if you had to sell the thief to someone ao3 style (tags, synopsis and all), how would you do it?
okay this is specifically for book 1, and ultimately very sparse because you can’t say anything about these books without spoiling 500 different things:
the thief by megan whalen turner
archive warning: no archive warnings apply
rating: general audiences
category: gen (😌)
relationships: [i can’t do this one because full character tags would be a series spoiler] [i am being so strong not dipping into the ao3 tag til i finish all the books], gen & suffering
characters: [same deal as above], assorted horses
additional tags: just some guys on the road nothing to see here, enemies to reluctant allies to ? friends?, [slaps the top of gen’s head] this guy can fit so much scheming and suffering inside of him
summary:
The magus looked me up and down and wrinkled his nose, probably at the smell.
He wanted to know my name.
I said, “Gen.” He wasn’t interested in the rest.
Gen is a thief.
i feel compelled to add that book 1 is like a fun little amuse bouche compared to the rest of the series and the rating goes up to at least “teen and up” in book 2 and also adds m/f to category. perhaps graphic depictions of violence warning; not sure if it’d tip over the line for me, but boy howdy my stomach bottomed out at points.
otherwise, i swear there isn’t much more to say without spoiling things. but: this series is so good. pangs ahoy. worldbuilding is chewy and lush and internally consistent and makes me think about my own approach to fantasy construction and belief systems. it has a Guy Of All Time at the center who is complicated and annoying (pos) and deeply sad and always playing 5D chess while you’re still operating on a one-dimensional board. also it does enemies to lovers in a way that would be like giving a sour patch kids candy to a sickly victorian child if the sour patch kid was gen/[redacted] and the sickly victorian child was anyone who puts “enemies to lovers” on a bookstagram graphic about an office romance or something. call me when your love interest [redacted]s your character’s [redacted] and then the nightmares don’t stop even after they [redacted]. they’re nuts (honorific). i see fanart of them and i blush tbh. it is also an absolute feast for anyone who, like me, loves a good outsider pov. especially an outsider pov where you’re often in on the joke but just as often you get to be surprised right along with the pov character. and. and! so much more i could say but at this point you should probably just go read them if you haven’t already.
