Giant Thief by David Tallerman

Review: 4/5

Angry Robot Publishers

This is another one that I picked up largely because I thought that the author was a very friendly bloke. I'm not the biggest fantasy reader, but I am very happy I picked this up and I would give this to anyone who, like myself, had not delved much into the realm of fantasy as I would be hard pressed to find someone who would not enjoy this book. I could easily say, if you get fed up of this book, you have got fed up of life. This book is one where I felt super happy to go and find a nice sunny spot in the sun, get a pot of tea and read though half of it in one sitting. This is the view I had when reading it, and I barely noticed it because the book was that fun:

I had gone to meet Ian Whates to talk about his series of books that I will get around to reading at some point and David was there signing copies of his book. There wasn't many people about so I asked him what the book was about (I had only looked at the front cover by this point and had obviously decided that the name didn't give enough away). David basically explained to me that the premise was along the lines of its a man with a WMD. That short description, mixed with both the friendliness of Dave and the odd resemblance to Christian Slater that the hero has on the cover was enough for me to buy a copy.


I asked David to please sign it which he was more than willing to and he asked me something I did not expect. "What do you want me to write, I'm new to this". I found this rather funny as its not everyday that a published author asks me what he should write.

 

The back of the book says the best thing ever to describe a character:

"Meet Easie Damasco: rogue, thieving swine and total charmer".

If you read that and look at the front cover, these two things had basically told me that what I am about to read is a book about Han Solo if he looked like Christian Slater and didn't have Chewie. But wait I shout! The giant behind him could be a sort of Chewie stand in. Well that's me sold then, and I ploughed into the book.

It is a very enjoyable read. The giant thief aspect is brought in within a couple of chapters and then you are led into the much bigger adventure than the book I had imagined would introduce. If you enjoyed the Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (brilliant book), then you will enjoy this. Unlike Lamora, this book takes place over a great distance rather than in a single city and so it creates a large world that can be easily expanded on in future books (book 2, Crown Thief will be out at some point and I cannot wait). Unlike Lamora in which it takes place in one city so it is described in such detail I felt I could draw a map of it by the end, as Thief takes place in quite a few locales I really enjoyed filling in the blanks of the world that the book gives you.

There is nothing bad about the book at all, it is highly enjoyable and characters are brilliant. I cannot wait to hopefully run into them all in future books. Read this book and be prepared to be thrilled with adventure, shocked with great twists and also entertained by the brilliant humour that Tallerman puts in at perfect moments to diffuse tension when its needed. Go out and buy this book and recommend it to friends so that hopefully Dave can stop being an IT man and write full time so that he can give everyone many more enjoyable hours of entertainment.

Note: Daves comment after I told him to write whatever came to mind was "To John, hope you enjoy the book". Well I did.

John