40 Fun Facts About The Thief (Megan Whalen Turner)

What does Gen brag about stealing in The Thief, landing him in a royal prison in Sounis?

The king's seal backed up a wineshop boast that he could steal anything, and it cost him months in chains.

How is Gen related to the queen of Eddis, as the final chapters of The Thief reveal?

Her cousin, and so a member of the royal family: the ragged prisoner the party looked down on had been her agent from the start.

Besides a claim to a throne, what is Hamiathes's Gift rumoured to grant its bearer in The Thief?

Immortality is the legend, and the story teases it: Gen is trapped with no way out of the maze, yet wakes outside holding the stone.

Where is the maze holding Hamiathes's Gift hidden in The Thief, leaving Gen only night-time hours to search?

Beneath a river, below a waterfall that a dam shuts off at midnight. Megan Whalen Turner modelled the flooded temple on an ancient cistern she had visited.

Megan Whalen Turner modelled the world of The Thief on which country after holidaying there with her husband?

Greece gave her the landscape she wanted on her first visit, and she hauled a stack of heavy history books around the country to read by the sea.

Which distinction did The Thief earn in 1997 as a runner-up for America's top children's book medal?

Newbery Honor news came by phone and caught her out: she later admitted she had not even known which day the winners were announced.

Gen, the narrator of The Thief, is short for which name, shared with his people's god of thieves?

Eugenides is the trickster god of the old stories, and thieves in Gen's homeland are all named after him, a clue many readers skim past.

Where has Gen hidden Hamiathes's Gift in The Thief while the magus believes an Attolian ambush lost it?

In his hair, held by one of the two ties the story keeps mentioning, and he only undoes it in front of his own queen.

Which traveller on the quest in The Thief turns out to be selling the others out to Attolia?

Ambiades, the poor son of a fallen noble house, sold the party to Attolia's queen in exchange for riches and rank.

Megan Whalen Turner wanted the landscape of The Thief to look nothing like which famous fantasy realm?

Middle-earth was the look to avoid: she grew up loving Tolkien but had seen too many fantasy worlds copy his, so she went looking for a different landscape.

Gen gives both of the magus's apprentices in The Thief a nickname that starts with which insult?

Useless the Elder and Useless the Younger are his names for the pair, a taste of the snide, sharp voice that reviewers singled out.

Despite his title, the magus of Sounis in The Thief is not a wizard but which kind of man?

A scholar and an ageing soldier, he is the king's most powerful adviser, which is exactly why he has to borrow a thief.

What is revealed about Sophos, the magus's younger apprentice, in the closing chapters of The Thief?

He is heir to Sounis, the king's own nephew, which explains why a seasoned bodyguard rides along with a shy student.

What does the soldier Pol do to the party's betrayer in The Thief before dying himself?

Pushes him off a cliff, then goes over the edge himself, dragging two Attolian soldiers down with him.

What does the queen of Attolia offer Gen after capturing him and his companions in The Thief?

A place in her service, stealing for her, was on the table, and he turned it down to her face, telling her she was not kind enough.

In the sequel to The Thief, how does the queen of Attolia punish Gen for spying on her?

She cuts off his hand, an old penalty for theft, when he had expected to hang. Astonishingly, the two are married by the third book.

Which kind of narrator is Gen usually said to be in The Thief?

Unreliable, though he never tells an outright lie: he simply leaves things out until the moment they matter.

In the hidden chamber above the maze in The Thief, the gods at first look to Gen like what?

Statues, he assumes, standing frozen around the Great Goddess, until the god of thieves stirs and tells him to take the stone.

Megan Whalen Turner says she first wrote The Thief as what, trimming material she assumed she would never use?

A standalone book was the plan until, right after her award call, her editor put a librarian on the line to ask when the sequel was due.

Which terrain defines Eddis, the small country lying between Sounis and Attolia in The Thief?

Mountains wall Eddis in, and it is the one country where the old gods are still worshipped.

Which Great Goddess rules the old gods in the myths the travellers tell in The Thief?

Hephestia took charge after persuading her quarrelling parents to pass their powers to her, because their fights kept harming humans.

In the creation story the magus tells in The Thief, which god makes humans after quarrelling with Earth?

Sky made them, but Earth pitied the weak creatures and gave them fire and tools, then shook the ground when they thanked the wrong god.

On his last night in the maze in The Thief, Gen spots a hidden door made of which material?

Obsidian: he smashes through the black volcanic glass and climbs a hidden staircase to the court of the gods.

Where is Hamiathes's Gift resting when Gen at last finds it in the court of the gods in The Thief?

On the ruler's lap: the Great Goddess herself holds it, and he hesitates a long moment before daring to take it.

Before the journey in The Thief, what is Gen shown as the reward that would be posted for his capture?

A chest of gold: a single coin would make most people rich, so the whole country would turn out to hunt him if he ran.

Why does the magus whip Gen one morning on the road in The Thief?

Food has gone missing and he blames the thief, straight after an evening of storytelling when the two had seemed to grow close.

Which skill does Gen hate in The Thief, yet turn out to be alarmingly good at against the Attolian guard?

Swordplay: the book cuts away from the fight, and readers learn how good he is only from his companions' stunned reactions.

As the ending of The Thief reveals, why did Gen let himself be jailed in Sounis?

To catch the magus's eye: he needed the one man who knew where the Gift lay to hire him, so he could carry it home.

Gen lets his companions in The Thief think he is gutter-born, but which office does his father hold?

Minister of war of Eddis: the boy the party treats as a street rat comes from a royal household and was highly trained.

What does the close of The Thief confirm Gen has done with the tale of his adventure?

Written it down himself: earlier he had grumbled that the magus would take the credit on a public monument while he was forgotten.

The world of The Thief looks ancient yet contains guns and which other much later invention?

Pocket watches tick alongside printed books and stained glass, because the setting borrows from many centuries, not one period.

In The Thief, walls too huge for men to have built are credited to the old gods or which one-eyed giant?

Polyphemus gets the credit when nobody remembers the real builders, an echo of the real 'Cyclopean' walls of Bronze Age citadels.

Which British fantasy author recommended Megan Whalen Turner to the editor who published The Thief?

Diana Wynne Jones put in a word with editor Susan Hirschman, and Turner has said she owes it all to that recommendation.

Which novel about a sixth-grade quiz team beat The Thief to the top American children's book medal for 1997?

The View from Saturday gave E. L. Konigsburg her second medal, with Megan Whalen Turner's debut among the four runners-up.

Which entertainment giant was reported in 2020 to be developing The Thief for its own streaming service?

Disney gave the script to Brian Duffield, the writer of Love and Monsters, with Jim Whitaker attached as producer.

What happens to Sophos, the shy apprentice from The Thief, after an ambush in a later novel?

He is sold into slavery by mistake in A Conspiracy of Kings, and finds, to his own surprise, that he is content labouring in the fields.

Before writing The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner spent seven years in which bookstore job?

Children's book buyer was her job in two cities before a year in California, on her husband's fellowship, gave her time to write.

The series that began with The Thief won which fantasy prize for children's literature in 2011?

Mythopoeic Award judges honoured the whole series in 2011, the year its fourth book also took a Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Which foreign power, unseen in The Thief, arrives in its sequel to stir up war among Sounis, Eddis and Attolia?

The Medes send a charming ambassador from their empire who pays court to Attolia's queen while scheming to take her throne.

Megan Whalen Turner's first book, Instead of Three Wishes, came out a year before The Thief as what kind of book?

A short story collection of seven tales, several of them written in California while her husband held a Guggenheim fellowship.