Brotherhood of Thieves Bk1 The Wardens by Stuart Daly

Daly, S. (2014). Brotherhood of Thieves 1: The Wardens. Sydney, Australia: Random House.

ISBN: 9780857983275
Pages: 329
Age Level: YA 12-18
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5 stars


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"A brotherhood of treasure hunters.

A terrifying enemy.

Five young recruits.

The race is on."

Caspan is a thief who has lived his life on the streets.  A chance encounter while plying his trade one day leads him to being accepted into a secret order sanctioned by the King.  Together with four other recruits - Roland, Lachlan, Sara and Kilt - they learn what it is to become part of the Brotherhood.  Bonds of trust and friendship are slowly formed while they are trained in their new art.  Will they all pass the test at the end of their training, or will they fail to work as a group and fail in their first (unintended) quest?

What an epic read.  Full of action and adventure, courage, friendship and fantasy it's a great read.  I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

As an adult reading this, I can see that a lot of the storyline ideas / populations may have come from a variety of other fantasy reads.  The Four Kingdoms itself seems very much like an adaptation of England.  I'm not saying this is a bad thing, as many of our preconceived ideas & previous experiences (real & read) slip into our understanding / imagination of what we are reading.

The characters are well formed and the plot flows seamlessly.  It's not until about 1/4 of the way through the book that the fantasy aspect comes into play, and the image on the cover makes sense as it does not appear to have any relation to the title.

This is a good read for ages 10 and up that aren't quite ready for Lord of The Rings or Game of Thrones.  It's got a similar theme - underdog saves the world while trying to fight off hoards of giants, with internal conflicts that are causing treason taking place.

I got my copy of Brotherhood of Thieves 1: The Wardens from the Taradale Primary School library where I work. 

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The Rig by Joe Ducie

Ducie, J. (2013). The Rig. London, UK: Hot Key Books.

ISBN: 9781471402197
Pages: 368
Age Level: YA 12-18
Genre: Sci-Fantasy / Dystopia / Mystery / Thriller
Rating: 4 stars

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The Rig is an old oil rig, hundreds of miles from nowhere in the Arctic Ocean, which has been converted into a maximum security juvenile prison for the worst of the worst.  Surrounded by sharks and monitored around the clock, escape is impossible.

15 year-old Will Drake is a bit of an escape artist and loves a challenge.  He has escaped from every prison he has been put into.  There is no-where he can’t escape from, and he will stop at nothing to prove the warden wrong when he is transported onto the Rig.  However, not everything on the Rig is as it seems, from the reason Will has been incarcerated, to the use of the prison and how some inmates are different from the others – stronger and more aggressive!    

The Rig is a young adult, prison break story … but it’s really so much more than that.  It is science fiction, fantasy, thriller, adventure, and dystopia all rolled into one.  If you can suspend your disbelief about the futuristic vibe and harshness of the setting of this novel, which most young adults can do, then the plot and setting of this novel is realistic and believable.  It will make you question yourself, and humanity, and ask “What if?”  There are so many elements in this novel that make it a great young adult read.  


I got my copy of The Rig from my bookshelf. 

Check out other reviews of 'The Rig' on Goodreads.