Sometimes you just stumble upon a great fantasy novel. The Thief’s Gamble is one of them. McKenna manages to deliver a very solid novel that does a good job of setting up future installments of The Tales of the Einarinn. I will try and avoid spoilers, I really enjoyed this novel and would prefer to let other people discover the finer points of the novel on their own.
The Thief’s Gamble focuses on the character Livak. She is a thief, gambler and burglar and very self reliant. One of the nice things about this series is McKenna does a good job of putting forth some gender equality amongst the sexes without making a political point or taking it too far like some other female fantasy writers. Women can succeed in anything, but tend to have traditional roles. The setting is an interesting one. It is nicely detailed, meaning there is enough information for the reader to get a good feel without getting mired in the details. The Thief’s Gamble takes place about a thousand years after the empire fell. This puts the feel and style something like a hybrid of England, Germany and Italy in the middle ages. There are certainly countries, but as commerce is the key feature amongst the cultures wars are usually internal on not external. There are certainly different types of humans, but no creatures of fantasy that can be, normally, found.
McKenna development of magic is very interesting. The primary magic is elemental based and she does a good job of explaining only what the reader can understand through they eyes of Livak or the other characters (most of whom do not use or understand the intricacies). Mages voluntarily isolate themselves their island nation and make no ambitions on the continent. There are a couple of reasons for this and she expands how magic relates to the setting in greater detail later on in the series. Mages are respected, but given their lack of ambitions for power their abilities are not viewed with hatred. They are basically self policing and balance their own needs with the needs of the people they live amongst. All mages are found/recruited and taken to the island of Hadrumal, some stay other go back to work on the continent. It makes for an interesting assortment of mages.
There is one scene in the novel where a mages shows what he can do and then one of the non magic using characters explain while mages are powerful there is a good reason why they do not rule the world. McKenna also introduces another form of magic later on, based on a different sort of power base. This I found very interesting also, because it is rare to have a writer design a compelling magic system, let alone two.
The plot begins with Livak sort of between gigs and awaiting a cohort. Her plan is to go to a massive festival it the city of Col and run gambling schemes to line her pockets. But she does some side work and gets entangled with some mages who decide that her unique skills would be useful. In this quest most of the other major characters are introduced along the way.
The Thief’s Gamle being McKenna’s first major work (that I know of) and some of action scenes gets a little muddled. Her action sequences sometimes get a little confusing and could have used a little more detail. Her set up and plotting makes this a minor complaint. The plot is somewhat simple, but it leads to more complex ones in the grander scheme of the world. McKenna keeps the plot within the context of the characters and shows the greater scheme as they discover it. Sometimes there are things the reader would like to know, especially about the antagonists, but are never answered because the characters would have no idea. Some might find this frustrating but I enjoyed thisd style and appreciated the plot being tied tightly to Livak and her allies.
From an RPG perspective this is a great boiler plate for a campaign setting. There are ample opportunities for adventure with the wizards of Hadrumal or one of the political players of the lands. The magic would be very compatible with d20 or Rolemaster, with only minor tweaking for her elemental schemes and other magic archetype. McKenna givens enough details of the lands in this novel and others to give a DM ample material to work with in the setting.
The Thief’s Gamble is one of my favorite novels that I have read this year. McKenna delivers an interesting plot and setting that neither is over ambitious or simplistic. Her writing tends to focus on the character’s but not at the expense of the plot or setting. It is a solid introduction to what is a great fantasy series that I highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre.
