The King of Attolia

I\’m going to save you a bunch of time and heartbreak, and tell you something I wish someone had told me before I was seduced by the sea of glowing four- and five-star reviews for this book: If you liked the first book, THE THIEF, the sequel, QUEEN OF ATTOLIA, is going to depress and anger you, and KING OF ATTOLIA is going to bore and frustrate you. There, I said it. THE THIEF was one of my childhood favorites. I read it in middle school and really enjoyed it– it stayed on my childhood bookshelf for years before I finally got rid of it in favor of other books, but it was a story I never forgot. All of these stories are set in a fantasy world inspired by Ancient Greece, where the gods interact with and look over their charges, but tend to take a light hand in favor of letting the mortals figure out things for themselves– even at the cost of their suffering (read: see QUEEN OF ATTOLIA). THE THIEF is narrated in first person and I loved Gen\’s voice, which made QUEEN OF ATTOLIA somewhat of a disappointment because it\’s narrated in third person– and Megan Whalen Turner decides to torture the everloving hell out of her poor character, in a way that wouldn\’t have felt out of place in a Game of Thrones episode. I was honestly shocked, because even though there is violence and intrigue in the first book, it\’s pretty mild, whereas tonally and contextually, the sequel seems much older in terms of the age group it\’s targeting. This is not really made clear, and thank goodness somebody warned me. In KING OF ATTOLIA, the reader is removed yet another step from Gen. Now the narration (still in third person, blast it) is from a guard named Costis, who is loyal to the queen of Attolia but ends up serving the king by marriage. Costis has a lot of scorn for the king at first and undermines him at every turn with resentment. But gradually, he comes to realize that the king isn\’t the usurping fool he imagined; in fact, he might be worse– a blend of compassion and danger that makes him infinitely lethal and foolish to underestimate. That is really the only saving grace of this book– the twists. There\’s always a great twist at the end of one of these books that just completely turns everything on its head. So, I\’m a little torn on what to read this book. It\’s filled with way too many characters I didn\’t care about (including the narrator), and takes way too long to get where it\’s going. Towards the 55% mark, it picks up– finally– and the payoff is good but isn\’t really worth the slog. Plus, I freaking hate the Queen of Attolia still and I think it\’s quite disgusting how the ship between her and Gen is forced in. I don\’t buy them as a couple anymore than I did Rhysand and Feyre from the ACoTaR series. I\’m sorry, but you can\’t just ret-con a bunch of abuse and problematic behavior for the sake of your ships and your plot contrivances. I won\’t buy it, and it\’s lazy as all get out, and it makes me write reviews with a frown. If I hadn\’t already bought the next two books in the series, I would have quit here. But apparently Sophos is in the next book and I like him, so hopefully this means Costis will be left in the dust. P.S. Hugs and smiles to Erika for BR-ing this series with me. Her reaction to the events in QUEEN OF ATTOLIA made me feel like I was slightly less delusional and I\’m so grateful for that. 2.5 out of 5 stars

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 have the one thing he wants most, he also has to take what comes with it which is the last thing he wants. Fate has put Gen where he is and has given him the role he needs to play. Somehow he has to find it within himself to do what he knows is right — and not get caught doing it! It\’s a tale of deception and intrigue, and of how to deal with a man you hate and want to kill but can\’t. I think the story was originally supposed to end here, but I can see how Ms. Turner couldnt let it go. There was still one person who needed to tell his story. In the fourth book, A Conspiracy of Kings, the chief advisor of Sounis young apprentice, whom we met in The Thief, gets to tell his tale. It is the story of how a boy becomes a man, how a man becomes a king, and how the young apprentice 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, it 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.

I usually balk from sequels that take place from a new character\’s point of view. In my mind, I loved the characters from the ORIGINAL books, and I want to see more from them. That\’s the whole point to reading a sequel. Let this be an exception to that rule. It\’s extremely interesting watching the events of this novel through the eyes of Costis, an Attolian guardsman who understands nothing about Eugenides, the eponymous king. We can see his path of reasoning as he interacts with the king, but our familiarity with Eugenides from previous books also allows us to understand MORE than Costis, creating a very exciting tension throughout the story. (If you haven\’t read the previous books in this series, I strenuously recommend that you read them first. It will make The King of Attolia a much more satisfying experience.) And of course, it is written with the same clear, concise description and sharp dialogue from Turner\’s other books. Her writing style is extremely easy to digest, without succumbing to mediocrity. I have read both the physical novel and listened to the audiobook — which, by the way, is also excellent. The narrator wonderfully captures Eugenides\’ witty and manipulative side, and absolutely shines as haughty Attolia. His ability to differentiate the characters is just lovely.

I\’m not sure now why I ended up buying these books – I\’m guessing they must have been recommended somewhere – but, whilst kind of interesting & well written in terms of language, the first book was really nothing special… & so I had put the rest aside into the pile of quick easy reads when I didn\’t fancy anything more taxing. A few months on & the 2nd book of the series didn\’t disappoint in this regard – well written, but likewise with overtly guessable twists & turns; & just another literary palette cleanser. Now I don\’t know what happened to Megan Whalen Turner in the interim, but this 3rd book is vastly superior to those 2 – &, tbh, most of this is down to seeming to having learnt who the characters are as people & letting them get on with it… & so a far greater degree of emotional connection is given because they\’re not being (slightly ham-fistedly) pushed between the key plot points. Yeah, I must admit that I\’m now slightly concerned about starting on the 4th book in case this one was a fluke – though I\’ll throw at least a couple of other books in between… …however, whilst you really have to put up with the failing of the first 2 books to understand the premise of this one, as they are true sequels, I think it may be worth it.

I read fantasy, and although this book is classed as fantasy it is not typical of the genre. When I read the first book in this fabulous trilogy I wasn\’t at all sure if I wanted to read the two succeeding books as I would more acurately have described it as Historical Fiction rather than fantasy, but I was so utterly intrigued by the story and more especially by the wonderful characters, that I simply couldn\’t help but carry on and read the second and third books. The first book, \”The Theif\” introduces you to the character of Eugenides, the theif of the title, and explains that the title is not quite what it appears to be, but is more complex and interesting. The second book follows Eugenides to Attolia, an enemy country and relates his misadventures there. The third book has Eugenides as the King of Attolia and husband to the enemy Queen, but all is not what it seems again. The books are warm and intelligent and filled with a wonderful sense of mischief and humour. I won\’t give away any of the story as it would be unfair. DO DO DO read them. You won\’t be disappointed.

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