Description
Twelve-year-old Crow is a thief.
Scraping a living on the winding streets of Starsgard, Crow works for the leader of the criminal underworld, stealing from the city’s wealthy ruling class. But when a routine job takes Crow to the home of a mysterious sorcerer, his whole life is turned upside down – and after a planned heist goes wrong, leaving Crow alone and with nowhere to turn, he finds himself a new position as the sorcerer’s apprentice.
Before long, Crow is introduced to the ancient art of dream magic – catching dream essence and using it to create dreams for the rich citizens from whom he once stole. But when Crow learns of an ancient strain of nightmare magic that threatens to unleash devastation on Starsgard, he must make a terrible choice… and decide who he can really trust.
With a stunning, richly-detailed world, an incredible story, and a wonderful cast of characters, Crow: Thief of Magic is an extraordinarily exciting fantasy debut – perfect for fans of Impossible Creatures, His Dark Materials, and Skandar and the Unicorn Thief.
Review
Crow is a thief who has no family except for his best friends, Sal and Jonas. They all work for the head of the criminal underground who steals from the rich, and their jobs are never boring. One job takes Crow to the home of Viktor, a sorcerer and Dream Catcher for the town. Viktor asks him to be his apprentice, which Crow declines. But when his next job goes horribly wrong, he finds himself back at Viktor’s and learning all about dream magic.
As Crow settles into his new life, he starts to realise that he can feel magic in the dreams too, and that he can talk to Viktor’s cat, Nekima, who he quickly starts to trust. Crow is taught that there are two sides to dream magic - good dreams and nightmares - and both must be kept in balance.
When Crow learns about the Mara, an extremely dangerous nightmare that Viktor has imprisoned and is trying to escape, Crow must decide if his magic will be able to help Viktor, or if Viktor can really be trusted at all? The fate of the whole town will end up in his hands...
This is a fabulous and highly entertaining fantasy story full of twists and turns, magic, dreams and a wonderful main character in Crow. He is loyal, brave and loving with his friends. Even though he is a thief, it’s the only way to survive when you're an orphan, and he has a strong sense of right and wrong. Crow becomes so happy when he is surrounded by dreams, and it lights the magic inside of him. A wonderful story about making a family from the friends who love you, dreams, magic, and good triumphing over evil. This will be loved by fantasy readers in the lower secondary years.
