Mark of the Thief

The Mark of the Thief starts out in a Roman slave-mining operation. The life of these slaves mixes in the life of Roman slaves with experiences of more modern African slaves. Life is hard, and the possibility of freedom is nonexistent. This mine is rumored to hold some great jewels from Caeser. One boy tries to escape, but is caught and then required to go down to retrieve the jewels. He finds it, but in the process befriends a Griffen and unleashes some magic that allows him to escape. He tries to remain free, but is caught many times. He struggles to find out who is friends and enemies are. Many times, it feels the author is telegraphing the role of characters to us, despite what the boy may feel. However, our impressions are not always right. The characters do not confirm to "good" and "evil", but instead have a multitude of interests and "uses" for others. We get to see stark contrasts in the lives of different classes of people, as well as the use of entertainment and violence as an elixir to keep them together. The book ends with more questions than it answers, leaving it as an obvious first book in a series. The characters and story structure feel very similar to those in the The False Prince series. The author appears to have found a style that works.