Theft of Swords

It seems cruel to label a book ‘typical fantasy' these days, as that seems to give the impression that it is somehow subpar in the fantasy genre. Fantasy bookshelves are often chock full of stories with dwarves and elves and are often accused of being knock-offs of Tolkein or not being creative enough to come up with their own interesting creatures and worlds. But if it is done well, I think ‘typical' or what I like to label ‘traditional' fantasy can still be well worth reading. Unfortunately you sometimes have to go through some of the lesser well done ones to find a gem among them. Luckily, Theft of Swords is one of the gems.
There are a lot of traditional tropes in the story, but it is so well written with characters I really came to love, and a world that I liked more and more as it was expanded and as more mysteries were embedded in its history, that I would be hard pressed to fault it for using those traditional tropes.
Theft of Swords if fun and exciting, but also has a touching friendship at its centre that holds the whole thing together. I was easily lost in this world and had a great time following the mysteries as they unfolded, although I get the impression that only the surface of what's going on has been scratched and that the next two volumes will expand it even further.
There are times when a story can just paint a picture of the world inside your head and I found myself doing that often with Theft of Swords and yet it is never bogged down with long passages of description that can become tedious as I've found in other books. This story clips along at a breakneck pace that had me up late nights more than once. My only regret is waiting to read the second book in this volume for so long (I took a break in between to do some other reading) - even better than the first in my opinion it deepened the mysteries and the world and I easily found myself getting lost in it and wished I had continued to the end after finishing the first. That certainly won't be the case with the next two volumes.
Best traditional fantasy I've read in some time, very enjoyable and worth picking up if you're looking for a little adventure.