Early Review – The Best Thing You Can Steal (Gideon Sable, Book 1) by Simon Green (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Release Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN-13 : 978-0727891228
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Gideon Sable series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Gideon Sable is a thief and a con man. He specializes in stealing the kind of things that can’t normally be stolen. Like a ghost’s clothes, or a photo from a country that never existed. He even stole his current identity. Who was he originally? Now, that would be telling. One thing’s for sure though, he’s not the bad guy. The people he steals from always have it coming.
Gideon’s planning a heist, to steal the only thing that matters from the worst man in the world. To get past his security, he’s going to need a crew who can do the impossible . . . but luckily, he has the right people in mind. The Damned, the Ghost, the Wild Card . . . and his ex-girlfriend, Annie Anybody. A woman who can be anyone, with the power to make technology fall in love with her.
If things go well, they’ll all get what they want. And if they’re lucky, they might not even die trying . . .”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Gideon Sable series. I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review. Previous to reading this I had read all of the Nightside series (loved it), the first couple books of Secret Histories (eh…it was okay), and the first book of the Ghost Finders series (yuck..it was awful).
Story (4/5): This was very reminiscent of Green’s Nightside series and I really enjoyed it. There is a cast of incredibly quirky characters here along with snappy dialogue and a fast moving plot. This is basically a heist story. We are introduced to the background of each crew member and then delve into the plan for the heist. There are a lot of supernatural and paranormal elements thrown in for good measure.
I love the creativity in here and all the strange situations we end up in and the strange devices we learn about. I absolutely loved the Nightside series and if you enjoyed the Nightside series I think you will enjoy this as well.
Characters (4/5): Gideon Sable is an intriguing and mysterious character with a lot of attitude and a device to solve any problem. We are also introduced to Annie Anybody (always pretends to be different people and machines fall in love with her), Wild Card (reality and him don’t mix), The Damned (killed some angels for the halos on his wrists), and Ghost (who is a ghost).
As with the Nightside the characters are creative, quirky, and mainly defined by a main power/skill they have. They are fun to read about but don’t have a ton of depth to them. I really enjoy them anyway and am always eager to find out what strange thing new characters we run into can do.
Setting (4/5): This is set in London and I enjoyed it. We get to journey into a mysterious part of the Underground and venture into unknown areas of the city. It’s the perfect setting for this strange heist-like story.
Writing Style (4/5): The writing style here is incredibly similar to the Nightside series. Very fast-paced, lots of witty dialogue, all the characters are a bit over characterized and everything feels a bit kitschy noir. It’s a gritty slap-dash style that I absolutely love and it is absolutely unique to Green. I think you will either love this or hate it. If you loved The Nightside style you will love this.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I am tentatively hopeful about this series, it is the first series since The Nightside by Green that I have really enjoyed. I am betting that as the series continues I will come to love it just as much as the Nightside. For now I plan to keep reading it and time will tell. If you like gritty, funny, slapdash urban fantasy heist novels with crazy characters I think you will enjoy this.
