The Spirit Thief (Eli Monpress Book 1) Paperback – October 1, 2010

Don't confuse this fun little book with The Lightning Thief, which I also read and reviewed. The SPIRIT Thief straddles a fairly unique line between totally straight up 80s fantasy and comedic fantasy the likes of River of Dancing Gods or Myth Conceptions. It's not however as totally comic as those, and somehow seems a bit smaller and lighter (if that's possible).The voice is very good, and the opening scene brilliant. There's a nice new magic system here, where every living thing has a spirit inside that wizards can bargin with, enslave, or what not. Like comedy fantasy Shinto. It's not entirely evenly developed, but the book is at its best during the magic fights. Although they do have a certainly sketchy quality too them, where the action doesn't feel entirely blocked out, but I still liked quite a bit of this. The master swordsmen are really nicely done, combining the intrinsic magic of the book with a slightly Robert Jordan-esque blade-master feel. There were moments that almost felt super cool.The prose can be very wry, in a good way. Funny, without laugh out loud. A lot of this involves attributing emotion to inanimate objects, which given the magical system is perfectly in line. When it's on, this is certainly very fun to read. But at the same time this levity makes it hard to take the characters too seriously, and certainly not their perils. So it works for and against. I found oddly marooned in a peculiar -- albiet unique -- tone.For some reason it also reminded me a bit of Shattered World, one of my high school favorites. Probably because the protagonists is a thief. I maybe wanted it to feel more like that, but it doesn't feel as big. Everything takes place in a fairly short time and place, and the stakes seem a little local. The light tone also works against the emotional intensity of the characters, and I for the most part feel that they existed to either service the plot, or like the author was more sure of their personality than the character. The villain in particular is of the "i'm very bad, and very mad, and bad at being mad" sort.So overall I would call the book a snack. But a tasty one.

The Spirit Thief is the first of the Eli Monpress series. Eli Monpress is a thief whose goal in life is to have a 1 million bounty on his head. He will rob, kidnap and threaten to get that bounty.And he's utterly hilarious.The magic of this world works because spiritualists (wizards) have agreements with different spirits where the spirits do spiritualists' bidding in exchange for some of the wizard's power. Eli Monpress gets spirits to do what he wants by flirting with them until they are giggling and do whatever he wants.The book starts with Eli kidnapping a king, and then follows Miranda, the cop sent to catch the thief and the king's evil exiled brother. All of the main characters and all the supporting characters are really fun. I want to be Miranda with her fierce sense of moral direction and her training and her loyal spirits. At the same time, Eli and his gang of a master swordsman and a demon are really fun to read. We see them care about each other and respect each other. It's very fun to read them.The only downside was that parts of it read like an anime. Fight scenes especially had Eli's master swordsman moving epically slow only to meet the incredibly fast enemies. That sort of awkward one character is going slow, but is actually faster than the fast characters only works in anime and magna, I think. In writing it doesn't make any sense.Similarly, Eli's gang and the villain are all larger than life. Eli is the best theif ever. Josef is the best most amazing warrior ever. Nico is so powerful and frightening that literally every soul in the world would die trying to kill her. The villain is manipulative and evil and yet completely beatable when it comes down to the line.It's a quick read and a ton of fun. I will definitely be reading the sequels, but I kind of hope that the characters become more... human.

Very original & entertaining plot & characters and a lot of fun to read and re read! For YA and up. Dialog a tiny bit repetitive, but mostly amusing. Quite a few typos, but not sure if that is the fault of Kindle or of the editor of the book. Didn’t hurt the story. I read it many years ago, and really enjoyed this second reading as well!

Usually if i like first a few pages of a book, i like the rest of it. Of course there are some exceptions. Spirit Thief was not one of those exceptions. After first 10 pages of that book i was laughing so hard, i was rolling on the carpet. Our protagonist Eli reminds me of Mattrim from Wheel of Time and Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates Of Caribean. He is extremely fun to read and easy to love altough i didn't really care for Miranda. Our heroine.. The sorcerres riding a big dog(yeah not a big cat but a dog this time... duh), always clinging to her own rights and wrongs, when it's obvious the other guys is stronger then her; still haughty becouse she is a member of spirits-something-council... even her humor feels kind of dull compared to Eli. The swordmaster and demonseed girl is intriguing. I really wonder what will become of them on the next book of the series. Plot is really predictable and it's ok with me. I mean it's better then to write something meaningless just to make it original. Overall it's a really fun read. I'll be watching Aaron closely for her future titles.PS: Sorry for my English. My writing skills and spelling are not that fantastic :)

and so far have only read the first two volumes! This first book is an interesting introduction to a new fantasy world, and the way things work within it fascinated me. The characters are more than they appear too, not simply stereotypical flat beings. Histories aren't spilled out into the open, which allows you to think things up for yourself. You might be completely wrong, of course, but that's half the fun of fantasy, isn't it? It's a pretty personal thing, and these books have me hooked.

Rogues and Heroes - mixed together with a light touch.A protagonist that even when you disapprove of him drags forward into the adventure with glee. Very entertaining tale.

One of the best books ever written. This book probably will change your life. At least it did for me!

Eli ist ein Dieb, er ist charmant, erfolgreich und das Kopfgeld, das auf seinen Kopf ausgesetzt ist, kommt ihm viel zu klein vor. Also zieht er los um gegen diesen unglücklichen Umstand etwas zu unternehmen.Mit im Gefolge ist der Schwertmeister Josef und die kleine Nico.Der Plan ist simpel: den König entführen und ein Lösegeld fordern.Soweit klappt auch alles - es könnte sooo einfach sein.Doch dann taucht ein ambitionierter Schwertkämpfer auf der mit Josef die Klinge kreuzen möchte und er verbündet sich auch noch mit einem gefährlichen Magier, der gegen die Doktrin des Spirit Courts Spirits versklavt. Er zwingt sie ihm zu dienen und treibt sie so in den Wahnsinn. Und plötzlich gehen alle schönen Pläne den Bach runter'.Miranda soll im Auftrag des Spirit Court den durchtriebenen Dieb Eli Montpress fangen, denn dieser stiehlt nicht nur, sondern schadet damit auch dem guten Ruf der Magiergemeinde. Miranda die selbst einige Geister Diener mit sich führt und deshalb gut gewappnet ist, bricht zusammen mit ihrem Freund, dem riesigen Geisterhund Gin, in das verschlafene Königreich Mellinor auf, wo Eli zuletzt gesichtet wurde.Schon von anfang an läuft nichts so wie es sollte. Die Spirits am Tatort des Diebstahls erweisen sich als unkooperativ - so wie das ganze verflixte Königreich, in dem Magie verboten ist und jeder einzelne Bewohner ihr Vorurteile entgegen zu bringen scheint. Und plötzlich entdeckt sie auch noch ein Dämonenmädchen in Elis Begleitung, welches die natürliche Ordnung in Gefahr bringt. Miranda hat wirklich alle Hände voll zu tun, worüber sie fast das gefährliche magische Artefakt vergisst, dass seit 400 Jahren in der Schatzkammer am Hof vor sich hin staubt' aber von dem weiß ja glücklicherweise niemand etwas, oder?Ich habe "the spirit thief" sehr genossen. Die Charaktere sind charmant und einzigartig. Die Geschichte ist niemals langweilig und die Autorin schafft es sich von Klischees fern zu halten. Es ist erfrischend nicht wieder eine Geschichte über Magier mit Zauberstäben oder sonstigem Brimborium zu lesen. Die Idee, dass Magier sich Geister bedienen, die über die eigentliche Macht verfügen und sie quasi für ihre Meister einsetzten ist wirklich mal was neues. Außerdem haben mir die interessanten Charaktere gefallen, es wird längst nicht alles über diese verraten, weshalb man sofort nach dem nächsten Band lechzt :-). Ich hoffe wir erfahren noch mehr über die Vergangenheit von Josef Liechten und wie er zu seiner legändären Klinge gelangte oder über Nico, das gefährliche kleine Mädchen. Ich kann wirklich "the spirit thief" nur empfehlen, wenn das Buch ein Manko hat, dann dass es mit seinen 300 Seiten fast zu kurz ist! ;-)(Der zweite und dritte Band sind bereits unter den Titeln, "the spirit rebellion" und "the spirit Eater" erschienen.)

Insgesamt eine interessante Welt, habe nach dem ersten Band auch die ganze Reihe gekauft und gelesen!