Thick as Thieves (The Queen’s Thief #5)

Kamet is happy to be a powerful slave to a powerful man. His master, Nahuseresh, may have fallen out of favor a bit over that small disaster in Attolia, but Nahuseresh is still the Emperor’s nephew and brother to the heir. Kamet hoards his power and favors carefully as he knows he’s destined to become the most powerful slave in the Mede empire and perhaps the second most powerful man, second only to the Emperor himself. Kamet’s been trained all his life for this.

Kamet’s happy with his lot in life, greedily eyeing his destination and putting up with beatings as part of the status quo, until he’s stolen at Eugenides’ command. The King of Attolia takes his spite out on Kamet, sending an Attolian soldier to steal the slave away on the very day his master is poisoned. And thus begins Kamet’s slow torturous journey to freedom he does not want in a kingdom he despises as a backward cesspit.

There are many discoveries along the twisting road to freedom, friends made and found, gods wandering anonymously, and behind it all – overlapping intrigues and plans-within-plans – is our favorite thief. And behind him stand the gods.

Megan Whalen Turner is at her twisty best. Everything we love about the Queens Thief series is here and in play again. We are immersed in Eugenides world in a fantastic read that I will immediately re-read just to see what hints or twists I missed.

Theres so much about the human spirit, slavery, freedom, and friendship in this book. Its all cleverly hidden in a story thats almost impossible to put down to eat and sleep. Megan Whalen Turner is an incredible writer and every bit of that talent is invested in the hidden cracks and crannies of this story.

My only quibble with this book is that it ended and I must wait for the next book.

Reader thoughts:
Not quite as good as 1 and 3, but I predicted the biggest “twist” in the book. Better than books 2 and 4, I think.

Eugenides, like Sage from The Shadow Throne, is getting predictable in his tricks. It took Sage only 3 books to be so and Gen 5 books, but Gen is only the MC in the first book. So, it’s even.

I liked that Kamet was a different MC from the other ones. He wasn’t strong or particularly crafty. He knows languages and can lie well. That’s about it. He has never held a sword and is scared to. He also can’t see well, which I can relate to. I liked the ways he kept discovering more and more freedoms, that he could hold his head up without fear. At the end of the book, he realized he could be the one to end a conversation and that he didn’t need an excuse.

I kept waiting for the book to get to Attolia. I think this was the biggest problem, that I saw every conflict as a delay. Costis and Kamet were attacked by slavers, part of a caravan, in a ship that burned down, running from bounty hunters, nearly caught by plague, etc. I saw these conflicts as temporary even though they tied into the overall plot of Costis and Kamet learning to trust each other and keeping secrets from each other while in Mede.

Writer thoughts:
When the reader knows the author is trying to trick them, it is easier to spot when and where. I think this is the main reason MWT has switched povs every time. She wants to show Gen from a fresh perspective. His own, the queen’s, a guard’s, a neighboring ally, and now from an enemy’s perspective. Everyone first sees Gen as a useless show-off, and by the end of the book they see him as cunning. It’s a fun journey, and the only way MWT could get readers to go through that learning arc every time is if she had a different pov character for each book.

I absolutely loved the 1st three books in this series, and really enjoyed the 4th, but this one was not worth reading except for the series plot development at the end. The beginning is ok, and the end, but the entire middle just drags along from the main character’s perspective in the 1st person. Kamet and the other main character (I do not want to name because it would be a spoiler) travel from one place to another and, even though there is tension and action along the way, you really feel like this book is way too long and could have been greatly condensed and made part of a full book or turned into a novella. The series’ primary characters are absent until the very end, and since it really is their complexity, mystery, and relationships that drive the story, I spent the whole book waiting for them to appear and relieve my boredom. I just “knew” Ms Turner would turn things around and make good on her amazing skill at keeping enough of the story hidden from the reader to completely surprise us with unexpected twists which she is known for, but that never happened in this book. I had already figured most things out, so despite the plot development at the end, it wasn’t really worth staying up late for. Also, the other main character ends up being one of the main characters from a previous book (though not a primary character), but you aren’t convinced it’s him until the end, so I had a hard time getting into his character especially since we never hear from his point of view. Even after having it confirmed it is him because of something he reveals, it was still hard to appreciate his character. Furthermore, the side mythology stories were awkward and way too long.. All in all, a disappointment. However, the first 4 are super, so I will definitely give Ms Turner another chance when the next book is released.

Takes a few chapters to get into, but as equally epic as the previous books in this series. MWT knows how to hook you on a character.

The latest installment in the Queen’s Thief series is as brilliant as its predecessors. Eugenides aka The Thief does not make an entry until three quarters into the story.But he has been pulling the strings far longer.Now that that’s out of the way, let’s concentrate on why I liked the book.I wasn’t fond of Kamet the slave from the earlier books in the series.The way he spirited his master Nahuseresh right under the nose of the Queens….grr. However here he’s paired with an interesting character from the series as the duo make their way from the Mede Empire to Attolia. The author gives a vivid picture of the slavery in the Mede Empire. The lives of both the educated (never pampered) upper slaves as well as the slaves doing menial duties are carefully drawn.Things are never black and white.The masters are not cruel all the time -at times they are almost tender and considerate.Of course as the Attolian says, that’s because they consider the slaves as valuable property not out of any tender feelings.

Just like the earlier books in the series, this one too has tales of Gods (narrated by Kamet to the Attolian)- only these are the Gods of the Medes. And they love interfering with the lives of the mortals – in this case Kamet.As always the best thing about the books is the politics. Kamet thinks that he’s a pro at the game.But as we all have learned by now, he’s no match for the Thief.

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