I liked many of the supporting characters more than Drothe himself, as we meet a stratum of Kin from the low, to those in Drothe’s employ, to the real movers and shakers of the criminal underworld. There is a interesting set of characters here in Ildrecca, too. There is no “flynning” here, the combats are much more reminiscent of the Michael York era Musketeers rather than the Chris O’Donnell Disney Musketeers. Maybe there is a bit too much love of the clash of steel, but the knowledge that the author brings to the combatants and combats is palpable and obvious.
It is with Degan that Hulick’s enthusiasm, interest and knowledge of Renaissance era swordplay finds full flower and expression. While the main character Drothe himself is at best an average combatant, he does have a best friend, Bronze Degan, who is one of the best fighters in the city. Hulick is a fencing enthusiast, and it shows in the writing. I would like liked a map of the city, and I suspect given a couple more novels, Ildrecca and its inhabitants will feel as real and fully formed as Sanctuary, Lankhmar or Adrilankha. It feels like House Jhereg in Steven Brust’s novels, but with even more fractal complexity and detail.īeyond the types of thieves, in sword and sorcery fashion, we get a view of the city, a hazier viewer of the dangerous role of magic, the nature of the Empire, an invented Thieves’s Cant for the Kin and a lot more. We get to see all sorts of kinds of thieves, and more are casually mentioned. Even in a city of thieves, the idea of so many kinds of thieves, with adivision of labor of skills androles, and a hierarchy and web of relationships is amazingly done. The worldbuilding gets first pride of place. Scott Lynch helped reboot a few years ago. There is a lot to like in Among Thieves, things that would commend it to you out of the growing subgenre of books with roguish characters and pointed swordplay that Mr. A book falls into his hands, a book that a fair number of powerful people want, at any cost.Īmong Thieves is the debut sword and sorcery novel from Douglas Hulick. And being an information gatherer, and not the best blade, might not be enough to keep him from being perforated, as the stakes of what really is going on in Ildrecca slowly become clear. When the search for an artifact he is itching after dovetails into doings in a key section of the city where Nicco’s men are being harassed, Drothe finds himself quickly in over his head. On the side, Drothe likes to track down Imperial artifacts as a hobby.
It’s a decent life, one that Drothe has developed over years as one of the Kin. In a city of thieves, his role is as an information gatherer and curator for his employer, a roughhewn boxer of an Upright Man (think mob boss) called Nicco.
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