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Thieves & Kings #4
Thieves & Kings: The Shadow Book
Book by Mark Oakley
Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
20 people want to read
About the author
Mark Oakley
30 books17 followersMark Oakley, born in Montreal in 1970, has lived in cities all over eastern Canada and currently calls Halifax, Nova Scotia, home.
Oakley’s early background was in commercial animation, and he is today best known for his work on the independently published all-ages comic book fantasy adventure series Thieves & Kings, which he spent more than 10 years creating and publishing from his home studio.
Oakley’s early background was in commercial animation, and he is today best known for his work on the independently published all-ages comic book fantasy adventure series Thieves & Kings, which he spent more than 10 years creating and publishing from his home studio.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 19, 2023
I know I say this a lot, but this book was just plain fun. I enjoy Oakley's approach to his story telling and world building. He has a deft touch when it comes to balancing character development with progression of the various plot threads. He keeps adding layers of complexity and continues to bring touches of humanity to the antagonists such as Locumire. I even felt a little bit of sympathy for Vale as Heath thwarted her plans and revealed her for who she really was. Bringing Sally and her story more into the forefront was lovely, and I liked her interactions with Heath. As with the previous volumes, Oakely's imagination is wonderfully vivid and unusual, and of course the artwork is the same blend of anime-influenced characters with lush, rich backgrounds that manage to not be over-crowded.
As an aside, I find it peculiar that some reviewers compain about the transition between standard comic book layout and panels of text with surrounding illustrations. This is something Oakley has been doing from the very beginning, in fact issue 1 of volume 1 start with 5 pages of text in large blocks. This volume brings back a few runs of comic strip style layout that was used on a few pages of volume 2. I guess I can see how some people would find those transitions jarring, but I think they handled quite well.
As an aside, I find it peculiar that some reviewers compain about the transition between standard comic book layout and panels of text with surrounding illustrations. This is something Oakley has been doing from the very beginning, in fact issue 1 of volume 1 start with 5 pages of text in large blocks. This volume brings back a few runs of comic strip style layout that was used on a few pages of volume 2. I guess I can see how some people would find those transitions jarring, but I think they handled quite well.
May 10, 2023
PAST NOON. AUTUMN COMETH.
The first Thieves & Kings book I hadn't originally read (17 or 18 years ago), and by far the best in the series. The first three volumes felt more like groundwork for the overarching story, and this fourth collection is where things really get going. The world Mark Oakley has built here is vast and complicated, with sentient woods, sleeping dragons on the edge of the world, and a conflict between at least five possibly immortal millennia-old sorcerers being essential starting points to even begin to understand what's going on. It's a saga on an epic, massive scale that needs extensive groundwork before it can even begin. And volume 4 finally puts the final pieces on the board so we can.
Princess Katara has finally entered the stage. Quinton no longer exists solely in flashbacks to 1000 years ago. Soracia finally sets plans she's carefully laid out over hundreds of years into motion. Heath's powers have awakened. Rubel's finally becoming the hero he was destined to be.
We learn who Locumire truly is, who the main antagonists of the series are, what bonds tie our characters together, and the extent of what's at stake here. I think it's safe to assume that this conflict between Quinton, the Red Queen (Katara/Heath/Trish/etc.), Soracia, and her master--the one that's been brewing for at least 5000 years--will come to a head right here and now. It's only natural; that's what the series has probably been about all along.
Too bad Thieves & Kings will probably never be finished.
I know Mark Oakley has started writing it again about 5 years ago, picking up where volume 6 ended back in the early '00s, but producing only a page every month or so is such a snail's pace that I have to assume that either Mark will get burnt out on it again, his health will decline as he gets older, or the Earth will become unsustainable for human life before it's finished. But when I bought volume 1 last year and decided to continue reading more, I did so fully accepting that fact. I'm okay with it. I love the journey of reading Thieves & Kings too much to care if we ever get to the destination. Hell, I remember thinking back in 2014 that, despite wanting to know how Homestuck ended, I also never wanted it to end as long as it meant more Homestuck every once and awhile. (And I've regretted that every moment since Homestuck^2 became a thing!)
In a perfect world, Thieves & Kings would've been a critic's-darling juggernaut fantasy comic like Bone. After reading volume 4, I can say that I'm starting to have the same level of obsession and engagement I felt with Bone around the same point in that story. And maybe if Mark Oakley had the same sort of overwhelming success as Jeff Smith did, Thieves & Kings would've been finished years ago. We'll never know, because this is an imperfect (and rapidly dying!) world we live in. But as for me, I'll continue letting the world of Quinton and Rubel and the Shadow Lady live inside my head for as long as I can. Can't wait to read volume 5!
The first Thieves & Kings book I hadn't originally read (17 or 18 years ago), and by far the best in the series. The first three volumes felt more like groundwork for the overarching story, and this fourth collection is where things really get going. The world Mark Oakley has built here is vast and complicated, with sentient woods, sleeping dragons on the edge of the world, and a conflict between at least five possibly immortal millennia-old sorcerers being essential starting points to even begin to understand what's going on. It's a saga on an epic, massive scale that needs extensive groundwork before it can even begin. And volume 4 finally puts the final pieces on the board so we can.
Princess Katara has finally entered the stage. Quinton no longer exists solely in flashbacks to 1000 years ago. Soracia finally sets plans she's carefully laid out over hundreds of years into motion. Heath's powers have awakened. Rubel's finally becoming the hero he was destined to be.
We learn who Locumire truly is, who the main antagonists of the series are, what bonds tie our characters together, and the extent of what's at stake here. I think it's safe to assume that this conflict between Quinton, the Red Queen (Katara/Heath/Trish/etc.), Soracia, and her master--the one that's been brewing for at least 5000 years--will come to a head right here and now. It's only natural; that's what the series has probably been about all along.
Too bad Thieves & Kings will probably never be finished.
I know Mark Oakley has started writing it again about 5 years ago, picking up where volume 6 ended back in the early '00s, but producing only a page every month or so is such a snail's pace that I have to assume that either Mark will get burnt out on it again, his health will decline as he gets older, or the Earth will become unsustainable for human life before it's finished. But when I bought volume 1 last year and decided to continue reading more, I did so fully accepting that fact. I'm okay with it. I love the journey of reading Thieves & Kings too much to care if we ever get to the destination. Hell, I remember thinking back in 2014 that, despite wanting to know how Homestuck ended, I also never wanted it to end as long as it meant more Homestuck every once and awhile. (And I've regretted that every moment since Homestuck^2 became a thing!)
In a perfect world, Thieves & Kings would've been a critic's-darling juggernaut fantasy comic like Bone. After reading volume 4, I can say that I'm starting to have the same level of obsession and engagement I felt with Bone around the same point in that story. And maybe if Mark Oakley had the same sort of overwhelming success as Jeff Smith did, Thieves & Kings would've been finished years ago. We'll never know, because this is an imperfect (and rapidly dying!) world we live in. But as for me, I'll continue letting the world of Quinton and Rubel and the Shadow Lady live inside my head for as long as I can. Can't wait to read volume 5!
July 3, 2018
As I make my way through the series, I grow ever more frustrated with the changes in format: comic strips that start an issue, then regular comics pages, then illustrated text pages. I know Oakley has a lot he wants to talk about, but the mainly expository text pages regularly disrupt the flow of the story. Still some pretty funny bits, though....
December 3, 2018
Sally's time to shine!
May 8, 2013
Wow, wow, wow. This series continues to astound and amaze me. A brilliant fantasy with fantastic world building and character development. The first three volumes had an arc to them and this one while continuing on the overall plot takes a different turn. Quinton, Heath and Rubel still have parts but the focus in this volume is the women and sisters. Heath Whingwhit, sorceress apprentice (not so much anymore), Sally the Shadow Queen, the lost Princess Katara, Lady Locumire, two new young witches-in-training, Kim and Lahana, and a few others. Who is good and who is evil is not exactly certain, how they have been presented so far is not how each one arrives by the end of the volume. A very intricate, detailed plot with lots of story and action, Quinton provides light-hearted humour and yet his character is a powerful and very clever wizard who hasn't been given his "day" yet. A fantastic discovery for me this year! Looking forward to volume 5!
July 30, 2011
I started reading this comic back in the mid 90's and started picking it up again. The artwork is anime influenced but Mark Oakley shure can do scenery like no one else. The book is very story driven and adding to that point where Mr. Oakly drops the standard comic book format and has pages of text with artwork acompaning it. As I finished the book. I had realized I was past the point where I stopped buying the once bi-monthly series and hope to get the next book soon.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews