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A review by wanderinglynn
Among Thieves by M.J. Kuhn
adventurous
slow-paced
2.75
This book centers on a group of thieves, who must work together. But each has their own motivations and secrets, and each plan to betray the others. An intriguing premise that sadly failed for me.
I think the first issue for me is that there's minimal world-building. We learn little about this world. There's five "countries" ruled by some kind of royalty system. The kingdoms seem largely knock-offs or mixes of various European cultures (Slavic, Scandinavian, German). Although there is also a country of "brown-skinned" people. The problem is that there's not enough description or detail to get a sense of this world, which becomes problematic as part of the plot depends on international politics. At some point in the history of this world, there were wars and the typical global tensions when one country wants to dominate another. And like any history, there is a legend of a great warrior or leader (or whatever Declan Day was supposed to have been) that didn't unify the countries, but created more of a cold war situation. Because at this point in this world, any tension between the various countries is held in check by the power of the Guildmaster.
We are given a bit more detail about the magic system. Apparently people are born with some sort of magical ability, but taken and enslaved by the Guildmaster right after birth. They tend to fall into one of two abilities—Sensers, some kind of smell magic, or Kinetics, a type of telekinesis. The magic is system is fairly basic and is used more as a form of slavery and a way to rule this world than real magic.
For all that the world is rather basic, the plot was intriguing and the writing compelling. And yet, I couldn't connect to the characters. This is a multiple POV story and each characters' backstory comes out throughout, although some backstories are revealed more than others. As the plot progresses, what we learn more of is each's motivation and secrets. More fleshing out of the characters might have helped bring a bit of depth that the story lacked. I felt the author spent too much time trying to figure out the heist and all the backstabbing and twists and didn't spend enough time on character development or world-building. As for the heist, well, I thought it was a bit of a let down. Again, it seemed to lack some depth and really just became a breaking and entering more than an <i>Ocean's Eleven</i>.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about Among Thieves. I'm not sure I liked this one enough to pick up book 2 even though this one ended on a big ole cliffhanger.
I think the first issue for me is that there's minimal world-building. We learn little about this world. There's five "countries" ruled by some kind of royalty system. The kingdoms seem largely knock-offs or mixes of various European cultures (Slavic, Scandinavian, German). Although there is also a country of "brown-skinned" people. The problem is that there's not enough description or detail to get a sense of this world, which becomes problematic as part of the plot depends on international politics. At some point in the history of this world, there were wars and the typical global tensions when one country wants to dominate another. And like any history, there is a legend of a great warrior or leader (or whatever Declan Day was supposed to have been) that didn't unify the countries, but created more of a cold war situation. Because at this point in this world, any tension between the various countries is held in check by the power of the Guildmaster.
We are given a bit more detail about the magic system. Apparently people are born with some sort of magical ability, but taken and enslaved by the Guildmaster right after birth. They tend to fall into one of two abilities—Sensers, some kind of smell magic, or Kinetics, a type of telekinesis. The magic is system is fairly basic and is used more as a form of slavery and a way to rule this world than real magic.
For all that the world is rather basic, the plot was intriguing and the writing compelling. And yet, I couldn't connect to the characters. This is a multiple POV story and each characters' backstory comes out throughout, although some backstories are revealed more than others. As the plot progresses, what we learn more of is each's motivation and secrets. More fleshing out of the characters might have helped bring a bit of depth that the story lacked. I felt the author spent too much time trying to figure out the heist and all the backstabbing and twists and didn't spend enough time on character development or world-building. As for the heist, well, I thought it was a bit of a let down. Again, it seemed to lack some depth and really just became a breaking and entering more than an <i>Ocean's Eleven</i>.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about Among Thieves. I'm not sure I liked this one enough to pick up book 2 even though this one ended on a big ole cliffhanger.