MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.5/5
Format: Kindle Ebook
BOOK DESCRIPTION
We are the stories we tell ourselves…even the lies.
The Thief, a great spirit, and her descendants have abused their ability to steal magic for centuries. When Kaylo starts to hear the song of other people’s magic, he must learn to hide from his people as well as the invaders. A gift or a curse, Kaylo may be able to save his people from the Gousht Empire that claimed their land with this stolen magic.
Eighteen years later, Kaylo still prays to the spirits, but not out of loyalty or love. He knows better than to rely on those selfish bastards for anything. While hiding in the forest from his foolish acts of rebellion, he encounters a girl, Tayen, being pursued by two soldiers of the empire. Against his better judgment, he risks facing the consequences of his past to intervene.
When Tayen attempts to run off seeking vengeance for her family, he offers to train her to wield her magic and a blade. If he can’t convince her to relinquish her need for vengeance and stave off the demons of his past, he’s going to get them both killed.
MY REVIEW
No Heart for a Thief is a solid dark fantasy debut by author James Lloyd Dulin, who weaves together a great story of an indigenous people who are being forced to convert to a single god religion by the Gousht. I have heard some good praises on this, which lead to me getting a signed hardcover for my personal collection. The cover art is by the illustrious Felix Ortiz and Martin Mottet, so it’s not too shocking that it is absolutely stunning, which also had a part to play in getting that copy for myself.
The story is told on two fronts, both in the present and in the past, the beginning starts in their present day with a perfect hook that immediately draws you in, then it settles down a bit as we start to get to know more about Kaylo, the main character of the story. The past timeline is the most prevalent as Kaylo tells of his past to the recently rescued Tayen. Dulin does a really good job of digging in and really helping to set the stage of the world in its present day as well as the development of Kaylo to understand why he is, who he is now. Dulin’s world-building was phenomenal, it was truly a work of art and a delight to experience the world that he has created in all of its magical detail.
Kaylo is by far the most interesting character of the story since he is the focal point, but it does have a lot of secondary characters that play a big role in the story, such as Tayen and Jonac, though I thought Tayen would play a bigger role because of the student/mentor trope that I read this had, but what I found was that not only is Kaylo the mentor to Tayen, but a student to Jonac as well which makes this a very interesting blend of that particular trope. Even though Tayen was less featured than I expected, she has an interesting story that will play out later on I hope. Jonac is also very interesting as we get to know a lot about him and his people through the backstory that Kaylo tells to Tayen.
“You see, little shade, a story is a peculiar thing. Change a word the emphasis of a word and it can become something it was never meant to be. A hero can become a tyrant. A tyrant can become a great uniter.
And a boy who makes a lot of stupid decisions can become a myth.”
I really loved the elemental magic that Dulin implemented, particularly the magic of Kaylo the thief, who’s magic is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a story that sets the groundwork of his redemption and a people’s vengeance to be free and worship the many spirits they believe in. Stories like this really make you think about our own history and the things that tribes went through when the America’s were being colonized. One of the things I like to do when I read stories about indigenous tribes, is try to figure out on my own who the inspiration was, and I could be off here, but it is my belief that The Potowatomi people are who this story is based around. They were from the Grand Rapids, Michigan area where the author is also from. The Gousht likely the French, came to turn indigenous people to a single god religion.
While this had a decent bit of action in it that was bloody and brutal, I have a feeling that book two should be pretty crazy with how No Heart for a Thief ends leading me to believe that there could be less past and more present in the next installment! With all that said, I did have just one issue that kept me from giving it a better grade, and that was that I would’ve liked to see more present day with Tayen than we got, because the parts that we got, I really enjoyed. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Kaylo’s backstory, but I would’ve liked to see more progression from Tayen as she trains with Kaylo as well.
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