The Spirit Thief

The Legend of Eli Monpress, Book 1

By: Rachel Aaron

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Eli Monpress is talented. He's charming. And he's a thief.

But not just any thief. He’s the greatest thief of the age - and he’s also a wizard. And with the help of his partners - a swordsman with the most powerful magic sword in the world but no magical ability of his own, and a demonseed who can step through shadows and punch through walls - he’s going to put his plan into effect.

The first step is to increase the size of the bounty on his head, so he’ll need to steal some big things. But he’ll start small. He’ll just steal something that no one will miss - at least for a while.

Something like a king.

©2010 Rachel Aaron (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"After a slow start, debut author Aaron pulls the action together and turns in a romp of a lighthearted fantasy starring an absolutely darling rogue." ( Publishers Weekly)

Engaged, again.

I'm listening to this again because the last 2 books in the series have recently been released and I felt I needed a refresher as to what was going on in the series so far. I meant to just skip through it quickly and get on to the next ones, but it's such a delightfully fun listen that I found myself not wanting to just get on with it, but to relax, listen and enjoy. In my book, that's what makes a 5-star.

struggled to finish

I am not eloquent enough to explain why, but it was not enjoyable. The story was lacking and the narration acceptable. not for me.

Fun, light story

i enjoyed the story and the characters. Fun and easy entertainment. if I can get the next episode i will.

A charming new antihero

Eli Monpress. Monpress is an antihero who is a talented charming thief whose greatest fan is himself. He and his companions, a master swordsman, Josef, a demon plagued girl, Nico, travel the country pulling off flamboyant heists. Eli wants to be recognized as the greatest thief. Josef has an awakened blade and he wants a really good fighting challenge. Nico is demon muscle who is along to support her friends. The magic is spirit magic. All objects and elements have a spirit. Mages perform magic by working with the spirits. The story centers around Monpress and company attempting to abduct a king and everything that can go wrong does. There is a little bit of politics, mystery, and intrigue. Lots of magic, action, and mayhem.

Super unique fantasy, that is serious yet fun.

The first book sets a good foundation for the rest of the series. The author does a good job introducing new concepts and keeping the story going. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a new fantasy series to get into.

Marvelous characters

Rachel Aaron creates great characters, memorable, unique, delightful. A very interesting world and magic system. Luke Daniel's narration is very good, but the volume is too variable. I wish the producer would fix this.

Awesome book, very well written

I have never been a fantasy reader but Rachel Aaron has converted me, to her books.
I began reading this book because I read her book "2k to 10k. I wanted to write more but I needed proof. If I were going to use her system I didn't want to sacrifice quality for quantity, so I decided to read one of her books.
This book delivered everything. Great story, dynamic characters, believable plot, and loved the twists. Mrs. Aaron knows her stuff and she has a new fan in me. I'm ready for book 2 in this series and I have been reading her blog to help with my writing too.
Luke Daniels did a wonderful job narrating this book. Love the accents and voices. Very enjoyable book to listen too.

Great First Book

What made the experience of listening to The Spirit Thief the most enjoyable?

The action sequences were vivid.

What did you like best about this story?

More and more characters joined the story with unexpected plot twists

What about Luke Daniels’s performance did you like?

I liked that the narrator came across as a story teller rather than a person of many voices.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The book was entertaining enough that I finished in one session. I had to find out how it ended.

Interesting and fun

I liked the Magic system in this world. A good story with no fowl language or raunch. Well done!

Fun, and great narration

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The Narrator is so fabulous, he makes up for most of the faults. Big problem with this book is how inconsistent the descriptions are. Some moments are so we'll scripted that a very clear image is presented, but just as often are scenes that are very hard to picture. Consisting of mostly dialogue and little description of what is happening. In these scenes I had to re-listen more than once to fully grasp what was happening. greatly interrupts the flow that the book is trying to get at.

All in all I thought it was very unique concept and very light-hearted which is a plus. For anyone looking for a light listen on a good weekend or a rainy weekend I would highly recommend this book.