Dessa is reunited with Fisk and Topper; they help her out of her cast, and with the profits from selling Drake's horse, they hire a ship - Captain Quinn's, the smuggler from the Black Rock - to take them to find the island of Astaroth, where Dessa believes her twin brother Jared to be. But the Pirate King catches up to their ship, and after Quinn attempts to ditch Dessa, Fisk, and Topper on a island and they sneak back onto the ship, the Pirate King (a woman!) takes them aboard and continues on to Astaroth, using the map Dessa took from the monastery. Meanwhile, Captain Drake has his fortune read, and finds a new horse - and the stable boy is Jared.

Quotes

"The Fool is a wild card. It simply means that your fate cannot be predicted.
In the end, sometimes it is our choices and the unpredictability of chance that rule our lives...perhaps even as much as our stars." (Oghra of the Seeing Eye to Drake)(Oghra is small and blue, with pointy ears - at first I thought it was Topper in disguise!) ( )

Another cute episode in our journey for Dessa to find her brother. Her cast is removed and she's off on the hunt. After selling a horse, she has money to hire a boat to take her to the mythical island where she believes her brother resides. As a girl, there are challenges in getting a captain to take her and her companions to an island that's only rumored to exist.

Meanwhile, the Captain has his fortune told; this fortune is told as Dessa's story unfolds. There's a lovely surprise at the end when the Captain finds a horse to continue his pursuit of Dessa. ( )

Note: I received a digital galley through NetGalley. ( )

After three consecutive books "sidetracked", this fifth book dishes a lot of action. It would be easy to miss the clues scattered throughout Pirates of the Silver Coast.

Dessa, Topper, and Fisk escape the city (unaware of how close on their trail is Drake), buy passage with a smuggler and find themselves chased by a ship sailing under a mysterious flag. Not once but twice we are reacquainted with characters met briefly before, who prove to be more than incidental.

Drake and Phineas are seemingly stuck, looking to get to the coast, and we get an extended sequence of Drake having his fortune read. His frustration is evident, until after the last card ... and suddenly we find he's made as much progress as Dessa.

Fisk as a character unexpectedly displays a mini-arc in this book. (Looking back, there were signs.) He meets another Ettin who mocks Fisk for his exile. Fisk declares proudly that Dessa and Topper are his tribe now. Easily seen as throwaway sentimentality, but wait.

The island seems an homage to many castles in the air, perhaps most recently Miyazaki's. Piracy harks back to any measure of influences, from Treasure Island to Peter Pan.

//

Three Thieves offers a strong story arc over seven books, well plotted and set in a fabulist world. Each book has a distinctive subplot while moving the larger plot forward. Events include set pieces (castles & kings, chase on horseback, piracy & floating islands) as well as the through-line of a search for a missing sibling. There is enough here that is original to avoid feelings of recycling or cliche, while at the same time Chantler readily incorporates recognisable elements from classic adventure tales and even pop culture.

Overall, chock-a-block with cliffhangers & plot twists, well written and a good challenge for younger readers while keeping the interest of the older among us. ( )

We loved this installment as much as the previous ones. The pacing is great and each book's cliffhangers are intriguing- sending my 3rd grader running for the next book. ( )