Sarah Prineas has created a wonderful fantasy world in her Magic Thief series. Begun in 2008, and concluding (?) with this year's third installment, the series tells the story of Connwaer, a young pickpocket who gets more than he bargained for when he picks the pocket of an old man and pulls out a stone. He quickly realizes the man whose pocket he just picked is a wizard, and the stone is a locus magicalicus - the stone a wizard uses to focus his magic. The wizard Nevery quickly discovers the theft and is intrigued by the fact that the boy was not instantly killed when he laid his hand upon the magic stone, as he ought to have been. So the magician, returning to the city of Wellmet after a long exile, reluctantly takes in the gutterboy as his apprentice. Conn turns out to be more than an ordinary thief, and while Nevery soon learns that the boy might have a certain aptitude for magic, he's not ordinary in that regard, either.
Conn is one of the most heroic characters in juvenile literature, perhaps in all literature, I have ever read. One of the reasons I generally prefer juvenile literature over grown-up literature is the motivations of the characters. In so-called adult literature, the protagonists often do the right thing to impress someone, or to advance a career, for money or power, or simply because page one defines them as the hero, and no other reason. In juvenile literature, for the most part, the hero (or heroine) does the right thing because, well, it is the right thing! Sure, they have the same desires to be accepted, admired, followed - but when everything and everyone turns against them, they do the right thing because it is their nature to do so. And Conn is the epitome of this personality.
The Duchess of Wellmet and the city's other wizards, the magisters (who were responsible for banishing Nevery twenty years prior) aren't too happy with Nevery's return, and less happy and less trusting of his new apprentice, especially when Conn tried to take a jewel set in the Duchess's crown. Conn cannot help that - the jewel turns out to be his own locus magicalicus, and a magician cannot resist when his own stone "calls" to him. Even though the other wizards know this is so, they don't believe Conn is anything more than a common thief. Nevertheless, they do know that there is something wrong with the city's magic; it is declining at an alarming rate and they cannot figure out why.
Conn doesn't know, either, but he has some ideas. He believes that the magic is a living entity, and even without a locus to focus his energies with, he can to a certain degree communicate with that magic. Not even Nevery believes him on this point, but here is what makes Conn such an endearing hero: Conn knows what he knows, and he never gives up, not even when his own life is in danger, and his mortality is in peril a number of times in each of the three books. Conn is also honest, almost to a fault, and he is fiercely loyal and self-sacrificing. It is these traits that gradually earn him respect, albeit begrudging respect from some. Rounding out the main cast is Kerrn, captain of the guard; Rowan, the Duchess's daughter who is handy with a sword; and Benet, Nevery's rough looking, gruff sounding bodyguard who enjoys knitting and baking biscuits in his spare time. By the end of book three Conn has completely won over these people and a score of others, including much of the city's criminal element.
Conn will win you over, too.
Book 1:
Book 2:
Book 3:
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