589 (ISBN13: 9780756400583)
Edition Language: English
Series: Valdemar (Chronological) #26, Valdemar (Publication order) #25
Characters: Herald Skif, Herald Teren, Herald Kris, Alberich, Lord Orthallen, Talamir, Bazie, Jeri
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Take a Thief (Valdemar (Chronological) #26) Paperback | Pages: 435 pages
Rating: 4.12 | 12622 Users | 199 Reviews

Chronicle In Pursuance Of Books Take a Thief (Valdemar (Chronological) #26)

Mercedes Lackey's triumphant return to the best-selling world of Valdemar, Take a Thief reveals the untold story of Skif--a popular character from Lackey's first published novel, Arrows of the Queen.Skif was an orphan who would have died from malnutrition and exposure if he had never met Deke the pickpocket.  By the time he was twelve, Skif was an accomplished cat burglar.  But it wasn't until he decided to steal a finely tacked-out white horse, which was, oddly enough, standing unattended in the street, that this young thief discovered that the tables could turn on him--and that he himself could be stolen!

Be Specific About Containing Books Take a Thief (Valdemar (Chronological) #26)

Title:Take a Thief (Valdemar (Chronological) #26)
Author:Mercedes Lackey
Book Format:Paperback
Book Edition:Deluxe Edition
Pages:Pages: 435 pages
Published:October 1st 2002 by DAW (first published 2001)
Categories:Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction Fantasy

Rating Containing Books Take a Thief (Valdemar (Chronological) #26)
Ratings: 4.12 From 12622 Users | 199 Reviews

Write-Up Containing Books Take a Thief (Valdemar (Chronological) #26)
Standalone novel which follows the adventures of Skif from the 'Arrows' trilogy. Standard Valdemar fare, but here the added length contributes to a more in depth and enjoyable read.This would actually be a fairly good book to start with if you haven't previously read any of Lackey's novels. I still feel that I should really be a 16yr old girl when reading these, but they are the ultimate comfort read, so...



I was rereading the Arrows trilogy and I was reminded how much fun Skif is which in turn reminded me that he had his own book and I had never read it. Immediate book guilt plagued me so I picked it up at the library and read it as soon as was possible. Skif is a lot of fun and while he had a pretty miserable upbringing which didnt make for very fun reading, the second half of the book was worth everything that preceded it. Seeing how Skif and Alberich met, how Skif was chosen and getting to know

Skif was a scrappy little Valdemeran dude, hangin out in the slums and pinching good food from the tables of the rich when karma hit him. He ran into another thief, better dressed, better at the job, and -being bright- made a friend.He quickly found out why true thieves were few and far between. It was easy enough to pick something up, but picking something out was another skill entirely, skill set in fact. Stealth, agility, subterfuge, acting. Even math, for the fencing. His days were full of

Structurally, this book is, IMO, rather unsound. The major conflict doesn't appear until nearly halfway through - the entire first part of the book is introducing Skif, showing his crappy life and how he becomes a thief, and basically setting up for the big disaster. After the disaster, there's a longish chunk of him flailing about looking for information, in the course of which he gets Chosen to be a Herald, and then the resolution comes rather wham-bam-thankyou-ma'am in the final two chapters.

YMMV, but I didn't really enjoy this very much. The build up was incredibly slow, and hard to read due to the way the characters' accents were written out. I personally would have enjoyed seeing more of the main character's training after being Chosen than so much time devoted to his training as a thief, but that is a matter of personal preference. Aside from struggling to parse together what people were saying with the speech written out in accent, it was a fairly quick read, and I suspect that

Oh Mercedes Lackey. In an authorial move that had left me severely disappointed in both the Storm Warning series and Exile's series-- she does it again. What could have been an interestingly nuanced coming of age story about a young thief boy's inclusion in an elite group of morally superior and God-backed do-gooders, Mercedes Lackey imposes a ham fisted moral preachiness onto the characters. (One must only be all good or all bad -- well, unless you do bad for the good, in which case it's all