The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron
I'm actually not sure exactly when I picked this book up or why I did so in the first place. I might have picked it up for someone else... Which would explain why I loaned it out to someone and then got it back with a recommendation to read it. And so I, being of the mindset that I should at least attempt to read my books before giving them to other people, decided to take their advice.
The story starts with a con artist, one Eli Monpress, kidnapping a king in a minor country, which unexpectedly leads to an unseating, which unexpectedly puts the entire country in danger. Aiding Eli are a master swordsman (Josef) and creepy girl Nico. Chasing Eli is Miranda, a wizard (or spiritualist in the book's terminology) with her ghosthound Gin. There are some minor complications since the country in question doesn't like wizarding types and hijinks ensue involving a long lost royal and an ancient artifact of doom (because all ancient artifacts are instruments of doom).
If you are hoping for more than the summary, you will likely be disappointed, gentle reader. I didn't find anything remotely remarkable about the storyline and could call the action pretty accurately. Since the story doesn't stray from the generic at all, there really aren't any surprises. While this might not be a drawback to some, it did get a bit tedious for me. Since there really isn't all that much depth at all, most of the book flies by.
The characters are pretty much an array of character tropes that recur in fantasy. Eli is a mischievous prankster/thief. Josef is the philosophical wandering swordsmaster. Creepy girl Nico needs an exorcist. Bad guy one is a megalomaniac. Bad guy two wants to be “teh leetness with swordz.” The characters all added to the general pall of generic-ness that ran amok through this book.
All that aside though, the opening few chapters were rather funny. In this narrative universe, all nouns have an individual spirit that can be woken, convinced and bargained with. The first chapter consists of a long conversation with a door. To be truthful, the system of magic is mildly interesting and the reactions of inanimate objects to various characters rarely failed to elicit at least a chuckle out of me.
There really isn't a whole lot to this book. If one is looking for a short read with little depth and some humor, you could do worse than the Spirit Thief.