Jennifer A. Nielsen is a well-loved YA author today. Her first popular works were those of fantasy. The False Prince, the first installment of the Ascendance series, published in 2012, is a fun novel set in something like Medieval Europe. I enjoyed it enough to try to read the second book in the series. I intend to review that series when I have read more.

My first exposure to Nielsen, however, was through her historical fiction, specifically Words on Fire which Diane and I liked well enough to make a book club guide for. Since then, I have read nearly all of her historical fiction and have been working my way through her fantasy.

This series, The Mark of the Thief, is one of my favorite Nielsen stories so far, because it is set near the end of the Roman Empire. It is fantasy, so mythical creatures and magic are on display, but the flavor of the story is more historical than fantastical. That said, Nielsen’s Roman Empire is not historically accurate. Let’s say that this series is inspired by Roman history but largely reshaped to fit the needs of the story.

A patron of mine asked me recently what I mean when I say “fantasy.” I hesitate to write what I said because I have seen many debates on social media about how that genre is defined. Some include fairytales, others include science fiction, and some have a much more narrow definition. I don’t read enough “fantasy” to be too particular about the boundaries of the genre. For me, fantasy is any story that is newer than the old mythology and fairytales, includes otherworldly settings, and/or makes use of supernatural powers. Years ago, I would have excluded strict science fiction from this definition, but now I find the line between the two to be sufficiently blurry to make that hard to do. 

In essence, to me, fantasy is the subgenre of fiction in which reality is flavored by the supernatural and/or otherworldly. The Ranger’s Apprentice series is fantasy to me, because it is set in a different world than ours (even though it is basically our world just with different names and history). The Chronicles of Narnia is fantasy because of the dressed animals and the other world. Charlotte’s Web is not fantasy because it is an animal story that still more or less obeys the rules of the farmyard, though it supposes the interior life of the animals. I do not feel the need to clarify Winnie the Pooh and Paddington, because they are what they are and everyone knows what they are.

The Mark of the Thief series is a clear example of fantasy, and it is very enjoyable. I particularly appreciate it because it is clean, the story is well-built and doesn’t go on too long, it has both strong male and female teen characters, it has a lovely historical flavor, and it is a great tool I can use to wean my patrons off of series I loathe like Keeper of the Lost Cities. It is written in first person (which I do not love) but Nic is re-telling his story from the other side of it, so it is less whiny than Nielsen’s first-person stories usually are.

Nicolas Calva is a slave boy in the mines outside Rome. He is desperate to escape slavery, but he has to time his break just right, because he needs to be able to free his sister as well. Early on, Nic is forced to serve a Roman general who wants the slaves to enter Julius Caesar’s tomb to retrieve a powerful magical bulla. This task is dangerous. Other slaves have died or lost their wits in the pursuit of this amulet. Nic tries to run and hide to avoid being pressed into service, but he is caught and lowered into the cave anyway. Nic discovers that the tomb is guarded by a dangerous gryphon, and he nearly loses his life to the beast. But he does find the bulla, and the gryphon marks the back of his shoulder with a magical scar called the divine star. From then on, the gryphon is one of Nic’s most loyal friends. 

I admit, the setup is all a bit too convenient. But Nielsen respects her readers enough to make that series of events interesting and to twist them a bit such that, later on, we realize that things were not quite as straightforward as they seemed. 

Nic and the gryphon escape the cave and make a break for freedom together. Nic is painfully aware that he is leaving his sister behind, but the amulet and the divine star are working in him in such a way that he realizes that his life is significantly more complicated than it was earlier that day. In his flight, he is recaptured, and the real adventure begins. 

Nic is a very likable character. His sister is fairly one-dimensional, but sweet and loyal. Along the way Nic meets a free girl named Aurelia and, predictably, they have a tumultuous relationship that turns romantic. The teens are joined by Crispus, the son of a powerful Roman senator, and by several mythical creatures. There are powerful and complicated fathers and grandfathers as well as some weak and mostly useless mothers. Evil is always there but not always obvious. And, classic Nielsen, there is a repentance storyline. 

Parents & Librarians may wish to know: 

Romance: teen romance is a central feature of this story. That said, it is done better than many other similar stories. While there may be a lot of obsessing over the love interests, it is always chaste and, in some places, heroic. 

Magic: set in the Roman Empire, the characters believe in the pantheon of gods. They believe that the gods have the power to bestow various magical abilities on humans when it suits them to do so. This story is about a battle in the heavens between the goddess Diana and the other gods. The humans are pawns in the hands of pathetic deities. In addition to mythical creatures, we have temple priestesses, cursed spirits, and humans who will trade anyone and anything for the favor of certain gods. 

Violence: there is normal adventure-type violence, but nothing graphic. The circus, however, is one of the battlegrounds, and we do read about gladiatorial battles and slaves in the arena trying to escape wild animals. The violence is only lightly suggested, but anyone familiar with the Roman games will know all too well what is happening. Of note, there is a very exciting chariot race. Lew Wallace might approve.

Overall, I enjoyed this series and am happy to have it in my library. I cannot say the same for some of her other fantasy books…