It Takes a Thief to Catch a Sunrise A Steampunk Caper It Takes a Thief Book 1 eBook Rob J Hayes
Download As PDF : It Takes a Thief to Catch a Sunrise A Steampunk Caper It Takes a Thief Book 1 eBook Rob J Hayes 
“Chases, duels, romance, airships and a fortune to be won or lost.” – Fantasy Book Review
One last job!
Jacques Revou and Isabel de Rosier are at the height of their careers. Of course those careers are as professional charlatans, thieves without peer. With the completion of their final heist, they decide it's time to retire and settle down. But they have not escaped unnoticed.
The king's spymaster, Renard Daron, has a job for the thieves, one only they can perform, and he does not take no for an answer. With the threat of destitution and death hanging over their heads, Jaques and Isabel must take on their greatest roles yet, the Baron and Baroness Bonvillain.
Can they ferret out the treasonous elements within the government? Can they escape the clutches of the nefarious Seigneur Daron? Can they regain the fortune so unfairly taken from them?
And, can they finally complete their one last job?
It Takes a Thief to Catch a Sunrise A Steampunk Caper It Takes a Thief Book 1 eBook Rob J Hayes
I'm a huge fan of Rob J. Hayes' writing. I am waiting with anticipation for his Ties That Bind books to return to print as I maintain they are some of the best grimdark fantasy which has come out in the past few years and the best produced by Ragnarok Publications. So, when I heard he was working on a second series, I was intrigued and immediately picked up a copy.The premise of the novel was surprising as it's a steampunk fantasy version of Regency Europe. It avoids the usual Medieval fantasy setting as well as the Hyborian Age mismash so common in fantasy but is also a good century or two before steampunk is usually popularized. England and France-like nations are set against one another with airships on one side as well as spellcasters on the others. The spellcasters, unfortunately, have the advantage and it's kept Sassaile from conquering its neighbor Arkland.
Jacques Revou and Isabel de Rosier are a pair of extraordinarily skilled con men and cart burglars who possess Lupin the Third levels of ability to bullmanure their way out of situations. Jacques is a alchemist of no small skill and capable of creating any number of devices or effects to assist their cons while Isabel is a master of disguise as long as said disguise is someone gorgeous. They're deeply in love and play off each other in a hilarious style, even as they're nearing retirement despite being in the prime of their lives.
The lovers-in-crime hit a brick wall, though, when Sassaile's spymaster proceeds to confiscate their accumulated fortune and dragoons them into the secret service. The protagonists HATE this even as they're forced to become spies in the Arkland court with the knowledge they're probably going to be executed no matter how well they do. What follows is a complicated story about the couple trying to play their masters against the nation they're spying on which wants to execute them while looking for an out. It all ends with an amazing airship story, frustrated love, and a bunch of humorous twists.
The book is not remotely like the Ties That Bind, lacking the gruesome murder of moral ambiguity which made that story so good. Indeed, it may be a little too much on the lighthearted side for me. Despite this, I enjoyed it as an adventure story and the humor kept it a breezy read from start to finish. I would have appreciated some more moral ambiguity and, honestly, I was on Renard's side against the Queen but that didn't reduce my enjoyment factor one bit.
This is a good novel for anyone who wants to enter into the steampunk setting and works well as a non-traditional fantasy novel. It's certainly well-worth the money and I'm surprised to see such range in any author as normally you wouldn't expect someone who did such dark fiction as The Colour of Vengeance to do something as relentlessly cheerful. I think the books are something akin to a brighter Gentleman Bastards and would recommend them to fans of Scott Lynch.
In conclusion, I recommend this book all round and don't have any real complaints about it. I've bought the second book in the series and hope to get to it immediately. It may not be the best book I've ever read but it's simply FUN and that goes a long way.
9/10
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It Takes a Thief to Catch a Sunrise A Steampunk Caper It Takes a Thief Book 1 eBook Rob J Hayes Reviews
This story follows Isabel de Rosier and Jacques Revou, lovers and thieves who, at the beginning of the tale are executing their greatest heist of all with plans to retire. They buy a small house and settle down only to be visited by Renard Daron, the Shadow Conceiller to the king, who has not only frozen all of their bank accounts, but has taken possession of everything they own. The only way that they can get everything back to to agree to do one final job for him, while being more or less shadowed by his goons, Franseza Goy and Amaury Roche.
I really liked the setting. When you get steampunk and airships and alchemy, you usually get Victorian England, but here we appear to have gotten something more to the tune of late-19th century France, which was a nice change from others in the genre. I liked Isabel, and I love-love-loved Jacques. I liked their banter, their relationship, and how they each brought a different skill to the table. Isabel with a history in acting, and Jacques with a love of alchemy and airships.
Here’s where I’ll say that I started out listening to this one as an audiobook. Right off the bat I had to turn my speed settings down (I usually listen to audiobooks at about 1.3x) because the narrator spoke too fast compared to pretty much every other audiobook I’ve ever listened to. In the end, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stand the sound of her voice. Her accent for Isabel was over the top and annoying, her Daron was just… not at all what I expected, and let’s not even get me started on Franseza and Amaury. I listen to a *lot* of audiobooks (between 80 and 90 a year, usually), and this isn’t the first narrator that I’ve disliked enough to give up on a book, but I always feel bad doing it. I have a policy where I will give an audiobook 3 hours before I give up on it. I gave this one 30142 before I was just done. Sorry, audiobook.
Luckily, however, this was a whispersync purchase, so I already had the kindle version as well, so I was able to pick it back up and continue where I left off. I think I made a very good decision, because I feel like not liking the narration was hampering my actual feelings for the book. Once I gave up listening and started reading, I was absolutely enthralled. The moral of the story is to not let a bad narration prevent you from finishing a book that you like. I did like this book, quite a lot!
The plot was quite gripping, never boring, full of enough twists to keep me reading well into the night, and well thought out. The idea of the Elementals, and the Oozes and things like that gave this world a bit of a magical touch, which was nice. I really liked the secondary characters, especially Franseza. One of my favorite things about the way that this novel was written, is that the narrative refers to Isabel and Jacques as Adeline and Bastien if they’re ‘in character’ as opposed to ‘out of character’. That was a nice bit of attention to detail. I also liked how the plot was advanced in cleverly used flashbacks from time to time.
I’ll definitely read more in this series. I hear that It Takes a Thief to Start a Fire. I had better investigate!
At first, this book was so different from the Ties That Bind Trilogy, I was a little dismayed. But it didn't take long before the escapades of Jaques and Isabelle, master thieves and charlatans, caught my fancy. The pair are recruited to assume the guises of Baron and Baroness Bonvillain in order to gain social acceptance into the palace, where they discover a weak king who is easily controlled by their "employer" and a foreign queen about to birth the heir. The true nature of their mission is revealed only towards the end, when they realize no one can be trusted.
This rollicking tale has duels, airships powered by crystals, deadly automatons, thrilling escapes, nefarious plots, murder and mayhem.......in short, all the elements of a great adventure! The finale leaves open the possibility of a sequel, which I am hoping the author carries out.
The edition has some wording errors, but they don't detract from the overall story. Hopefully, these will be caught and corrected.
I'm a huge fan of Rob J. Hayes' writing. I am waiting with anticipation for his Ties That Bind books to return to print as I maintain they are some of the best grimdark fantasy which has come out in the past few years and the best produced by Ragnarok Publications. So, when I heard he was working on a second series, I was intrigued and immediately picked up a copy.
The premise of the novel was surprising as it's a steampunk fantasy version of Regency Europe. It avoids the usual Medieval fantasy setting as well as the Hyborian Age mismash so common in fantasy but is also a good century or two before steampunk is usually popularized. England and France-like nations are set against one another with airships on one side as well as spellcasters on the others. The spellcasters, unfortunately, have the advantage and it's kept Sassaile from conquering its neighbor Arkland.
Jacques Revou and Isabel de Rosier are a pair of extraordinarily skilled con men and cart burglars who possess Lupin the Third levels of ability to bullmanure their way out of situations. Jacques is a alchemist of no small skill and capable of creating any number of devices or effects to assist their cons while Isabel is a master of disguise as long as said disguise is someone gorgeous. They're deeply in love and play off each other in a hilarious style, even as they're nearing retirement despite being in the prime of their lives.
The lovers-in-crime hit a brick wall, though, when Sassaile's spymaster proceeds to confiscate their accumulated fortune and dragoons them into the secret service. The protagonists HATE this even as they're forced to become spies in the Arkland court with the knowledge they're probably going to be executed no matter how well they do. What follows is a complicated story about the couple trying to play their masters against the nation they're spying on which wants to execute them while looking for an out. It all ends with an amazing airship story, frustrated love, and a bunch of humorous twists.
The book is not remotely like the Ties That Bind, lacking the gruesome murder of moral ambiguity which made that story so good. Indeed, it may be a little too much on the lighthearted side for me. Despite this, I enjoyed it as an adventure story and the humor kept it a breezy read from start to finish. I would have appreciated some more moral ambiguity and, honestly, I was on Renard's side against the Queen but that didn't reduce my enjoyment factor one bit.
This is a good novel for anyone who wants to enter into the steampunk setting and works well as a non-traditional fantasy novel. It's certainly well-worth the money and I'm surprised to see such range in any author as normally you wouldn't expect someone who did such dark fiction as The Colour of Vengeance to do something as relentlessly cheerful. I think the books are something akin to a brighter Gentleman Bastards and would recommend them to fans of Scott Lynch.
In conclusion, I recommend this book all round and don't have any real complaints about it. I've bought the second book in the series and hope to get to it immediately. It may not be the best book I've ever read but it's simply FUN and that goes a long way.
9/10
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