abigcoffeedragon's review
5.0
Excellent as always - I enjoy this historical Urban Fantasy and wish that more authors would try this in their writing. Modern Urban is not bad, nor is Historical in and of itself, but there is something about a present-tense feel to a past-tense world.
Ethan Kaille is, as usual, an excellent Sorcery Detective in a Revolutionary time period of Boston. There is enough real world history to give the time and place authenticity, but plenty of fantasy to be fun and not a history lesson. I love this series so much, and has become one of the markers by which I use to guide my own writing.
The ending is never predictable, which makes for a fun read, and the characters are always each unique and interesting. I always envision this as an Old World Harry Dresden series, though with a different and younger actor as the lead.
Great book.
Ethan Kaille is, as usual, an excellent Sorcery Detective in a Revolutionary time period of Boston. There is enough real world history to give the time and place authenticity, but plenty of fantasy to be fun and not a history lesson. I love this series so much, and has become one of the markers by which I use to guide my own writing.
The ending is never predictable, which makes for a fun read, and the characters are always each unique and interesting. I always envision this as an Old World Harry Dresden series, though with a different and younger actor as the lead.
Great book.
perch15's review
3.0
The Thieftaker Chronicles books are nice, comfort-food type paperback reads. I'm not a huge mystery guy, but I love Colonial history so as long as Mr.
Jackson continues to write them, I'll read them. If there was a bit more macro-plot a la Dresden I'd probably bump them up to four stars, but the lack thereof does nothing to hamper my enjoyment.
Jackson continues to write them, I'll read them. If there was a bit more macro-plot a la Dresden I'd probably bump them up to four stars, but the lack thereof does nothing to hamper my enjoyment.
scribejack's review
4.0
I read a while back before the first book came out what this series was about and a bit about where it was going. Somehow, either I misread or got bad information, I thought that the events of this book would be tying into the small pox outbreak (which I've now confirmed via the author's website will actually be central to the third book, A Plunder of Souls) and so throughout half the book I thought it was going in a direction it wasn't. It kinda damaged my enjoyment when I realized I was getting something less epic and more formulaic than I originally expected. But don't get me wrong. The book is well written and enjoyable, and now I really can't wait for book 3 since Jackson says it'll be a step away from the formula of the first two books and be more of a personal journey.
janegonz's review
3.0
I got an advanced readers copy of this book and will definitely go back and read the first one.
jercox's review
4.0
A good followup to the world of Thieftaker. Early on, a few word for word descriptions from book one are intended to get new readers into the world, so it starts slow. But after that, moves along better and is a quite good story. I recommend reading the first book (Thieftaker) first, although it isn't strictly necessary. If you didn't like thieftaker, you won't like this. Otherwise, worth reading.
readerreborn's review
4.0
I read a while back before the first book came out what this series was about and a bit about where it was going. Somehow, either I misread or got bad information, I thought that the events of this book would be tying into the small pox outbreak (which I've now confirmed via the author's website will actually be central to the third book, A Plunder of Souls) and so throughout half the book I thought it was going in a direction it wasn't. It kinda damaged my enjoyment when I realized I was getting something less epic and more formulaic than I originally expected. But don't get me wrong. The book is well written and enjoyable, and now I really can't wait for book 3 since Jackson says it'll be a step away from the formula of the first two books and be more of a personal journey.
aphrael's review
3.0
Pretty much a continuation of the previous one. The whole question of why Ethan does what he does is definitely valid though. Also I thought there was only a few days passed since the men were found 'dead', I would have liked some mention of them being buried/cremated before we find that out, I figured they were still in some cold basement morgue of a place. Also them jumping from 'corpse is missing' to 'he is still alive' without any kind of "oh yeah the security is so tight no-one could have gotten in, but one men could have gotten out" or whatever. The ending is deeply sad though :(. I do still like the book despite the inconsistencies, I will likely read on when I feel the itch for one of these books. I like that it's historical.
wilmaknickersfit's review
4.0
If there was some humour in this series, I would give both books in the series so far 5 stars. I'd love it if the author would give Reg a voice to speak to Ethan, instead of just the facial descriptions we have at the moment.
zzazazz's review
3.0
Strong characters and setting but the mystery portion of this historical/fantasy/mystery novel was less than desired. I still will read the next book in this series, it's a nice world to slip into for a quick read.
books_n_pickles's review
3.0
Just a quick little note here, since this empty review was looking sad. I felt a bit bad giving the book only three stars, but...it's the book I would have wanted to read when I was younger. Magic and revolutionary Boston? How cool is that?!
Pretty darn, but a couple things kept me from being 100% happy.
First and foremost was that this was not the first book--it's either the third or the fourth, though I was unclear on which, since the author's bio and list of previously published works seemed to contradict each other. There was no indication that it wasn't the first in a series. It wasn't too hard to read without having read the others, but I still felt cheated, like the lack of a big #3 or #4 on the front denied me the chance to say, "You know, this sounds cool, I think I'll start the series properly."
Really, the series sounds great. There were so many interesting-sounding back stories woven into this one that I'm almost afraid they don't all fit in two or three previous books. Ethan Kaille's had an interesting life that I'd like to hear more about--his age and real (as opposed to Gary-Stu-like) imperfection make him interesting.
The same cannot be said of the women characters. Five are named, two are gorgeous, two are pretty, and one is old. Thanks, thanks a lot for reducing a little more than half of humanity to a handful of worn old stereotypes: the trouser-wearing femme fatale, the beautiful and devoted lover, the crazy old black lady spouting wisdom, the girls who need protecting. What's most frustrating is that there are seeds of originality in each that could make them remarkable enough to hold their own...but the narrative denies them that chance and reduces them to either a plot point or a wet dream (almost literally, at one point). I was especially enraged when one of the women forgot that her gun couldn't shoot more than once. If there were any firearms at the time that could do so, that wouldn't be a thing you'd forget. The default of the time would be to assume that you only had one shot.
A lot of the supporting male characters were interesting, and the women were too, it was just frustrating that they couldn't be held in more equal narrative standing. Still, I would like to read more about all of them. Maybe someday I'll pick up the first and start from the beginning.
Pretty darn, but a couple things kept me from being 100% happy.
First and foremost was that this was not the first book--it's either the third or the fourth, though I was unclear on which, since the author's bio and list of previously published works seemed to contradict each other. There was no indication that it wasn't the first in a series. It wasn't too hard to read without having read the others, but I still felt cheated, like the lack of a big #3 or #4 on the front denied me the chance to say, "You know, this sounds cool, I think I'll start the series properly."
Really, the series sounds great. There were so many interesting-sounding back stories woven into this one that I'm almost afraid they don't all fit in two or three previous books. Ethan Kaille's had an interesting life that I'd like to hear more about--his age and real (as opposed to Gary-Stu-like) imperfection make him interesting.
The same cannot be said of the women characters. Five are named, two are gorgeous, two are pretty, and one is old. Thanks, thanks a lot for reducing a little more than half of humanity to a handful of worn old stereotypes: the trouser-wearing femme fatale, the beautiful and devoted lover, the crazy old black lady spouting wisdom, the girls who need protecting. What's most frustrating is that there are seeds of originality in each that could make them remarkable enough to hold their own...but the narrative denies them that chance and reduces them to either a plot point or a wet dream (almost literally, at one point). I was especially enraged when one of the women forgot that her gun couldn't shoot more than once. If there were any firearms at the time that could do so, that wouldn't be a thing you'd forget. The default of the time would be to assume that you only had one shot.
A lot of the supporting male characters were interesting, and the women were too, it was just frustrating that they couldn't be held in more equal narrative standing. Still, I would like to read more about all of them. Maybe someday I'll pick up the first and start from the beginning.