The Smoke Thief

Shana Abe

The Smoke Thief is an aptly titled book if you believe that what you hold in your hands will be a serious work of fantasy, with dragons, adventures, cultures, mystery, and magic. It contains all those elements at one point or another, but mostly what this novel descended to for me was a good old bodice ripper cloaked as fantasy. Abe will delight Harlequin readers, while ultimately disappointing serious fans of fantasy. The primary characters seem never to develop beyond those superfluous figures we so often find in Harlequin romances. This in itself is a shame, as Abe has the elements and the storyline to make this a memorable novel, but she forsakes most of it to pursue the romance which unwinds between the two primary characters. Unfortunately, even this is not done well, or with any level of complexity, it's very formulaic, girl meets boy, falls in love, pretends to hate him, boy meets girl, falls in love, relentlessly pursues her. This is truly the root of the novel, and the rest of it struggles along like poorly formed tree limbs. Abe throws in a storyline of a tribe of people who have sought to disguise their true natures from the world so that they may move freely and in peace among humans. She develops their culture, creates their world, and then abandons it to the storyline romance she seems to feel more comfortable with. There are dragons, a few dragon flights, there is a thief who is ultimately more interesting before meeting the boy she loves and pretends to hate, and both of these evolve from smoke, so the title is not without merit, but these elements are drowned out by the overwhelming sound of bodices ripping and heavy panting. For those of you seeking a Harlequin penned at a slightly higher angle, you'll likely be engrossed and infatuated, for those of you seeking a serious fantasy, you'd be better off sticking to those scribes known for their ability to create worlds and characters who make us believe in magic.