I just finished the sequel to this one, so I thought I'd add it to the Fantasy Reading List. Among Thieves is one of the many good thief novels to appear in fantasy recently. I found it was action-packed and gritty (but without overdoing the grittiness). It took me a while to warm to the main character Drothe, but once I did, it was a great reading experience.
It's also worth reading for the simple fact that it's written in first person. You don't see much secondary world fantasy written in first person. I found Hulick did it very well, and it helped me grow to like a character I might not have liked otherwise. As far as antiheroes go in fantasy, Drothe is one of my favorite I've read.
I also found this to be one of the more convincing depictions of the criminal underworld in fantasy. It probably got some thing "wrong," but it worked for me. The book also gave a lot of hints of a complex world. There's an interesting reincarnation thing going on with the emperor. The order of Degans is very interesting, and you're just scratching the surface in this book (book 2 gets into them a whole lot more). Drothe's sidekick from that order, whom he simply calls Degan, is also a great character.
In general, I found this book struck most of the right chords for fans of this type of book. Gritty, but not too gritty. Fun and funny at times, but not lighthearted. Lots of action, but still some time for character development. A setting that's interesting with more to come. My only real complaint is that it took me a while to warm to it, but that's not unusual for me.
I also thought the second book was all kinds of awesome.
Rating: 8/10
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