City of the Uncommon Thief
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A dark and intricate fantasy, City of the Uncommon Thief is the story of a quarantined city gripped by fear and of the war that can free it. "Guilders work. Foundlings scrub the bogs. Needles bind. Swords tear. And men leave. There is nothing uncommon in this city. I hope Errol Thebes is dead. We both know he is safer that way." In a walled city of a mile-high iron guild towers, many things are common knowledge: No book in any of the city's libraries reveals its place on a calendar or a map. No living beasts can be found within the city's walls. And no good comes to the guilder or foundling who trespasses too far from their labors. Even on the tower rooftops, where Errol Thebes and the rest of the city's teenagers pass a few short years under an open sky, no one truly believes anything uncommon is possible within the city walls. But one guildmaster has broken tradition to protect her child, and now the whole city faces an uncommon threat: a pair of black iron spikes that has the power of both sword and needle on the rib cages of men has gone missing, but the mayhem they cause rises everywhere. If the spikes are not found, no wall will be high enough to protect the city—or the world beyond it. And Errol Thebes? He's not dead and he's certainly not safe.
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I'm sorry...but this book is really why I don't favor traditionally published books. Penguin Teen picks this one up and claims to be a choosy publisher when there are thousands of well-written indies out there that wouldn't have been considered? Ugh. Enough with my rant on the publishing industry though.
I like the cover of this book. I really do. And some of the descriptions were nice. But this book traded in actual good writing/a developed plot for fluff and overly “big and fancy” words. There was so much info-dumping and I felt like the author was just trying way too hard to be a writer that people think of and say “wow. I have no idea what half those sentences mean, but that just must mean the author is much more intelligent and eloquent than I, a lowly reader!” Gah, I sound so harsh, but I'm just bummed because I always look forward to newly released reads and jump right on buying them when I get the chance. Especially ones that look really cool, like this one. But sadly, because of all the ridiculous elements (info dumping, overly big words, odd style), I DNF @ around 40%. I just couldn't get into it... I felt like the story was going nowhere.
I still to this day don't understand why some elitist readers will scoff at independent books when many traditionally published books fall way below the indies. But what do I know? I'm not a writer and I'm not a publisher, only a reviewer and reader who...very sadly...could not finish this one.
