A review by lachesisreads
Hand of the Trickster by Mike Reeves-McMillan
5.0
What a pleasant surprise! I stumbled over this on GR and got the e-book because it was cheap
and I needed a quick fix (yeah...), and went into it not expecting much, but I really enjoyed it and read it in one sitting. We get a heist story with a newly assembled crew whose leader works for the trickster god, aka Loki. Now we don't see much of Loki, which was a bit of a disappointment (because that was what had originally attracted me), but what we do get is a highly entertaning novella with a well developed story arch and fleshed out, believable characters along the lines of The Lies of Locke Lamora. The author characterizes his writing style as "smartass first person narrator", which happens to be a style I enjoy a lot.
Since this story is a novella, there isn't much space for extensive world building, but what little there is is well thought through and credible. You just get dumped into this world, and it works without making you feel you don't know enough or that there are plot holes being glossed over.
I found myself wishing this was a full-length novel (perhaps with sequels, too...). I'll definitely pick up book two and also some of Reeves-McMillan's other, longer works.
The volume also includes two short-stories not related to the main story. I liked these a bit less than the main narrative, but then I rarely like short-stories in general, and it seemed stingy to deduce a star for these when I had so much fun with the first story.
If you like humurous, light-hearted fantasy, snarky, self-deprecating narrators and heist stories, give this one a go!
and I needed a quick fix (yeah...), and went into it not expecting much, but I really enjoyed it and read it in one sitting. We get a heist story with a newly assembled crew whose leader works for the trickster god, aka Loki. Now we don't see much of Loki, which was a bit of a disappointment (because that was what had originally attracted me), but what we do get is a highly entertaning novella with a well developed story arch and fleshed out, believable characters along the lines of The Lies of Locke Lamora. The author characterizes his writing style as "smartass first person narrator", which happens to be a style I enjoy a lot.
Since this story is a novella, there isn't much space for extensive world building, but what little there is is well thought through and credible. You just get dumped into this world, and it works without making you feel you don't know enough or that there are plot holes being glossed over.
I found myself wishing this was a full-length novel (perhaps with sequels, too...). I'll definitely pick up book two and also some of Reeves-McMillan's other, longer works.
The volume also includes two short-stories not related to the main story. I liked these a bit less than the main narrative, but then I rarely like short-stories in general, and it seemed stingy to deduce a star for these when I had so much fun with the first story.
If you like humurous, light-hearted fantasy, snarky, self-deprecating narrators and heist stories, give this one a go!