So it appears that no one has created a forum specifically for The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke, although most of you who have read it seemed to have already written about it in the Inkheart series forum..oh well! I was left unsatisfied by the ending, but overall I loved the atmosphere and concept of the book (I could totally imagine Venice and the canals and everything). I liked the Italian flavour added to the book; it was different from most other books nowadays set in places like the US. However, I think that the characters could have been better defined, and I felt that some details were left out (e.g. why their aunt was SO horrible, do Prosper and Bo miss their parents? What were they like? Why exactly did Scipio pretend to be The Thief Lord?) I also kind of felt that the whole magical roundabout theme was kind of set apart from the storyline… the book felt more like a drama to me, a bit of a coming-of-age type story about things like youth and poverty and growing up in general, but still an adventure with light-hearted parts. Did you guys feel like this too?
Anyway, I'm rambling now....I'd love to hear from all of you. What did you think of the book, especially the ending? Also, I haven't seen the movie but I want to - what was it like?
Thanks 
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I love the Thief Lord! It was the first book by Cornelia Funke that I ever read (when I was about 9), and it remains, to this day, one of my favorites. The characterizations are beautiful, as are the descriptions of setting. In fact, after reading TTL, I realized that I kind of want to live in Venice. Like, a lot.
So much better! I think the movie dumbs the plot down, unfortunately; you won't regret reading it as well.
Eh. It doesn't quite do the story justice, and the children's acting is... negligible in places, but then, I don't think the movie can live up to the book.
Replace (some of) the drama of the story with horror, and you have Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. That's the only drawback with this book. I'm a Ray Bradbury fan, and the storyline is remarkably similar. Funke makes it her own, though, and I didn't immediately make the connection; Bradbury writes quite differently and I read Something Wicked years after I first picked up The Thief Lord, and even though I'm performing a version of the former for my acting class and have read the latter numerous times, someone else had to point out the connection. It took away some of the magic of the book for me when I read it again recently.
I love Thief Lord! It is one of my favorite books of all time. I especially love the closeness that develops between all the characters as the book goes on.
Well I think finding this officially made my day.
Wow, I finished reading it yesterday! I agree to what you have said, the ending was kind of unsatisfying and I wondered about the same questions.
I never knew that it was translated from Deutsch until I visited her site :www.corneliafunkefans.com!
I enjoyed this book, but I liked Dragon Rider even better (I only saw the movie for Inkheart- is the book better?)
I saw the trailer for TTL in the website- Bo looked so cute! I'll check out the movie in a website, I'll tell you if I find it.
Cheers!