Kindle Edition Amazon Gaspar The Thief Category:  Fantasy Publisher: Balmerino Publishing Type: Fiction Pages: 90 Copyright: Feb 24 2013 Price: $0.99 (eBook) Gaspar And The Fantastical Hats is a humorous light fantasy that will appeal to fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Life isn't easy in a cut-throat city ruled by guilds, especially for a freelance thief who refuses to swear fealty to the local thieves' guild. Beset by thieves and threatened by assassins, Gaspar is forced into a madcap hunt for a magical artefact. Confronted by danger at every turn, he and his friend, Hubris the Spellbroker, become entangled in a bizarre web of intrigue, politics and outlandish fashion. They soon realise that they are just pawns in a greater game, but who is their real adversary and how can they disentangle themselves without ending up seriously dead? Excerpt Gaspar left The Bag O’Silver Inn, took a quick turn left along the cliff-top, followed by a quicker turn right into a darkened alley, and then stopped abruptly in the shadows, looking back the way he had come. The hour was late, yet there was still enough light to see by. Moonlight glistened on the cobbles and lamplight cast brighter pools at intervals along the street. Glimpsed through a gap in the houses opposite the alley, the wide sweep of Fleet Bay was marked out by the milky wash of breakers across the harbour mouth and the ghostly masts and mainsails of a flotilla of barques, brigs, caravels and fishing boats bobbing gently upon the tide. Here and there, dotted among them, watch-lanterns shone like fireflies flitting in the autumn breeze. Gaspar pulled his cloak tight, raised his hood, and pressed himself back into the shadows. Though accustomed to calamity, mishap and misadventure in equal measure, his heartbeat still quickened as he watched and listened for any sign of pursuit. He counted slowly to ten, and then twenty, and then started again. Below his cloak, his hand rested uneasily on the hilt of his dagger, ready to draw it, but hoping that the need would not arise. A low murmur of noise drifted from the direction of the inn, but this was merely the usual hubbub of mingled voices and laughter, and not at all out of the ordinary, while the raucous cries of gulls and kittiwakes overhead was so commonplace a sound that it barely registered at all. What he was listening for was different entirely: muffled footsteps perhaps, or furtive whispers, or the quiet, metallic slither of a drawn dagger.

For Pratchett Fans...
This fantasy novella is a prequel to Gaspar the Thief. Although I read it afterwards, I still enjoyed it very much. We are introduced to Gaspar, a freelance thief unaffiliated to the Thieves' Guild, who is blackmailed into stealing a magical artefact from the Wizards' Guild. The plot is tightly woven and works well, while the writing flows to create rounded characters. Gaspar's world owes something to Terry Pratchett's Discworld, but it's never a parody, and if you enjoy Pratchett then I think there's a good chance you'll like this.

Excellent!
I finished Gaspar And The Fantastical Hats last night, at 3 am since it was too good to put down. I really liked it and can recommend it to anyone who likes Pratchett and other humoristic fantasy. With the Gaspar books, David has created an Ankh-Morpork like city where things ain't quite as it is in our world. All I can say is: read it!

Full of Humor and Twists!
Funny escapades abound in this novella. Double-crosses, thieves, and assassins, all working outside of their respective guilds. All for a fashion statement. The things men will do to please a woman. If this story is indicative of Gaspar The Thief, the novel it precedes, I'm gonna be reading it next.