Summary:
A review of The Magic Thief, a fantasy novel for young readers newly published by HarperCollins. A contender in the race to become the next Harry Potter franchise and, based on the production values lavished on this first novel, HarperCollins clearly thinks it has a big hit.

Details or Sample:
The Magic Thief is a middle grade fantasy novel by Sarah Prineas, published by HarperCollins. Set in Wellmet, a kind of Victorian city that runs on magical energy, The Magic Thief tells the story of young orphan Conn, by his own admission "a gutterboy and a sneak thief." One night, Conn picks precisely the wrong pocket, that of the mysterious wizard Nevery Flinglas. He steals Nevery´s locus magicalicus, the stone that is the focus of the wizard´s magic. Simply touching the locus magicalicus should kill Conn outright. When it doesn´t, Nevery is intrigued and takes the boy in - half out of curiosity and half because he could use another pair of hands to fetch and do chores. But Conn decides that, while he´s a very good thief, he´d be an even better wizard´s apprentice...

With the departure of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series from the young readers´ fantasy stage, authors and publishers have been searching for a successor. HarperCollins clearly thinks they have a winner in The Magic Thief. Although it´s a first novel, the publisher has gone all out on the production of this book. Even before you begin to read, the book is drawing you in. It´s a compact, roughly 400 page hardcover with ragged-edged pages. Along with an attractive blue and gold dust jacket, the book offers a map of Wellmet and beautiful pencil illustrations by Antonio Javier Caparo. There are parchment toned interior pages with notes from Nevery, secret messages in an "alphabet" of magical runes, even a couple characters´ very different biscuit recipes. It´s a very lush, gorgeous physical object in its own right.

The story itself is just as engaging. Prineas has made a very wise decision here to focus on the relationship between her characters and let the actual plot lurk in the background as much as she can. Nevery was exiled twenty years ago by the Duchess after a spell got out of hand - and apparently blew up his ancestral estate, Heartsease, to leave separate wings surrounding a central pile of rubble. But Wellmet´s magic has fallen to dangerously low levels, and Nevery has returned to take charge of the city´s bickering, mostly useless Council of Magisters and find out why.

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Written by: Owen Black
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