oyceter. Turner, Megan Whalen - The Thief, Queen of Attolia, and King of Attolia (reread) (spoilers)

I reread these in anticipation of A Conspiracy of Kings coming out in a week or so.

Usual pimpage: For people who haven't read this series, don't read the summaries of the books! The latter ones are spoilery for the previous ones, and this is a series that is very fun to read unspoiled. It has court intrigue, politics, awesome characters, and a romance I love.

Spoilers for the series to date!

I've reread both Queen and King, both in their entireties and the "good parts" reread, but this is the first time I've reread The Thief, which I found a bit underwhelming the first time around. It's still not my favorite of the series, but I was able to enjoy Gen's voice much more. Also, I was very impressed that Turner doesn't cheat in the narrative. Even the parts in which Gen isn't direct made sense to me because of the final conceit of the book as Gen's written-out narrative for Eddis; I can see Gen enjoying the narrative tricks and oblique references.

My jaw dropped several times while rereading, from how early on Turner slips in Gen's obsession with earrings to his mention of hiding things in his hair, and I especially love how he outright says he doesn't want the magus touching his head because of the lump near his neck! I do think that his watching Attolia from years ago was a retcon; there are no clues here that he knows her and sympathizes with her.

Reading all three in a row also helps a lot with the timeline and my sense of the character development. You can see Gen slowly growing more and more daring in his plots, with his theft of Hamiathes' Gift as the first of his truly great plans, culminating finally in his theft of Attolia. His plots in King are good, but they don't have the same risk factor that stealing the Queen of Attolia does, and King is less about his plots and more about flushing him into the open, which is very much not his own plot. One of the things that makes Gen so much more palatable than Lymond is that he is half mastermind and half winging it; his temper tantrums and his sulking and his whining remain even as he begins to mature. It's one of the things that makes me so sad about the ending of King; I love that he is finally acknowledged, but also sad that by truly becoming king, he will undoubtedly lose some of his more trickster-like characteristics.

The other thing I had not caught before was just how much time actually passes in Queen. It's an oddly paced book in some ways, which I hadn't noticed the first time around, but the time is also necessary for Gen to grow up and become someone who can win the heart of Irene.

I'd written before on the gender role swap in the Gen/Irene romance, with Irene as the one who is less emotional and Gen as the one who basically is trying to heal the damage from her angsty backstory. Reading King felt a bit like reading stories of women coming into their own; Gen constantly being underestimated and his schemes being attributed to Irene reminds me a lot of romances in which the heroes never believe the heroine is the mastermind because she is too pretty/airheaded/whatever. But then there is Irene's shaky position as queen because she is female, and oh, even though I love Gen as king, I dearly hope we see more of Irene ruling as well. Because although I love Gen in King, one of my favorite things about the book is not Gen. It's getting to see the country and the court Irene created, fighting tooth and nail the entire way, and how those closest to her love her even when they fear her. It's seeing how she too commands loyalty despite thinking she is utterly alone, and that's why even though I love seeing Gen acknowledged by the Attolians, I also selfishly hope that more of them recognize the awesome (and scary!) queen they have as well.

And though I want more of Irene, part of me is also glad that we see so little of her, because that's of course how nearly everyone experiences her, and it's very much like how little Lymond actually shows up in the Lymond Chronicles, despite being the titular character. (Okay, I say this, but I do want more Gen/Irene scenes. They are so cute! Her way of saying "I love you" is "Take my wine" and trying to execute everyone who didn't guard him! It is so Saiyuki!)

I'm curious also as to where the series is going. Clearly Sounis, Attolia, and Eddis will end up uniting somehow, probably with Gen as Annux, but in many ways, I kind of hope Gen doesn't end up being king of kings. He hates being king so much, and I miss thief Gen too. Also, I want to see Attolia and Eddis ruling more.

Sidenote: how does the naming work? In King, Gen's title is "Attolis," so the subtext is that -is endings are masculine and -ia endings are feminine, but then why is Eddis "Eddis" and not "Eddia"? She is called queen, and it seems that her husband will be king of Eddis from what the magus was planning in Thief, so her position doesn't seem that different from Attolia's.

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Posted by

jonquil

Oh, interesting question re names!

Posted by

cofax7

why is Eddis "Eddis" and not "Eddia"?

Um. There's a short story by Turner (at the back of King? I think that's where I read it.) that explains this. Basically when Eddis (whose real name I memfault on) was a child, she took an overnight trip to a wild valley where there was an abandoned temple, and she met (sort of in dreams) several of the gods including Eugenides. And in the dream they call her "Eddis", even though she's at that time third in line. She forgets the dream until the day she inherits the throne, and then announces that she will be Eddis, not Eddia.

Posted by

oyceter

I want to get a copy of this short story! It's not in the back of any of the editions I've read, but maybe it's in the PB version of King? Must find...

Turner, Megan Whalen - The Thief, Queen of Attolia, and King of Attolia (reread) (spoilers)

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