"If there is one thing a woman understands, it is the nature of gifts."

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

Ok, so a couple weeks ago I posted about a YouTube channel where someone was doing a Thief readalong. At one point during the first video, she said something about how in the first book Gen should have died when he got stabbed by that Attolian soldier, but he didn't because he was (secretly) in possession of the Gift. This sparked a mini discussion in the comments, because in all of my rereads I had never made that assumption/connection. I'd taken the Magus' research for granted, that the Gift only granted immortality if it was given, not stolen...and in my mind, Gen had stolen the Gift from the temple (he is a thief after all). I just thought he lived because the gods willed it (bigger plans and all that).

Anyway, I texted this question to our own @eachase, and she emailed me such a thorough ESSAY on the topic that I asked for permission to share it here. Read, and discuss!

Hey, Jamie,

These sorts of questions bring out my latent English major tendencies, which means I have a lot to say, so I wanted to have a full keyboard to work on.

I re-read the relevant parts of The Thief (I think I found them all; I really need to buy myself eBook version for this sort of thing. Fortunately bookshop.org is starting to work on ebooks) and The Destruction of Hamiathes's Gift. In short, I don't think there's a clear answer. Of course, I wouldn't expect anything else of Megan.

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