Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

1997 Newbery Honor

Ratings Explanation

Language: “Damn” and “God’s Damn” are used many times throughout the book.

Violence: Gen is frequently mistreated and abused because he is a prisoner and beneath those he is traveling with.  He is slapped, kicked, hit, tied up and beaten with a riding crop.  The traveling group is attacked, there is fighting with swords and all attackers are killed.  Gen is injured when he tries to slow a group of soldiers by fighting them with a sword. Many people die in the attack.  Gen finds the bones of many dead people in the temple of the Gods.

Sexual Content: Gen is stripped down naked and washed.

Adult Themes: Gen is a thief and steals things.  The book is based on stories of Gods and Goddesses like the God of the Sky, Goddess of the Earth, the God of Thieves and so forth.

Synopsis The story of Gen begins in a prison where Gen is being held for stealing.  He is not just a thief, but a bragging thief.  Self proclaimed as the best thief, able to steal anything.  The king’s scholar, the magus, needs Gens help to steal a rumored and hidden treasure of the God’s from another land.  We follow their journey to the hidden temple of the Gods where Gens abilities are put to the test.  The magus has plans, but Gen is a trickster and has a plan of his own.

I did not really get into this book until Gen reaches the temple of the Gods and begins his adventure there.  I did love the ending of this book because it went someplace I wasn’t expecting.  It unfolded into another story.  Honestly, the repeated usage of “God’s damn” in the beginning of the book really distracted me from the story and the mean treatment of Gen was not my favorite.  The moment I really bonded with Gen was when he said this in response to Sophos’s question, “If you could be anywhere you wanted right now, where would it be?”  “In bed.  In a big bed, with a carved footboard, in a warm room with a lot of windows.  And sheets.  And a fireplace, and books.  Lots of books.”  That was the moment that I knew I could love Gen.

©2010 The Literate Mother