Summary:
When Raik, the most cunning smuggler this side of the desert, finds where the Ivory King vaults his magical runes—he builds a crew to execute an elaborate heist.
Among them is Kahli Mahanta, a religious assassin with blind ambition. A young rogue, Kirin, with wit sharper than his arrows ought to be. And Amara, the so-called Nightspirit, whose raven-hair conceals even darker secrets.
It won’t be easy. They’re opposed by the curved blades of the magic-deranged, watched by a paranoid king, and hunted by gaunt beasts that click in the cold desert night… All the while discovering that trusting each other might be the most dangerous mission of all.
To Steal The Sun is a tale of unlikely heroes thrust together in a new refreshing fantasy. One cast in vibrant silks, fragrant spice, and the relentless glare of a radiant sun.
Review:
To Steal the Sun by S.M. Carter is a heist story written specifically for me. The heist team consists of a famed thief, a religious sect assassin, a legendary smuggler with a sarcastic apprentice, and an old dude with mysterious designs. Also magical brutes, warring nations, crown jewel-like magic, and bark-like peoples. Seriously, this book was meant for me and it didn’t disappoint.
Taking place in a South Asian-inspired land, the Ivory King gathers this rag-tag group of villains with insanely traumatic pasts to steal an opposing nation’s magical runes. These runes are ore-like fragments fallen from the heavens and have magical properties like healing, body & weaponry enhancements. The Ivory King wants the other nation’s runes for his own gain, but some in his retinue have other plans. The group assembled consists of Kahli (the assassin), Raik (the smuggler), Amara (the thief), and Kirin (the apprentice). Accompanying them is the Old Walker (the Ivory King’s advisor) and Sir Roshan (a rune knight). And this group of misfits are entertaining as all get out, plus wildly deep, each having their own wellspring of trauma.
Of the group, Kahli is my favorite character. She’s part of this religious sect of assassins called the Kithkarnin, and her backstory is the most tackled in this book. She is deeply flawed but ambitious, aspiring to become the Third of her sect by agreeing to this heist, even after a pious fall from grace years earlier. She’s also drastically scarred, both physically and mentally from said fall. She’s a very tragic character because of her strict training under the Kithkarnin masters and she’s the one with the most growth by the end of the story. I just loved seeing her arc from start to finish.
Raik is the planner and he is very intriguing, some might call him mysterious because he has a dark past that plays into growing tension of these nations. I don’t want to get too deep because this borders on spoiler territory, but his role as the smuggler in charge of the planning the heist has a much larger overall connection than he initially shows us. But because of his past knowledge of runes and violence, he has tried to install some rules to live by that he constantly comes up against, mostly met with failure. His relationship with his apprentice, Kirin, is also pretty endearing and funny.
Amara is the Nightspirit Thief, a famed purveyor of goods and the central character of the Ivory King’s plan. She was the wildcard of the group because her impulse to steal was a great counter to her aristocratic upbringing, while she also battles with this instinctive beast inside her (called the nightspirit, which I won’t lie was sorta left unclear as to what it actually is, but I’m assuming that will be expanded upon in later stories in the Jeweled Lands series). Her inner rage from a number of sources unveiled throughout the story was excellent character growth, and seeing her untangle herself from these emotions was awesome to see. I also really liked her growing emotional attachment to Kahli.
The Old Walker and Sir Roshan were great foils for this group, but to go deeper would be spoilery.
The heist, itself, wasn’t terribly elaborate, or even all that important to the plot in the scheme of things, but highly enjoyable all the same as it unfolded. To be true, this story was less heist focused than initially thought, and more character driven. But I loved everything about this story. There was this planning session and it reminded me of Ocean’s Eleven, so I was fully engrossed. The world was very fun and unique. The bark-like beasties of Masztik, colloquially called Sticks, was pretty neat and also brutal. But the runes stole the show for me. I liked how in weapons or armor, there is a concept called a ‘Turn’ which is essentially an ‘On/Off switch’ but each side of the rune has opposing properties. For example, this rod that the Old Walker gives to Amara can either make her extremely light so she can jump fifty feet or extremely heavy so she cannot be moved. It was very Mistborn but also original. I did like how both Kahli and Raik had very different thoughts regarding the use of runes and how their backstories played into that thought.
This story is very well-paced and well-written. It has a slow build before the team is assembled but there is no boring parts as we see each of the main 3 POVs (Kahli, Raik, and Amara) do what they do best: kill, steal, and scheme. There is lots of action and plenty of growth by most of the characters.
To Steal the Sun was built upon a well-worn heist story but flourished due to excellent characters and engaging arcs. It may not have broken any new ground but that’s exactly why this story was great. I had a lot of fun and even though I know there will be further stories in the Jeweled Lands, I feel this story was a perfect standalone. But I’ll definitely be reading whatever comes next for these three characters.