As The Mad Hatter said, Giant Thief has one of the best opening lines ever. And as it begins, so it tries to go on in the same vein. And I'm glad to report that in this effort it largely succeeds. Giant Thief has a lot of humour in it and had me smirking at a number of scenes in the book.Giant Thief's greatest strength could also be seen as its largest weakness: basically the book is one long chase scene. Action-packed and high-paced with relatively few breathing points, it's fun, but at times a...

I really wanted to enjoy Giant Thief, but unfortunately it was a very mediocre, instantly forgettable "okay" book. I was actually glad when I finished it - not because it was terrible, but because I could move onto a more exciting book. That always makes me sad, because in a way I'd prefer it if it was so-bad-it's-good or even hurl-across-the-room!bad. At least then I'd have taken something away from the experience other than a heavy sense of apathy.My main problem with Giant Thief was that neit...

I love heist movies. It’s a weird addiction that I can’t shake. It doesn’t matter what type of heist movie: Ocean’s Eleven, Foolproof, The Perfect Score, that one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where they rob the holosuite casino to help their holographic friend (don’t ask). I love that moment in the middle where we get walked through the plan, usually as a montage set to a voiceover. It feels like a privileged sneak peek, because then we get to see the real thing.Anyway, this has nothing...

I’ve been reading a lot of books on thieves lately and each author manage to bring something different with their creation. Giant Thief is a fun and humorous take on this trend, and on many ways it succeeds. In this book we have a thief who has the charisma to charm his way out of any situation, and there are plenty of scenes where Easie Damasco uses his wit to weasel his way out of the direst confrontations. However its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness for me. At no point I felt

What a fun read, I loved it!Poor Easie Damasco, every move he makes turns pear shaped.Giant Thief is filled with adventure and snark, what is not to love?I cannot wait for the next book!

A total forget-me-book. Okay while reading it but will be completely forgotten about a week from now.I liked the author's attempt of trying to capture the mood of an old fashioned sword and sorcery pulp story but I'm sad to say that's all it was, a copy of those other books. This book's greatest fail for me was the unlikable lead. In order to have an anti hero they must be likable. They can still be dirt ball scums but you have to like them as they play their games. Read Swords and Deviltry inst...

Man, this had a lot of potential, but completely fell flat. I didn't care about the main character. I didn't care about the minor characters. I didn't care about the story. I forced myself to finish the book.Also, I couldn't believe this had been professionally edited. I felt like this book could have been at least a third shorter than it was.

I was given the opportunity to read this through the GR First Reads contests -- thanks!I have to state up front that this really isn't my genre. The whole "saving the kingdom" thing doesn't really do it for me -- however, I found this book to be well written, and it held my interest.Easie Damasco is a lovable rogue, a thief who seems to have a knack for getting himself into trouble. As the story opens, Easie's sticky fingers have landed him in a very tight position -- here's the opening line:"Th...

Do you remember when giants were ‘in’? No? Well, actually – neither do I… Probably because Giants had their hey-day many, many years ago… Hercules met a few, David took down Goliath and even the most modern examples within Paul Bunyan and dare I say it; Jack & The Beanstalk are a least 100 years past.The bible actually lists Giants as factual:There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them,

I was given the chance to read an early review copy of Giant Thief by the publisher Angry Robot Books.The highlight of the book is definitely the humor, delivered through the snarky dialogue of protagonist and narrator, Easie Damasco. While perhaps not the intention of the author, he strikes me as the Fantasy version of Han Solo.The plot is pretty straightforward, and consists mostly of Easie being on the run from an evil warlorld. Despite not having any real surprising moments, it works as a ve...

DNF - page 72The book started off well enough. I mean, a cocky thief steals a giant (and some jewels) right out from under a warlords nose. It tickled my funnybone. But then we're treated to the duo escaping from the camp. And escaping from the riders on horseback. Then they split up. You take two characters that have hardly interacted with anyone else for the last thirty pages and split them up and my already waning interest is gone.I flipped ahead and for over a dozen pages, we're just followi...

Meh.This book can be a fun diversion -- I did read it all the the way through in the course of a day, after all -- but it's not very original and it's not all that well written. I have as little idea of what motivates some of the characters now as I did when I first met them, three hundred and fifty pages ago, and I didn't believe in the danger that they faced, not least because I was given no reason to particularly root for anyone other than Saltlick -- and only for him in absence of anyone els...

The blurbs compare this to Scott Lynch -- commendable ambition, but that's not what this is. Easie Damasco is a *petty* thief. He's got a mouth on him, admittedly, but not an especially inspired one. He's readable because he's a genuinely terrible person -- not cruel, but small-minded and selfish -- who is not *quite* hopeless. Also, he is surrounded by much greater characters (both better and worse) who keep trying to use him but don't think he's quite hopeless either.This is, in fact, an epic

I was very torn between giving this two and three stars, but decided that because it was a bit original, I shouldn't lump it in with the triteness that seems to be a lot of what I consider to be two star books. The first quarter of the book was pretty good as well, I just think it suffered from an extremely boring middle and an okayish ending. Easie sort of vacillated between being the biggest whiner of all time, to being extremely reckless. That sort of confused me, and threw me off a bit. I'll...

I liked this book, it was fun and very tongue in cheek. It makes a refreshing change for an author to actually concentrate on humour and light heartedness. If only more books were like this and less pretentious. Lovely fantasy novels that reminded me of The Princess Bride. Nowt wrong with that.

Giant Thief started out well. The beginning was fast-paced, set up an interesting fantasy world and protagonist, and running off with a giant seemed interesting enough... until it wasn't.It just didn't do it for me, and I think it's because the book ended up being one big long chase sequence, in one way or another.I liked how the story started. I liked the giant. I sort of liked the thief. I found the world-building and the descriptions of the landscapes to be well done, if overdone for me. But

I still need to decide how many stars I will give.I expected a different book after reading the blurb and few reviews.Of course there is humor in the book and the story is easy to read. The style is entertaining.But a lot of time the main character Easie Damasco was a pain in my neck.I have been disappointed by the giant Saltlick.

You know that saying “For want of a nail”? Well, in Easie Damasco’s case, it was for want of a piece of bread, a chunk of fish and some cabbage that the fate of the entire land of Castoval was changed. When Easie is caught pilfering food from the baggage train of the invading warlord Moaradrid’s army, he is summarily pressed into service and assigned to a unit that’s ominously referred to as the “disposables.” Easie has no interest in becoming cannon fodder, and he sort of likes his home land th...

A decent story with some fun parts and some grim parts - would have preferred a few more of the fun parts. Damasco was a bit of a problem for me: his erratic redeeming qualities didn't quite make up for his general bad behavior, so I found it hard to sympathize with him.

This book got off to a great start: a hanging, a battle, an audacious theft of a *giant*, and some chase scenes. Unfortunately, I bogged down in the middle. I will say straight out that thief/rogue characters are a hard sell for me. They have to be audacious and charming and clever for me to like them, and Easie fell short--especially on the cleverness. Thieves shine best in a heist/scam story; Easie seemed uncomfortable and out of place with the gritty rebellion plot. The giant was my favourite...