Thief's Covenant by Ari Marmell
Thief's Covenant
Ari MarmellThe Premise: Adrienne Satti was an orphan that was adopted into the aristocracy, an unlikely rags-to-riches story that turned sour when she became the sole survivor of a horrific massacre and had to disappear. Now she is a thief called Widdershins that regularly gets in trouble - both with the law and with her own guild. Unfortunately people are still looking for Adrienne Satti, and maybe one day someone will figure out that Widdershins and she are one and the same. Oh, and she is the only worshiper of the god Olgun, and he lives inside her head.
My Thoughts: This is a book that I bought for purely shallow reasons: the cover pleases me. I like the use of the white background, the title placement, and the unexpected figure hanging from a ceiling beam. It does have a bit of a young adult feel (young woman on cover seems to equal YA these days), but I didn't really realize it was YA until I looked it up on the publisher's website. Despite just wanting this book because it's so pretty, I didn't pounce until I found a nice used copy because of on-the-fence (not really stellar, but not hating it either) reviews from reviewers I trust.
So. Thieves, guilds, remarkable orphans, and a pantheon of gods that can directly communicate with their worshipers (if they so wish to). These are very well-worn tropes of fantasy and they form the building blocks of the world within Thief's Covenant. I don't really find this a bad thing, it's comfort food if it's not new-to-you, and fun if it is. What I think this story does differently is that injects an entertainment to everything. What I mean by that is: no matter what grim thing is happening on the page, the prose manages to veer off into humorous territory. You can start a scene where grim Guardsmen are examining the grisly remains of a dozen aristocrats, the floor positively awash in blood, when the focus shifts to the rafters above them where a whisper-conversation is taking place between Adrienne and her god Olgun. They're both in shock because, well what kind of secret cult keeps written records?!
I liked the humor to a certain extent. When the jokes were gentle elbow-nudges, I was on board, but it could get rather slapstick-y, which is less of my cup of tea. Either way, there's enough lightheartedness in here for me to appreciate the entertainment. One running gag was how basically everyone was after Adrienne/Widdershins but she always manages to one-up them. The Guardsmen are after Adrienne for one reason, and Widdershins for another. The Finder's Guild are after Widdershins for her general cheekiness, and there's a third group that just wants to find Widdershins/Adrienne to kill the survivor of the massacre. The whole book makes me think of a hall of doors chase scene mixed with elements of 'Home Alone'. Whenever Adrienne is caught, I feel like she always turns it around, leaving her captors worse off.
What is surprising is how this type of humor is juxtaposed with violence. That's where my one real complaint about the story stems from -- strangely, more because of how the secondary characters suffered than for the violence itself (although that was also jarring in the midst of what is mostly a caper). I felt like with so many throw-away characters, no chance for something deeper than a set of archetypes as the supporting cast. I would've enjoyed delving further and seeing their relationships with Widdershins develop. Maybe the point is to keep Widdershins isolated, or to add grit to the story. I don't know, all I know is I wound up feeling unfulfilled, and questioning if how things played out was how it had to go. The humor and adventure in the story mostly balances out this ruffled feeling, but didn't erase it entirely.
I have the second book of this series, False Covenant, on the to-be-read pile. I plan to read it soon.
Overall: The world building is typical fantasy fare and the secondary characters don't really get the development they could, but the prose and humor evens things out so what you are left with is something that falls squarely on middle ground. I would recommend this as something to try if what you're looking for is simply entertainment.
Buy: Amazon | Powell's | The Book Depository
Other reviews:
The Book Smugglers - Joint rating was: 6 (Good, recommended with reservations)
Bitching, Books, and Baking - 5 beaters (out of 5): "There are WORDS in them thar pages! Glorious, well thought-out WORDS!"
Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell - "The ever so cool Widdershins made this my fav Marmell book to date"