I often choose the books I read based on what inspiration I need. I was a bit stumped when writing Silver Key, so I jumped into the Amazon and tried to look for fantasy stories starring a rogue-like character. Since I spend tons of time driving for my job, I needed an audiobook, so my selection was far more limited. There were plenty of assassin books out there, but not many books about thieves. Inevitably I came across the Master Thief Trilogy by Ben Hale, and I am quite thankful that I did.
Blurb
“The Thieves Guild is renowned for their ability to steal anything. Its elite members have robbed nobles of wealth, reputation, and even their honor. The Guildmaster rules them with brutality and fear, yet his name and past are a mystery. From the depths of the Evermist swamp he seeks a master thief, one who can help him reclaim his lost power.
Young and brash, Jack Myst has drawn the Guildmaster’s attention. His feats mark his potential, but his audacity and cunning make him dangerous. After years of preparation an invitation from the guild is exactly what he desires. When he gets it his hunt begins, and there is nothing he cannot steal.
Even the Guildmaster’s secret.” ~ Amazon Product Description by Ben Hale
Plot
I value a good plot above most other attributes of a story. The main plot is a bit of a mystery mixed evenly with a revenge story, a unique mixture that seemed to work pretty well together. I genuinely wanted to learn the secrets of the guild master as Jack mused to himself about him over the course of his many heists. What was set up earlier in the book was satisfyingly paid off later on.
Most of the magic that was described and included in this story had a purpose directly related to the plot. This made me more inclined to pay special attention to the descriptive prose of each instance of magic being used because I was confident it would actually mean something to the plot later.
One factor would like to applaud Hale for was his ability to make every heist, and there were plenty of them, tie directly into the main plot. Whether it was Jack’s personal revenge story, or the greater mystery of the Guild Masters secret, I never got the sense that these heists were glorified “side quests” to extend the length of the book needlessly.
As some of you probably know, I probably put too much value on a story’s final battle. I never write spoilers into my reviews, but I will say that the setting was used to its fullest during the duration of the battle and the villains defeat was nicely foreshadowed earlier on in the book leaving a final battle junkie like me greatly satisfied. No part of the battle seemed contrived, so there were no cringing moments of “the power of friendship” or anything like it.
Overall, I was very satisfied with the plot. If I was to rate the book on its plot alone, it would be a 5/5 for me.
Characters
Our protagonist is named Jack. The story is almost entirely told from his point of view with the exception of two chapters or so. Throughout the course of the story you really get a clear sense of who Jack is, but it can be difficult to get a sense for who the rest of the cast are through his eyes alone.
The trait that made Jack particularly likable to me was his competence. Having a competent protagonist from the very get-go is refreshing as opposed to the clueless average Joe. I often find it a drag to have to patiently wait for a protagonist to become competent before the real action can begin.
At first, I did not feel that Jack was a “Marty Stew”, as is typical in assassin fantasy or the like, but at a later point in the story he started to lean in that dreaded direction. From the very beginning of the story he presented himself as a very accomplished thief with a few magical powers under his belt, but he openly admitted that he was not good at sword fighting. This led me to believe that he would be forced to be clever rather than strong. That alone made him even more likable in my eyes and gave him room to grow. However later on, it is revealed that Jack has enhanced strength, eyesight, and agility granted to him by a form of druidic magic. When surrounded by guards, he takes down several of them at the same time with his bare hands and cracked a joke about how he only said he wasn’t good at swordplay, but was particularly good at combat as a whole.
At that point it seemed like none of his flaws were physical. This normally isn’t too much of a problem, but his inner flaws were not really significant enough to counter a lack of physical flaws. One might say cockiness and arrogance were his flaws. However arrogance really only works as a flaw if the arrogant person in question doesn’t have the skills to back it up, which Jack easily does. Cockiness also doesn’t work because that only works well as a flaw if there’s a point in the story where his cockiness has lasting consequences. If it happens later in the series, I’ll take it all back, but I did not see much of that in this book.
At the very least Jack does not win every fight he is in. He is beaten a couple of times fairly easily, but the fact that he can so easily overcome guards in physical combat makes them a non-threat. You don’t need to sneak or use stealth if you have the firepower and skill to blast your way free if you are caught.
On a higher note, the story’s supporting cast truly shined. Beauty, the love interest in this book, is very competent in her own right and plays a very crucial role to both Jack’s personal plot and the master plot as a whole. Hale wrote her in as a partner to Jack rather than an object or prize. If she had some POV chapters of her own, I may also have been inclined to call her a second protagonist.
There were several other smaller characters in this story, but the page time that they each get reflects on the amount of characterization they received as well. Though not much is learned about them, I have a feeling that they will be explored more deeply during the rest of the trilogy which is common in a series.
For those of you that don’t know, I probably put way too much importance upon a story’s main antagonist. In my own stories, I tend to put a little more work into my villains then my protagonists. I have no idea why, but it just feels like a story is only as good as its villain. Sadly, I cannot say too much about the villains of this story without dipping into spoiler territory, but I assure you they are everything I wanted them to be.
Despite my concerns with Jack’s character, the supporting cast and villains really make up for it. Though not five-star worthy, they are a solid four star cast.
Prose
This shouldn’t take long. Though I value plot above all other attributes, prose barely matters at all to me. Unless the author just completely blows my mind or royally screws it up, their sentence structure and choice of words will not affect the story much for me.
That being said, Jack of Thieves had several moments that struck out to me as good lines. The dialogue was well structured and it was easy to tell who was speaking at what time based on what was said. The characters were so distinct and unique that I couldn’t possibly get lost during a conversation.
I enjoyed Jack’s moments of backtalk and clever insults, and I equally enjoyed his interactions with his guild mates.
Hale’s chapter structure was also very intentionally done. The end of most chapters felt like the cliffhanger to an episode of a weekly TV show. This book was the very definition of a page turner, and it made it very easy to read entire chunks of it at a time.
I do not grade prose harshly since it doesn’t mean much to me. My default grade is four stars, but for one line in particular that I can’t repeat without spoilers, I think I’ll give it a five. The first person to guess what that line is and send it to me in an email will get a free copy of every book I publish. No joke.
Worldbuilding
I have very mixed feelings about the worldbuilding of this book, but I will start with the positive. The Thieves Guild and its organization were very well thought out and felt believable even for a fantasy setting. There was never a moment where their rules and methods struck out as nonsensical or unbelievable. Any moment spent in the Thieves Guild felt quite immersive and enjoyable.
When it came to the world at large though, it suffered from one of my personal pet peeves. The world felt like a homebrew Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. There were very cookie-cutter races such as elves that lived in the trees, dwarves that lived in the mountains who happened to be engineers, and dark elves who live underground who are “totally misunderstood”. I have played Dungeons & Dragons for many years and have become entirely burned out on their settings. Every time I heard one of these worldbuilding clichés come up, I felt my eyes trying to roll out of my head. Reading stories with worldbuilding like that really tends to bother me more than it should, but I acknowledge that there are plenty of people out there who couldn’t care less, so this issue may not be a big deal for you.
Sadly, since this is my personal review of the story, I’m going to have to give it its first low rating. If the story had unique species or only had humans, I would’ve given it a much higher score. Sorry Ben!
Magic System
Though this is the first book I have read from Ben Hale’s large fantasy world, I can easily see that his stories are filled to the brim with magic. There is so much magic weaved into every facet of the story that it almost crosses into science fiction. There are spells and magic items for almost every need.
The story sets the rules for every magic item and followed them accordingly all the way to the end. Jack’s crossbow made him seem like Hawkeye from Marvel comics or the Green Arrow from DC comics. He could enchant his bolts to do all kinds of things that gave Hale a wide range of creative ways that Jack could escape situations.
All the thieves were given a tool called a shadow hook. This tool worked fairly similarly to Spider-Man’s web-shooters. I enjoyed reading how the thieves would use this tool in creative ways, and the limitation that it can only grasp onto shadows didn’t make it seem overpowered.
One thing that didn’t quite sit right with me was Jack’s body magic. Essentially, Druids could form a bond with a specific animal, and overtime draw power from them. This gave Jack enhanced strength, speed, and eyesight. If Jack was meant to be a warrior, I would’ve loved to have a superhuman protagonist, but since he was meant to be a clever thief, I feel that simply enhanced reflexes and eyesight would’ve been enough. It just seemed like his body magic made him too strong for anyone less than another superhuman to be considered a threat.
There were several other magical tools used throughout the book that really added to the overall plot, but again, I don’t wish to spoil the mystery in this story.
Jack of thieves had a fantastic magic system that followed its own rules and only mildly seemed to use it solely to get the heroes out of trouble. More often than not, Jack would use magic in a clever way to solve problems, but it very seldom felt like a spell or magic item was suddenly invented to solve a problem.
Conclusion
I came across Jack of Thieves searching for inspiration for my own character, Shalnark. Did I find it? Eh… A little. Jack and Shalnark are just so different from one another that it’s hard for me to draw much inspiration from the story. Though I came for inspiration, I stayed for the excellent plot, fun characters, and thrilling mysteries.
I would recommend Jack of Thieves to anyone looking for a story with a different kind of protagonist and unique plot. After averaging my star ratings, I give this book a solid 4/5. I will certainly be reviewing the other two books in the series sooner or later, but for now, there are so many other indie books out there that require my attention.
Have you read Jack of Thieves? What did you think about it? Is there another indie fantasy book you would like to see reviewed next? Better yet, do YOU have one that you’d like to see reviewed next? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Master Thief Trilogy. You can email me at info@larncehicksauthor.com and tell me just how wrong I am.
Follow the Author
You can find a nice catalog of Ben Hale’s work on his website.
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