soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2014-11-25 07:34 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2014-11-25 07:34 pm
The Queen's Thief series, by Megan Whalen Turner
As evidence of the way my brain's been taken over by the Queen's Thief series over the last few days: last night I dreamed that the next book in the series (book #5) had been released in August and somehow the entirety of the fandom had managed to miss this fact. The book was called "King" and I was super excited that I would actually get to read it. (Too bad the internet is giving NO HINTS as to when we might expect the next one. And Megan Whalen Turner has a tumblr, but it's all photos of her daily coffee, inspirational photos of Greece, and reblogs of fanart. Super cute but less than actually helpful on this point.)
At any rate. In the last few days I reread all four extant Queen's Thief books. FOLLOWING ARE MY (SPOILERY) THOUGHTS. I will note first though for people who have not read this series and are possibly interested: this is a series that the vast majority of people seem to agree is best enjoyed unspoiled. So if you tend to be on the fence about whether to spoiler yourself for things or not, that might be a useful data point to keep in mind.
I will just begin by saying I SUPER LOVE THESE BOOKS. As I told twitter the other night: books about fantasyworld politics plus a sneaky trickster of a main character = THE TRUE WAY TO MY HEART. What a great series. Despite the bits below where I'm complaining about various aspects, I really love these books.
The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner
I'm a lot less unhappy with this book this time around. Last time I was too angry at the text for WILFULLY HIDING INFORMATION from the reader and so I couldn't properly appreciate all the things that in fact it did well. And it does a lot well! I like this book very much. (Even though it does wilfully hide information from the reader, in ways that seem a lot more blatant and unfair than how the other books in the series hide information.)
The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
I still feel like Attolia falling in love with Eugenides is insufficiently supported by the text. So that's annoying.
Also I'm a little confused what Attolia's big plan wrt the Mede ambassador actually was? Was it just to be getting money from the Mede Empire without getting taken by them? I'm a little annoyed that apparently it then took direct interference from a) the gods and b) Eugenides for Attolia to succeed in her plans there...
But everything else about the book is super great! For instance: I love how the book manages to make us care about Attolia even after having the book begin with her CUTTING THE HAND OFF OF OUR BELOVED MAIN CHARACTER. That's really impressive. And of course Eugenides is an endlessly amazing protagonist and I would happily read about him forever.
The King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
This entire book is a complete delight and it is my favourite forever. GODDAMN DO I LOVE IT. Eugenides being his amazing irrepressible bagful-of-cats self, making terrible life choices that somehow always manage to work out more or less swimmingly. Costis being the epitome of one of Rosemary Sutcliff's terribly honourable main characters (eg Alexios or Marcus) and having to deal with the incomprehensible weirdness of his king. The competence porn! The fictional politics! The Attolia/Eugenides romance! (THEY'RE SO ADORABLE!!!) Costis and his series of terrible horrible no-good very bad days! Costis being the one to provoke Eugenides into finally demonstrating to his court that he is in fact a capable person worthy of being looked up to! It's all A+.
(but on a less serious note, there's a character named Hilarion in this book and I kept on hoping for him to be at least a little reminiscent of the Hilarion in Sutcliff's Frontier Wolf but ALAS NO it was not to be. Sadface.)
(Also: why with the way the kings and queens of these countries are named? At first it seems like whatever ruler is the head ruler of the country is just called the name of the country: Attolia, Eddis, Sounis. But then when Eugenides becomes king alongside Attolia, he is referred to as Attolis. Which implies a gendered way of doing the names. Except that that Eddis (with the -is ending, not the -ia ending) is a queen. So obviously that's NOT what's going on, in all three countries at least. I JUST WANT TO UNDERSTANNNNND.)
A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen Turner
I really appreciate the fact that other characters fully realize what a ridiculous human being Eugenides is. Which makes it all the more hilarious that there are multiple examples in this book of Sophos looking up to Eugenides and taking him as an example of how to behave....!
I do like this book, but unlike The King of Attolia I didn't spend the entire book saying GODDAMN delightedly to myself and having to constantly pause in my reading so I could bask in how amazing the book was. I think the thing is that a book where the main character is Sophos is by its nature a very different book than one where Eugenides is a main character. The last book was largely from Costis' point of view, but it was still pretty much about Eugenides. This one is about Sophos. And I do like Sophos a lot! But he doesn't make for nearly so exciting and delightful a book as Eugenides does.
Also it doesn't help that this book does not end on a particularly inspiring note. The whole last section is all about the awful things that kings sometimes have to do, with some emphasis on the idea that there is a different morality for rulers than for ordinary people, which is a perspective I am very uncomfortable with. The other books certainly did not shy away from having the characters make some pretty ruthless decisions at points, but the way the events of the conclusion of this book are presented seems somehow far worse to me, idk.
Relatedly, I'm a bit confused on one point. So apparently it turns out at the end that there WOULD have been a way that Sounis could have taken back his throne in a less bloody way, without Attolia/Attolis's help? But Eugenides didn't make that option known to him because Eugenides is busy steering things so that Sounis would be under his ultimate power? Except - I'm kind of baffled as to what that way might have been, because the book VERY MUCH didn't make that clear. I want more details! Because as it is all the book says is "with more faith in himself, and his father's army, he could have retaken his throne without Attolia's aid [...] but Eddis and Attolis hadn't offered him the choice." But, like, how would that have even worked? THERE WERE TEN THOUSAND MEDES. Am I just missing something?
So basically the ending of this book leaves me confused and upset with all the characters, which is not the way I want to end a Queen's Thief book. Sigh.
BUT I'M STILL LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE. Whenever that'll be...!
At any rate. In the last few days I reread all four extant Queen's Thief books. FOLLOWING ARE MY (SPOILERY) THOUGHTS. I will note first though for people who have not read this series and are possibly interested: this is a series that the vast majority of people seem to agree is best enjoyed unspoiled. So if you tend to be on the fence about whether to spoiler yourself for things or not, that might be a useful data point to keep in mind.
I will just begin by saying I SUPER LOVE THESE BOOKS. As I told twitter the other night: books about fantasyworld politics plus a sneaky trickster of a main character = THE TRUE WAY TO MY HEART. What a great series. Despite the bits below where I'm complaining about various aspects, I really love these books.
The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner
I'm a lot less unhappy with this book this time around. Last time I was too angry at the text for WILFULLY HIDING INFORMATION from the reader and so I couldn't properly appreciate all the things that in fact it did well. And it does a lot well! I like this book very much. (Even though it does wilfully hide information from the reader, in ways that seem a lot more blatant and unfair than how the other books in the series hide information.)
The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
I still feel like Attolia falling in love with Eugenides is insufficiently supported by the text. So that's annoying.
Also I'm a little confused what Attolia's big plan wrt the Mede ambassador actually was? Was it just to be getting money from the Mede Empire without getting taken by them? I'm a little annoyed that apparently it then took direct interference from a) the gods and b) Eugenides for Attolia to succeed in her plans there...
But everything else about the book is super great! For instance: I love how the book manages to make us care about Attolia even after having the book begin with her CUTTING THE HAND OFF OF OUR BELOVED MAIN CHARACTER. That's really impressive. And of course Eugenides is an endlessly amazing protagonist and I would happily read about him forever.
The King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
This entire book is a complete delight and it is my favourite forever. GODDAMN DO I LOVE IT. Eugenides being his amazing irrepressible bagful-of-cats self, making terrible life choices that somehow always manage to work out more or less swimmingly. Costis being the epitome of one of Rosemary Sutcliff's terribly honourable main characters (eg Alexios or Marcus) and having to deal with the incomprehensible weirdness of his king. The competence porn! The fictional politics! The Attolia/Eugenides romance! (THEY'RE SO ADORABLE!!!) Costis and his series of terrible horrible no-good very bad days! Costis being the one to provoke Eugenides into finally demonstrating to his court that he is in fact a capable person worthy of being looked up to! It's all A+.
(but on a less serious note, there's a character named Hilarion in this book and I kept on hoping for him to be at least a little reminiscent of the Hilarion in Sutcliff's Frontier Wolf but ALAS NO it was not to be. Sadface.)
(Also: why with the way the kings and queens of these countries are named? At first it seems like whatever ruler is the head ruler of the country is just called the name of the country: Attolia, Eddis, Sounis. But then when Eugenides becomes king alongside Attolia, he is referred to as Attolis. Which implies a gendered way of doing the names. Except that that Eddis (with the -is ending, not the -ia ending) is a queen. So obviously that's NOT what's going on, in all three countries at least. I JUST WANT TO UNDERSTANNNNND.)
A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen Turner
I really appreciate the fact that other characters fully realize what a ridiculous human being Eugenides is. Which makes it all the more hilarious that there are multiple examples in this book of Sophos looking up to Eugenides and taking him as an example of how to behave....!
I do like this book, but unlike The King of Attolia I didn't spend the entire book saying GODDAMN delightedly to myself and having to constantly pause in my reading so I could bask in how amazing the book was. I think the thing is that a book where the main character is Sophos is by its nature a very different book than one where Eugenides is a main character. The last book was largely from Costis' point of view, but it was still pretty much about Eugenides. This one is about Sophos. And I do like Sophos a lot! But he doesn't make for nearly so exciting and delightful a book as Eugenides does.
Also it doesn't help that this book does not end on a particularly inspiring note. The whole last section is all about the awful things that kings sometimes have to do, with some emphasis on the idea that there is a different morality for rulers than for ordinary people, which is a perspective I am very uncomfortable with. The other books certainly did not shy away from having the characters make some pretty ruthless decisions at points, but the way the events of the conclusion of this book are presented seems somehow far worse to me, idk.
Relatedly, I'm a bit confused on one point. So apparently it turns out at the end that there WOULD have been a way that Sounis could have taken back his throne in a less bloody way, without Attolia/Attolis's help? But Eugenides didn't make that option known to him because Eugenides is busy steering things so that Sounis would be under his ultimate power? Except - I'm kind of baffled as to what that way might have been, because the book VERY MUCH didn't make that clear. I want more details! Because as it is all the book says is "with more faith in himself, and his father's army, he could have retaken his throne without Attolia's aid [...] but Eddis and Attolis hadn't offered him the choice." But, like, how would that have even worked? THERE WERE TEN THOUSAND MEDES. Am I just missing something?
So basically the ending of this book leaves me confused and upset with all the characters, which is not the way I want to end a Queen's Thief book. Sigh.
BUT I'M STILL LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE. Whenever that'll be...!
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In other news: King of Attolia remains the best, forever.
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(KING OF ATTOLIA IS THE MOST AMAZING. I will not lie, I was strongly tempted to just turn back to the beginning of the book and reread it right away after finishing it.)