A Conspiracy of Kings

The Thief The Queen of Attolia The King of Attolia A Conspiracy of Kings Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner This is one of those series of books that you really ought to read in order. While each book can and does stand alone, this is a tale that unfolds like a flower, one petal at a time, and you owe it to yourself to let yourself enjoy it the way it was meant to be enjoyed. Take Humpty-Dumptys advice. Begin at the beginning, go on to the end, then stop and then wish that there was more to the tale! So: Imagine a land that looks like Greece but isnt, inhabited by a people with Greek sounding names, who worship gods with Greek sounding names, but who have pocket watches, window glass, and flintlocks. They speak a common language, worship common gods, but have divided themselves into three separate states: Sounis, Eddis and Attolia: The queendom* of Eddis is both protected and trapped within its mountainous geography. It is sandwiched between the kingdom of Sounis on one hand, and the queendom of Attolia on the other. The king of Sounis covets Attolia, Eddis, and especially Eddis queen. The Queen of Attolia is struggling to keep her throne and her power against the machinations of the large empire of Mede across the sea to the south. Like the wolf at the door, Mede is hungry to get a foothold on their shores by using intrigue and influence to gain control of all three states, and another powerful empire to the north of them is equally determined not to let this happen. The tale starts with The Thief, whose name is Gen, locked in the palace dungeons of the king of Sounis for being what he is, a thief. Its a heist tale, suspenseful and exciting; it sets the stage for everything that comes after. By the end of it we have come to understand the wheres and whys of the story, and have met all the important whos but one. The second book continues the career of Gen the thief, and introduces us to the last of the key players, The Queen of Attolia, a woman who must walk a tightrope to stay one step ahead of the machinations of the Mede ambassador who already sees himself as Attolias next king. When Gen falls into her clutches, she takes something important from him, but he steals something much more important from her. In The King of Attolia, the third book, Attolia gets the king it needs but doesnt want, and in order for Gen the thief to obtain the one thing he wants most, he also has to take what comes with it which is the last thing he wants In the fourth book, A Conspiracy of Kings, Sophos, the chief advisor of Sounis young apprentice whom we met in The Thief, gets to tell his tale. He is an unwilling hero who has the wit to make the right choices and then somehow find the strength to carry them out. He survives betrayal, slavery, conspiracy, pitched battles and the loss of his mother and sisters. This is the fast-paced, action packed story of how a boy becomes a man, how a man becomes a king, and how the young apprentice Sophos puts the heir of Sounis on his throne. I suspect that Ms. Turner succumbed to the plea that every story teller hopes to hear, Just one more story! Please! That one more story is Thick as Thieves. In it, the chief slave of the former Mede ambassador to the court of Attolia tells how Attolias king enacted his revenge on both master and slave. I was lucky that the first three books were already out when I started The Thief. I only had to wait two days for the second and third books to arrive from Amazon. I read them again when the fourth book came out, and have just finished reading them all again now that the fifth book is out. I know at some point Ill want to read them all again. Yes, they are that good. By the end of the first chapter of The Thief, the characters had stepped off the page and into the miniseries that was playing in my head as I continued reading. As I said at the start of this, do yourself a favor and read the books in order. Just when you think you know how the tale is going to go, the tale takes an unexpected twist. Things are not what they seem, and people are not who you think they are. Oh, and did I mention the volcano? *Dont tell me a queendom isnt a thing. If a country ruled by a king is a kingdom, then a country ruled by a queen is a queendom. Sit down and hush.

This is the fourth book in the Queen\’s Thief fantasy series, a series which is superb. If you have not read these books, I would highly recommend avoiding reviews and possible spoilers, and beginning with book one, \”The Thief.\” Spoilers ahead…. The trouble with creating a character as compelling as Eugenides is that readers, or at least this reader, are greedy for more. Eugenides plays a significant part in this story, but not as much as in previous volumes, and not as much as I had hoped. Instead this installment of the series centers on Sophos, who is a nicer, kinder individual than Gen, but not quite as fascinating. In addition, this book had some expository sections that held my attention slightly less well. \”A Conspiracy of Kings\” is a very good book. I devoured it in a day, but I dont itch to re-read it the same way I did with the first three books.

Every once and awhile I like to jump into some Middle Grade reading. They can be a lot of fun and full of great stories that I dont have to really focus completely on to enjoy as an adult. This is one of those MG stories that Ive read and thought I really would love it if this was an Adult Fantasy instead. It is written mostly about adults or young adults becoming more than they thought they could be, but I would have loved a more in depth adult version of this story just for the character interactions. ***All my life they had made choices for me, and I had resented it. Now the choice was mine, and once it was made, I would have no right to blame anyone else for the consequences. Loss of that privilege, to blame others, unexpectedly stung*** Sophos is the heir of Sounis and has known that his entire life. He has never wanted to be king, in fact he always believed hed be happier as a poet or scholar. Sophos has been a disappointment to both his uncle the current King of Sounis and father most of his life. He has done all he can not to be heirlike for as long as he has been alive with small personal rebellions. But that was before, before the current king died and before the rebels stole him from his home intending to make him a puppet king. ***A lamb, they said. No more trouble than snatching up a little lamb.*** But Sophos has spent time with the King of Attolia, the former Thief of Eddis and he is not so easy to puppet and will channel all the monarchs he has known to be able to thwart the plans they have in store for him. Even though this story focuses on Sophos I was so glad to see how Gen contributed to the story and how much he has taught and is teaching Sophos, even when Sophos isnt aware that is what he is doing. Gen is still sneaky that way, you never really know what game he is playing. Even when Gen pretends to be weak he is still strong and plotting something extraordinary. I love the relationship between Gen and Sophos even though they are both Kings of different countries they care for each other greatly. ***Eddis did not say what she was thinking: that Sophos held Gens heart in his hand, that he was one of very few people who could destroy the king of Attolia, and that Attolia knew it.*** But beyond watching Sophos come into his own as a man and a king who is fighting to regain the reigns of his country I really liked the budding love story between Eddis and Sophos. How they had to figure out how to be the monarchs they are and still find a way to create a happy union between their two kingdoms. The romance is very subdued because of the Middle Gradeness of the story but it was still tender and sweet in spots. Overall The King Of Attolia was my favorite book of this series so far but I did enjoy this one nearly as much and look forward to what the next book in the story could be about.

Beautiful book – can\’t wait for the next in the series. The author has done such a good job of these books (this one being the fourth in the series). Cleverly and well written, fast paced but such attention to detail. And so many things revealed at the end, things you didn\’t even realise needed revealing…. Much better than many people believe YA fiction to be.

As with the rest of the series, a fantastically twisty adventure which keeps you guessing until the end, makes me glad I don\’t live in a world where the gods could take a personal interest in my life!

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