Thieves & Kings: Apprentices

I'm a little surprised that it's taken me this long to get around to plugging Thieves & Kings. It's not that I haven't already set a precedent for reviewing things I already like, and I normally push this series anywhere I can.

I came onboard with T&K fairly early, 1995, when Soracia first invited Rubel to the Dream Garden. Who are Soracia and Rubel? Soracia, the Shadow Lady, the Queen of Halves, or the Queen of Swords, is a millennia-old arch-witch. Rubel is a young thief -- though "thief" is a very specific term in this world that means a princess' champion. Rubel is linked to Princess Katara, one of the reincarnations of Soracia's sister, and an arch-witch so powerful that she still exists even though she's already been reincarnated as someone new. Soracia and Rubel fall for each other and Soracia tries to become a better person, just as Katara -- who was always the good sister in every other incarnation -- turns out to be the real villain. Rubel too is somehow able to do quasi-magical things, like impossible leaps, for reasons we still haven't learned after over 1,000 pages...

And then there's Quinton, the wizard who may actually be a god, but who never uses any magic powers in front of you and appears to be an eccentric but ordinary person, but has actually already defeated you because he's always two moves ahead of you behind the scenes. 

And there's more and more wonderful characters beyond those. This is an epic fantasy story, with just endless backstory spooling out ever so slowly over the course of its run.

The original run of this comic book series ended in 2006 after 48 issues, which were compiled in five volumes of trade paperbacks. After that, Mark Oakley swore off individual comic books, but two years later came out with this -- and I somehow missed it until now -- an original graphic novel continuing the story and, although treated as if it was a separate story line for marketing reasons, is really volume 6 of the original series.  Mark is not the best artist in the world, but his writing is top notch and his imagination is incredible.

It's been 11 years now and we may never get the ending to this story, but it is worth collecting for your library's community. Not everyone will get it, but those who do will love it.