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

[oyceter]

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.

Comments

[dhobikikutti]

Yes, thanks for reminding me to get on the wait list at the library for Conspiracy. I would like to do a reread, but I don't know if I can line up all the books. And Thief was not all that interesting.

See, I long for Gen to be able to go home. Ahem. Yes I have issues. But I felt it such a tragedy that he had to stay in that awful court and work things out. And I still can't get over the arm cutting off.

Based on your vague references to Lymond, which I have not read, are you recommending it as something similar to this?

[coffeeandink]

Based on your vague references to Lymond, which I have not read, are you recommending it as something similar to this?

HAHAHAHA NO.

Sorry. The Lymond Chronicles are really brilliant in a really annoying way, and my pre-new-book Attolia reread has confirmed for me that I should just get rid of my copies of Dunnett because the idea of it irritates me far too much for me to devote shelf space to the series.

[dhobikikutti]

::grin:: I stand edumacated.

You did a re-read too? Both of you are so on top of shit, its obnoxous. I feel like you are professional readers and I am just an amatuer, in a field where there isn't even an olymics. Like, um, cricket.

[oyceter]

Ahahaha, no, it was more like:

Mely: I am doing an Attolia reread because the new book is coming out!
Oyce: It is? It is!
M: Do a reread!
O: ... okay! *puts everything on hold at the library*

[dhobikikutti]

snerk.

I stand by my opinion that you are mean, uppity competitors and I feel inadequate and lowly. ::nurses tiny violin to bosom::

[oyceter]

*to the tune of tiny violin* Coommmeee jooooiiiiin uuuusssssss /borg

to expand on Mely's response:

[cofax7]

I have great fondness for the Lymond Chronicles, but Francis Crawford of Lymond is like a WAY LESS SYMPATHETIC, and far more capable and bloodthirsty (and self-pitying) version of Gen. He's the classic tortured and brilliant hero that nobody understands, woe!, except for the female fans who eat him up with a spoon because we read the series at an impressionable age. *Ahem*.

I think the writing and characterization and plotting in the novels is (with some exceptions) top-rate, but many people who come to the series as adults have trouble with Lymond, and it's perfectly understandable why.

I can't see getting rid of my copies, though. The Niccolo books, maybe; but not the Lymond ones.

Re: to expand on Mely's response:

[dhobikikutti]

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, I get my dosage of the angsty manpain from slash, so I think these are not books that I would really enjoy.

Re: to expand on Mely's response:

[jonquil]

Lymond is a strong influence on all the angsty manpain, though; it's sort of like Tolkien, even if you don't read him, you read all the authors who have.

[oyceter]

Alas, Lymond is brilliant and no one understands him and he has manpain like NO ONE ELSE AND I INCLUDE BATMAN IN THIS! Also, terrible, terrible Orientalism. Terrible. Like, harems and English girls joining them and opium addiction and gaaaaaaaah. I loved them to pieces when I first read them about five years ago, and I do think they'll still be fun to reread, but much of it is because I have a lot more love for the secondary characters. Gen is waaaaay more lovable than Lymond. In fact, I think Attolia is more lovable than Lymond.

I, um, kind of love the hand cutting off because I love that Turner makes Attolia sympathetic (well, to some people?) but she also makes Attolia really scary and ruthless. And after rereading Queen, I think the hand cutting off is the spur to a lot of Gen's growing up in the book, and I'm not actually sure the romance would have worked without it, strangely enough. Because the Gen who meets Attolia again nearly two years later is really different from the Gen she had captured.

But yes! I feel so bad for him when he's sitting there staring in the direction of Eddis =(. I hope now that the political situation in Attolia is stabilizing, he can go home more.

[dhobikikutti]

I kind of adore Batman, but yeah, this is definitely not a book series I would enjoy.

The thing with the hand cutting.... and I think this might be fodder for a post. See, one of the side effects of growing up with Gandhi and non-violence resistance in your family history is that you know it works. So I always reach a breaking point in these sort of books where I'm just like - "Abdicate!" "Resign!" "Become a monk in the forest!" "Don't fucking commit the violence you think you are being forced to commit because your eternal soul will be compromised!"

In a bizarre sense of priority, I find Gen's forgiving of her almost as unfathomable as Jo's forgiving of Amy's book burning.

My heart cracked when he sat there in the chair with tears. (And this is something bravecows might understand), I felt like it just embodied the tragedy of choosing exile. Me being me, I HATE that choice.

[penmage]

The first time I read QoA, I was so appalled and traumatized by the hand cutting that I almost couldn't see past it. It wasn't until I reread it the first time that I was able to appreciate Irene as a character (and oh, how I appreciate her now.)

[oyceter]

Oooo I would love to read that post!

I feel rather hypocritical because I love scary cold violent women in fiction even though I do not like violence very much in RL and have an extremely limited tolerance of that trope when it comes to male heroes (Batman! Seriously, stop taking the weight of the world on your shoulders and being all soul-killingly violent and whatnot to spare the innocents. It's not like that works anyway.)

I am still trying to decide if the point of King is to show Irene that she didn't have to be so terrible all along, or if it's merely that she can slack off now because there's a more stable situation (the latter I have more problems with).

[jonquil]

"she can slack off now because there's a more stable situation"

I think it's very clearly the latter; Gen accepts without question that the only methods she had for managing a feudal situation with barons all hoping to overthrow her were ruthless.

[jonquil]

I think, for the period, the Orientalism is shockingly respectful and well-researched. Yeah, you've got the harem trope, but you've also got a big dose of It's All More Complicated.

It ain't Fu Manchu, but it's certainly not post-Said, either.

[oyceter]

If only it had not spawned a billionty romance novels being written on the heroic white virgin in the harem and how she is rescued by the manly white hero! Or heroes who go partly native. Jean Ross Ewing and Loretta Chase I AM LOOKING AT YOU!!!

[jonquil]

Oh, it didn't spawn that, believe me.

[is ashamed to admit she sometimes rereads The Lustful Turk]

[oyceter]

True! Though I do blame Dunnett for being the direct inspiration for many of the current crop of romance writers! (Or maybe the not-so-current-anymore, since I am still kind of catching up on what's being published now.)

[oracne]

Francis Crawford/Bruce Wayne, epitome of Manpain.