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Title/Author

Stealing Magic

Tanya Huff

Average Review Rating Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)
Book Details

Publisher : Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited

Published : 2006

Copyright : Tanya Huff 2006

ISBN-10 : PB 1-894-06334-1
ISBN-13 : PB 978-1-894-06334-0

Publisher's Write-Up

Between the covers of this 'double-faced flipover' book, you’ll find two complete collections of Tanya Huff’s comical short stories featuring Magdelene (the world's most powerful and laziest wizard) and Terazin (a top-notch thief). "Stealing Magic is charming, funny, and once again proves that Huff has no regard for the conventions and boundaries of genre... the genre is turned on its head, and to hilarious effect. The Magdelene stories in Stealing Magic are certainly some of the few 'high fantasy' short works that I have enjoyed recently."

Stealing Magic is both appealing and amusing, and belongs in everyone's fantasy collection.

About the Author:
Tanya Huff is one of Canada’s best selling and most beloved speculative fiction authors. She is best known for her Blood novels, about a modern vampire’s crime-fighting alliance with a Toronto ex-cop: Blood Price, Blood Trail, Blood Lines, Blood Pact and Blood Debt. She has also written more than fourteen other novels, and her short stories have appeared in numerous fantasy magazines. She currently lives and writes in rural Ontario.

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Reader Reviews

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Review by Paul Lappen (310806) Rating (9/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Rating 9/10
This book consists of 2 separate sets of fantasy stories, with different back-to-back covers (reminiscent of the old Ace Doubles).

On one side are stories of Terazin, top-notch thief. To join the Thieves' Guild, one does not simply knock on the front door and ask for an application. It is necessary to break into the building and make it to the inner sanctum deep underground, avoiding the traps set up along the way. Terazin does so, and is given an initiation test. She must bring the braided hair of Swan, a famous female warrior who will not take kindly to getting a sudden haircut. Other stories feature Terazin finding herself in the middle when it comes to internal Thieves' Guild politics.

Going the other way are stories of Magdalene, the world’s most powerful (and laziest) wizard. She is an apprentice to Adar, a castle wizard. She unknowingly dismantles his most powerful spells like they don’t even exist. She gains Adar’s powers, just before he is turned into a pile of gray ash, and decides to leave the castle. Travelling with H’sak, a demon trapped inside a mirror, she finds that the most bucolic villages have the most unique customs concerning wizards, like welcoming them with axes or chains and manacles. It doesn’t help that Magdalene, a redhead with a very healthy libido, doesn’t wear a pointy hat like normal wizards. She is summoned to various kings and wizards, and her attitude is like, "Yeah, yeah, let’s get this over with."

I really enjoyed these stories. They’re lighter, fast reading, and they show that Huff is a veteran fantasy author. The reader won’t go wrong with this strong, well done group of stories.
Paul Lappen (31st August 2006)

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