Name that book?

[Colonel Cathcart]

A long time ago I heard about a fantasy book, the only detail I remember about it is that thievery is legal or that it's regulated, maybe by some thief guild? Not sure. I don't think it's a book about thieves, it's just a detail about the sprawling, expensive world.

It should be some highly-regarded very well received work of fantasy, maybe even award winning. I might have heard about this book in a context of a TV adaptation.

I know it's not a lot to go by, I'm suspecting it's The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, but I could be wrong.

[Sirtel]

Many, many fantasy novels have thieves' guilds. Not the Wheel of Time though, at least I don't remember it having such.

[ZodWallop]

That is REALLY not enough to go by. Could be anything all the way back to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in 1939.

But since thievery stuck out so much in your memory, could it be Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan?

Forget what you know about the nature of magic.

In a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, unearths a sentient book called Vella. Once a young sorcerer-bookbinder, Vella was transformed into a useful tool by one of the greatest sorcerers of history. Since then she has been collecting information, including a vital clue to the disaster Tyen's world faces.

Elsewhere, in an land ruled by the priests, Rielle the dyer's daughter has been taught that to use magic is to steal from the Angels. Yet she knows she has a talent for it, and that there is a corrupter in the city willing to teach her how to use it -- should she dare to risk the Angels' wrath.

But not everything is as Tyen and Rielle have been raised to believe. Not the nature of magic, nor the laws of their lands. . . and not even the people they trust.

[Sirtel]

I suggest you have a look into TV Tropes:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...n/ThievesGuild

There are numerous examples of books, movies, TV series and so on. Maybe something will ring a bell.

[Colonel Cathcart]

Does The Wheel of Time match the description?
Now I'm thinking it might've been a Terry Pratchett novel.

Real sorry, I don't have anything else to go by.

[DNSB]

Hmm...
Robert Lynn Asprin's Thieves' World shared universe
Terry Pratchett's Disc World
Stephen Lawhead's King Raven
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser
David and Lynn Eddings' The Redemption of Althalus

Too many others to bother trying to list including several books/series with Thieves' Guild in the name.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

Does The Wheel of Time match the description?

I don't think there was a thieves' guild in The Wheel of Time, or that thieving was legal in that series.

[Colonel Cathcart]

I guess it's a lost cause with so little to work with. Thanks you for trying.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

A long time ago I heard about a fantasy book, the only detail I remember about it is that thievery is legal or that it's regulated, maybe by some thief guild? Not sure. I don't think it's a book about thieves, it's just a detail about the sprawling, expensive world.

It should be some highly-regarded very well received work of fantasy, maybe even award winning. I might have heard about this book in a context of a TV adaptation.

I know it's not a lot to go by, I'm suspecting it's The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, but I could be wrong.

What you are describing sounds very much like the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. There is a thieves guild in Ank-Morpork.

[Lordblacknail]

group of guys have access/build a time machine. one by one they go to the future, come back and start drinking. Nobody will talk about what they saw. finally one tells what he saw which was a statue of a cockroach, wearing a business suit and hat and carrying a briefcase. Short story, read many years ago, been trying to find it for a long time. Any clues?

[issybird]

Could it be The Figure by Edward Grendon? Here's a link to it at Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/Astoundi...p?view=theater

[issybird]

P.S. Please post such requests in this dedicated thread. Thanks.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by issybird

Could it be The Figure by Edward Grendon? Here's a link to it at Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/Astoundi...p?view=theater

If that is the story, here's the entire wonderful issue of Astounding that it appeared in:

https://archive.org/details/Astoundi...ge/n1/mode/1up

[ownedbycats]

In the early 2000s, I read a (likely) juvenile/YA book where the teenaged protagonist accidentally ran over another teenager with her car due to it being foggy and dark.

I've attempted to search for this several times, but failed.
- It was not a hit-and-run. (One of the few details I can specifically remember is a jogger turning on the flashing lights because the protagonist was in shock.)
- The victim survives, albeit badly injured.
- There were no horror/supernatural elements.
- Both the protagonist and the victim were female.
- Although I read this in the early 2000s, I get the impression that the book itself was published in the 80s or 90s.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

A long time ago I heard about a fantasy book, the only detail I remember about it is that thievery is legal or that it's regulated, maybe by some thief guild? Not sure. I don't think it's a book about thieves, it's just a detail about the sprawling, expensive world.

It should be some highly-regarded very well received work of fantasy, maybe even award winning. I might have heard about this book in a context of a TV adaptation..

Not TV-adapted (AFAIK), but Feist's Riftwar books are a possibility.

By "a long time ago" are we talking 1970s? 2000s? A little help there could narrow things down. Some people might call The Lies of Locke Lamora a "long time ago". If we're talking a REALLY long time ago... mmmmaybe Jack Vance's second Dying Earth book? Otherwise, yep, Fritz Leiber.

The Queen's Thief series is very good, though I don't remember a guild as such.