The Queen of Attolia

The Thief, the first book in the Queens Thief series, was a wonderful story, filled with unexpected surprises. I gladly rated it 5 stars. However, if I thought The Queens Thief rated 5 stars, Im going to have to find a higher rating for this book. It is an excellent continuation of the story of Eugenides, the Queens Thief. It starts with an unexpectedly violent incident against Eugenides. Im leaving out the details, even though its very early in the book. The rest of the story revolves around both the Queen of Attolia and Eugenides. It follows Eugenides recovery and growth. It also allows us to learn about Attolia and to see her life. It is filled with the intrigue of 3 warring countries and a 4th country who desires to conquer all 3 countries. The Queens Thief was great. The Queen of Attolia was even better. BTW, Ive seen The Thief series categorized as childrens stories, a rating I definitely debate. Ive also seen it rated as young adult. Maybe it is written with young adults in mind but, if so, color this old lady young again! Loved it, loved it!

THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA doesn\’t even feel like it\’s written by the same person as THE THIEF– and not in a good way. One of the things I loved about THE THIEF was (Eu)Gen(ides)\’s narration. Gen is such a great narrator: he\’s witty, wry, and through his POV, we get to see the fascinating worlds of Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis. It\’s written in first person so we get to experience everything through Gen\’s eyes, and even though the concepts of court intrigue and political coups are a bit mature, Gen\’s narration has just enough humor that he feels young enough (despite being, I think, an older teenager) that a preteen could relate to them. I would categorize THE THIEF has highbrow literary middle grade, like THE GOLDEN GOBLET or THE CAY. THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA, on the other hand, is narrated in the third person and feels like it\’s geared towards an older audience (older teens). All of the charming wit and humor I loved in the first book is mostly gone, except as an occasional aside, and the story is much, much darker. In the beginning of the book, something terrible happens to one of the main characters and it\’s honestly like something out of Game of Thrones. I was so upset I put the book down and stopped reading for a day, and even though I was able to eventually get back into the book, I wasn\’t prepared for that tonal shift, and I\’m sure it would be way worse for a kid to see a character suffer like that. Once I got over my disappointment at the lack of a Gen-focused narrative, I did warm to the story. Turner plots very intensely and there were so many great twists that were carefully planned. It\’s one of the smartest young adult fantasy novels I\’ve read in years– everything was done so well, and I felt like all of the characters were developed in a way that felt real. Attolia\’s backstory, for example, felt like something a young queen might do if she were essentially a captive in her own palace and was willing to do anything to get her freedom back. Eddis was the perfect blend of cunning brutality and motherly kindness that one would expect to see in a queen that ruled with kindness but wanted to keep her throne safe from invaders. And Eugenides\’s depression was– well, let\’s just say that it was warranted, realistic, and potentially triggering to anyone who has ever had a depressive episode or struggled with grief/loss. Regarding that one missing star– I think this is a book that, despite being incredibly successful and popular, doesn\’t really seem to have a specific audience. It will appeal to precocious younger teens and adults who love YA that doesn\’t feel dumbed down, but I also don\’t think it really seems to be a middle grade series anymore like the first one. I was also a little confused about the world-building because the first book made it clear that this was a Greek-inspired fantasy world, with its own Greek-inspired pantheon of the gods, and yet in this book, Gen is studying Euclid at one point, and the Queen of Eddis makes a sly reference to Helen of Troy. So, what– do the Greeks actually exist in this world and this is just a made up set of countries that exist nearby them, the way Genovia was a made-up country in Europe created for the sake of the Princess Diaries? It was very odd, and I spent way too much time thinking about that as I read, because I\’m compulsive like that. I also felt like ~that one love story~ appeared out of nowhere, and I didn\’t really feel the chemistry between the two of them at all. I certainly wouldn\’t fall in love with my torturer and it was really weird and kind of uncomfortable for me. Flip the genders and people would be losing their minds over the abusive plot, and yet because the perpetrator of violence in this book was a woman people are like YAAAASS WHAT A STRONG QUEEN. I never really forgave her for what she did and was not impressed with that ending. I can\’t say anymore because spoilers but if you\’ve read the book, you know what I mean. Huge thanks to Erika for reading this series with me. I\’m having a lot of fun. 3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars

I wouldn\’t give this to young adults to read. I liked the first book. It was a slow start, with the world-building a bit tedious. But when the action finally started to happen, I found the last half interesting. My hope for the second was that to see more of the character in action as a thief, and to leave the long, boring, world-building parts in the past. But in the second book the pacing was just the opposite. It had such a dramatic beginning, only to slow down and get more and more tedious as it went on. Long pages of nothing much happening, and waiting for the main character to come to grips with a new, stark reality. But so much of his POV is just story told, not shown, that it seems stalled for a long time. Pages and pages of nothing more than killing time and telling the reader the bare bones of what was happening. It felt disconnected. It became a struggle not to skim, just to get over a bulk of time until something was going to happen. And it made the MC\’s \’recovery\’ seem muted. But the reason I wouldn\’t give this to a young adult is the damaged, forced, unhealthy relationship that builds up between the main character and the subject of the book. The characters may be saying and thinking \’love\’, but it\’s not even close. You can\’t love a person you don\’t know, and the relationship is unhealthy and damaged, even from the start. This kind of twisted love, where anger, guilt, revenge, and power is claimed as \’love\’ is already too prevalent in Young Adult fiction. Enemies to lovers isn\’t a thing that often works, and it works even less when there\’s mental and emotional manipulation going on. It\’s in no way love. Not a series I\’ll be going on with.

This is the second book in the Queen\’s Thief fantasy series. I wish to avoid spoilers, so I will say less than I might about it. But, for the record, I like both this book and its predecessor very much. I like the characters, minor as well as major. I like how the author lets some quiet yet telling moments pass with little fanfare, trusting the reader to recognize them. I like the writing, which usually slips by unobtrusively, being perfectly in keeping with the story, yet contains occasional beautiful and precise turns of phrase, such as this fragment from chapter five, \”Every morning, when the sunlight forced its way around the edges of the window curtains, trimming them in light…\” For me, this story is trimmed in light.

I have been reading my way through the Attolia books.The Thief did not start off in a very promising way, but the series picks up style, depth and intricacy with the subsequent books, although wish, please, for a good map. The writing is consistently excellent throughout; in fact it improves as the books progress through wars and loves, unusual plots, treacheries and friendships. The story continues, sort of, through the books, meandering amongst the protagonists, their lives and adventures. Skillfully brought to breathing life, struggling with their dilemmas, you must love them all and their differences. Fall from one book into the next, hope that Ms. Turner wont stop writing. Nearly as strong on world and character building as Robin Hobb. Wonderful…..thank you! One gripe;-In the Authors Note of The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner says, quote \”The gods and goddesses in my book are not those of the Greek or any other Pantheon. I made them up. The Mede Empire is also my own invention unquote. Ill now quote from the Collins English Dictionary, Mede n. A member of an Indo-European people of West Iranian speech who established an empire in SW Asia in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. unquote. And from Tom Hollands panoramic book Persian Fire, ( Abacus 2005) I could quote many references, but to mind springs….. A dark shadow had been caste over the Ionian imagination, and the memory of Harpagus coming would long serve to blacken even the most intimate moments of Joy: In winter, as you lie on a soft couch by the fire, Full of good food, munching on nuts and drinking sweet wine. Then you must ask questions such as these: Where do you come from? Tell me: what is your age? How old were you when the Mede came? Xenophanes, Fragment 22. And this Quote, In 610 BC, the Medes swept into northern Syria, burning and looting as they went. In 585, they went to war with the Lydians, a people based in what is now the west of Turkey Unquote. And on it goes. Having said that, I love these books, they are so well written and the characters well defined, believable and lovable, having hopes and failings with which you can identify.

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