Rating: 
Summary: Definitely not Lackey's best work
Review: I looked forward to the release of this novel for months and I rushed out to buy it in hardcover the moment it was released. I was sadly disappointed. While Take a Thief contains some of Lackey's trademarks, such as believable and lovable characters and a great setting, the plot was very lacking. Characters are introduced, such as Dolly, and enough emphasis is placed on them that I expected them to be very important parts of the novel, only to never see them again after a few pages. The first part of the book isn't much more than Oliver Twist in Valdemar and lacks the originality that is so refreshing in many of her novels. These deficiencies, in addition to the writing practices that are mildly annoying but so easy to ignore in her better novels and much more pronounced and emphasized in this one, have led me to believe that this was a first draft published only on the strength of her name. While the book is still a fun read and something that a fan of Valdemar would probably enjoy (I did enjoy it, after the initial disappointment), it's gratifying that Lackey's newest releases, such as Joust and Exile's Honor, are more reminiscent of her earlier work.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing story painfully written
Review: I am a fan of the Valdemar books. Although they are not great literature, they are generally good stories. I looked forward to Skif's story, as I found him an interesting character, particularly when he was a Herald Trainee. This book was a huge disappointment. Alberich has started to speak like Yoda, the dialect was painful and painfully inconsistent. The plot was thin and predictable. I found myself putting the book down in disgust, or skipping pages that were just too awful. In the end, Skif is offered instant herald status for acting as a decoy. Hello? Lots of herald-trainees have done risky and noble deeds, and never a one went to instant Herald. The repeated references to Herald Myste were contrived and painful. I finished the book, but it was rather like a train wreck - it's horrible, you don't want to see it, but you can't help looking. Skip this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A light read that sits nicely on the brain.
Review: Mercedes Lackey's novel, "Take a Thief", is, over all, a good book. Accents were laid on a little thick, but the story flowed along nicely. One thing I didn't like so much was his sudden change in character once he became a Trainee - it was a little annoying that he became 'good' seemingly over night, but simply because I can't stand people who are aggressively nice. The writing style in "Take a Thief" reminds me of Tamora Peirce, which could be taken either as a compliment or as an insult, depending on what you think of her books. The good people were saints, no one seemed to think twice about the wisdom of taking in a thief, and the bad people were obviously no good. Black and white characters, with no shades of grey, in other words, unless you take Skif's thieving into account.
Over all I found this book to be a 'no-brainer' (no offence meant), meaning that it had no really demanding problems and can be read easily and quickly. I did enjoy it, but would recommend taking it out of the library instead of buying it.
Rating: 
Summary: A very good book.
Review: This is about an orphan named Skif. He works for his uncle and his uncle's eldest son (in a tavern), who both treat him badly. Skif goes to school (by the law they have to be educated to a certain level, I think it's free, and they get breakfast), and is horrible only at arithmetic.
He is a thief; he steals lunch (most of the time) from a place, by dressing up as a page and pocketing some of the food on the way from the kitchen and table.
One day while he is resting (it's warm up their) in the attic (or wherever), he sees another thief, who is stealing (of about to steal) clothes. He grabs him by the ankle, and (soon) the boy takes Skif back with him, and Skif joins them, a gang of thieves; the boy, a few other boys, and their master, who teaches them, and they steal and he mends, and they all get profit, not to mention good food.
One day, Skif goes home to find the place burning. With his teacher and two other (new, but the only one's besides him. All the rest left.) boys in it. He looks for evidence over the passing years to lead him to the one responsible for the deaths.
After a while, he is walking in a park and sees an untethered horse. Thinking he will steal her, he jumps on her back. She races away from the city, and he finds out she is a Companion (magical horses who choose Heralds) and she had Chosen him.
Rating:
Summary: better than the recent dreck
Review: The last few of Lackey's books that I've read have been nigh onto incoherent, seemingly "churned out" to match high reader demand. Take A Thief is a definite improvement over them. It's nice to learn a bit more about Skif, a background character in several other Valdemar novels. While Lackey's standard "abused and/or neglected child finds a safe haven with a group of 'good guys' but cannot bring him/herself to trust them" plot is in evidence, it is not played to the extremes that she often takes it. Skif is an appealing character, with more spunk and backbone than many of the waifs Lackey creates. Detractions: Lackey can't keep the speech patterns straight. If one is going to write dialect, one should be able to write consistent dialect. Plot is thin, but reasonably engaging. For fans of Valdemar, I'd say go for it. Even if you are not familiar with the realm, it's a pleasant read. If you don't like mass-market fantasy, you might want to pass it by.
Rating: 
Summary: Take a Thief
Review: Interesting story, explains a lot about Skif. But, the overuse of dialect left me cold. Sounded like Cockney British. I half way expected "The rain in Spain" to pop up at some point.
Also, part of the time Alberich talks like Yoda and part of the time not.
Read this book but read The Arrows series first.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable fill-in-the-holes for Valdemar fans
Review: Enjoyable fill-in-the-holes story for Valdemar fans, but not for readers new to the series -- the back-story and the appeal of this immersive world will not be apparent from this starting point. If you are new to this world, start with "Arrows of the Queen" or the "Last Herald-Mage" series. The story fills in the details of Herald Skif, and paints an interesting picture of the capital city of Haven (from Lackey's other writings, who would have thought it to be such a desparate, impoverished, and dangerous city?). It also has a little more of the gritty character I found so appealing in the first two or three series of Lackey's Valdemar books. A long-standing quibble of mine, the cover art, seems to have been addressed, the Companion pictured looks closer to what the text describes. Quibbles -- it ends too quickly after a long build-up (it felt like it could have used a few more chapters), and things still go "too well", too easily, for her main character, which has been a theme in recent Lackey books. But it definitely feels more solid than the last two or three volumes.
Rating:
Summary: Stolen from the past of Valdemar.
Review: I waited until this book came out in paperback before reading it. Lackey is a very prolific writer that has generally improved with each book. This book was a bit of an exception to that rule. It would be hard, in modern day fantasy, to have a story that lacked a rogue character. A rogue character is perhaps one of the best supporting cast members a book can have, and Skif was no exception to this through the Lackey's Arrows series and her Storms series. What remained to be seen was Skif's past. I feel that Lackey could have done much better on this. The tale of his childhood is very dark and he escapes a dark begining to better himself as a thief in the poor quarter of the city. Little is spent developing his thief skills and I feel that that was a missed opportunity. The story itself was okay, but there is little of the character that was drawn so well in the earlier series (Later chronlogically) that is illustrated in this book. I also had a problem with the dialects. I have nothing against the use of dialects, though I felt it may have been overused a bit in this book. I enjoyed the book to a point, but felt more could have been done with it. A certain depth was lacking. Technically the story was well written, many characters were drawn, but compared to her other books, the characters were not as compelling, rather the main characters were not as compelling. Some of the secondary characters seemed compelling, but little was done with them.
Rating:
Summary: Disintegrates two thirds of the way in.
Review: This is the first Mercedes Lackey book I've had the courage to pick up in a while, thinking my impression of her work being sappy and annoying perhaps unfounded.
It was good at first; I liked Skiff okay in the Winds series, and found an account of his history to be interesting. Then he had to go and get *chosen*, of course. His chosen is an annoying, "saucy" character, and it is quite grating that Skiff's character so abruptly changes when he arrives at collegiem (or however it's spelled). Bleh, I won't be picking up any Mercedes for a while after this; not until I forget how a lot of her books suck so bad. Oh yeah. Cymry, his chosen, also strikes me as a Mary Sue. That is, self insertion. Why is she so perfect?
Rating:
Summary: Skif's Beginning, but not Inspiring
Review: I looked forward to this book eagerly when it came out because I have been a devoted reader of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. In general, I can forgive Lackey the less believable conceits of her books, as I am a fan of fantasy and, as long as they are consistent, a fan of magic, heroism, and other normalities in fantasy books. This book, however, was not nearly as good as I'd hoped. I enjoyed the first section of the book, when Skif lives in a very Oliver Twist-like fashion. I didn't mind that the pseudo-Dickensian world seemed a little copied--fantasy is rarely completely original. My first complaint was the dialect/cant used. I can take a few characters speaking in "Wot ye say, sor? I 'eard 'im meself!" Unfortunately, having the entire cast speak this was was initially VERY irritating, and I got used to it only under duress. I did want to finish the book. Next, I got very tired of Lackey assuming that I wasn't smart enough to figure out the theives' cant. I can figure out from context that "flop" means bed. This is one of the more unfortunate aspects of Lackey's most recent works--she overexplains everything, which leaves me wishing that she'd allowed me to use my brain, if only for a small while. I had decided that these things didn't bother me too much when another previously known character arrived. I don't want to say who, for fear of ruining the plot, but I was annoyed when he spoke like Yoda. I do not remember him speaking in any way other than "heavily accented." Just because someone speaks with an accent does NOT mean that they can't get their words in the right sequence. My last complaint is that other familiar characters were mentioned by name, but were described so cursorily that their names could have been changed to anyone else's, and I never would have known the difference. If a character that I already know and love is going to make a guest appearance, I would like it to be a) consistent with the known character and b) meaningful, rather than just a cameo to get the name in. The ending also left me hanging, but perhaps it was supposed to leave one wanting to read "Arrows of the Queen," the next chronological book. In fact, I highly recommend "Arrows of the Queen." It was a very good, fun, and inspired piece of fantasy fiction.
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