I now blog over at The Eyre Guide! This blog is an archive of my past posts.


Friday, January 10, 2014

Review: The King of Attolia

Posted by Charlene // Tags: , , ,
The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief #3)
by Megan Whalen Turner

Plot Summary:

By scheming and theft, the Thief of Eddis has become King of Attolia. Eugenides wanted the queen, not the crown, but he finds himself trapped in a web of his own making.

Then he drags a naive young guard into the center of the political maelstrom. Poor Costis knows he is the victim of the king's caprice, but his contempt for Eugenides slowly turns to grudging respect. Though struggling against his fate, the newly crowned king is much more than he appears. Soon the corrupt Attolian court will learn that its subtle and dangerous intrigue is no match for Eugenides.

Review:

If you haven't read the first two books in this series, OMG just read it already!!!  Ahem.  I meant to say I can no longer contain the spoilers and it's better to pass over this review until you've read The Thief and The Queen of Attolia.  I mean, really.  These books are so good, just read it.

The narration switches again - this time to limited third-person omniscient with a new character - Costis.  Now that Eugenides is King of Attolia, there are so many things against him, and through Costis' very biased eyes, it doesn't seem like Eugenides is bearing up too well under the pressure of court, the disdain of everyone around him, and the possibility that his wife doesn't really love him.  But with two books detailing how Eugenides is pretty much always in control, I was so eager to read how he would turn things around.  And this book was another clever installment of the Eugenides Is Awesome show!  Even at those darkest moments when Eugenides seemed truly beaten, it was glorious to keep that belief in the character while reading, and to not be disappointed by the end.  I continue to admire the way the author builds on Eugenides' character by showing the depth of his humanity and intelligence behind his wicked sense of humor and his carefully deceptive antics.

Costis as the main narrator, was also a wonderful character to get to know.  He's obviously mistaken in his opinion of Eugenides, but gradually he comes to respect his king, and with that also gains the respect of the reader.  His character arc is the most important in the book, and the author does a wonderful job of showcasing his growth and his estimable personality.  And while we are learning more about Costis, we also learn about the smaller scale politics of Attolia which echoes what was explored in The Queen of Attolia, but now we see why the Queen is so cold and distant, and in the background what Eugenides is doing to change that.  This story has layers upon layers - it's glorious!

This is another stellar installment of The Queen's Thief series - I might even say it's my favorite of the three so far - because of it's depth and it's climax - the book builds to a moment when Eugenides shows his hand, and it's a very satisfying conclusion.  This series continues to be the most satisfying read I've had for awhile!


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4 comments:

  1. Beautiful review! At first I was like book 3?? What is book one? So I looked it up on my GoodReads and saw that it's marked TBR but b/c of this review I just added Book 1, The Thief, to my book haul today! Amazon is getting a crap load of my money today, LOL!!!

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    1. I'm glad that you are checking out The Thief! Good old Amazon- I'm happy to supply them with my money as long as they feed my obsession with books. :D

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  2. I've heard nothing but good things about this series but I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to a long series like this. However, your review has definitely convinced me to at least check the books out :D

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    1. It's really quite a quick read - I'm always surprised by how far I get in a reading session! (Since I'm reading the ebooks) And while I read that it's at least a 6 book series, the 4th book was published in 2010 with nothing new yet, so I'm not sure it will continue beyond that. *sadface*

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