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Queen's Thief 1-5
Me: Ooh, the new Queen's Thief book is out! Eh, I have a lot of other things to read right now and Yuletide is starting up; maybe I'll wait a bit. But I'll look at the kindle sample just to see.
Me: *reads the first two pages*
Me: *orders it immediately and starts rereading all five previous books*
(This may contain general spoilers for the first three books, although I've spoiler-cut specific spoilers. There are no spoilers for anything past the first two pages of Return of the Thief, as I wrote pretty much all of this entry before reading it. I have now read it, but I haven't finished writing it up yet.)
The Thief I remember not thinking was All That when I first read it, ages and ages ago because it was a Newberry Honor -- I don't think I even made the connection to Queen for a while. I've never reread it until now, and I'd forgotten everything about it but the central plot point. At least for me, it works much better both as a reread and as the first book of six than as a stand-alone and first read. It has a lot of dense politics in it that I'd totally forgotten (and honestly probably skipped the first time).
Hilariously, I had also forgotten that Sophos was the king's nephew, though I remembered that he was going to be Sounis eventually, and spent a while going "huh, did I misremember something?" before that reveal came out.
The Queen of Attolia I also don't think I've ever totally reread since the first time I read it (maybe once, a long time ago?) because of, well, what happens in the opening chapter. I still think this one has some weaknesses, the big one of which is that there is one particular major character-arc that is kept secret from the reader --that is, that Gen is actually wildly in love with Attolia --, and it just didn't work for me because it wasn't telegraphed at all beforehand and it was kind of this weird kneejerk thing.
Queen also, like Thief, does not fully integrate the personal and political (though it does a better job than Thief, and in my opinion is much better written than Thief in general), and I apparently first read it only for the personal and not at all for the political. Which worked out for me, as there was basically half a novel here that I didn't even remember reading before (and again, may well have skipped the first time).
The King of Attolia was an interesting contrast to the first two because I love that one so much, I've reread it a zillion times, and I remembered the majority of the character beats and the plot beats (though not all) -- but it is still brilliant to read. I think it is definitely true that King was where Turner hit her stride both in terms of her own writing and the story she is trying to tell. I feel like this book, for the first time, manages to seamlessly integrate the political and the personal in a way where reading the personal also meant reading about the political, whereas they were more separate in the previous books (which is how I managed to skip all the political). Costis is also a wonderful character, and I love and have always loved his entire world which is so different from everything else we've seen so far, him and Ari (and the way Ari and he act as foils -- e.g., the discussion of how Ari can't afford to have Costis' ideals because he's not a landowner is fantastic) and Teleus and Legarus the Awesomely Beautiful (which always makes me laugh) -- it's just all so so so so good.
I love also how she cheerfully decided to write this book from the main POV of a character we didn't know at all and had no connection to -- and had no connection to his world either -- and it was so the right choice and she made it work so brilliantly. (Unlike Mockingjay.)
I don't think that King stands alone as well as it does as part of the larger story, mostly because I think if I were coming to it without having read the first two, I'd be sort of annoyed at Gen being this trickster god character (though it's a heck of a reveal if you haven't read the first two, I guess), but as it was we all knew that part, and the joy was in watching it all unfold. But besides that it does work as a standalone, or at least not part of a continuous series, in a way that I'm not sure Thief or Queen do quite as much.
Given the first two pages of Return, I thought it was great that there is a throwaway line all the way back in King alluding to that character's parentage. Man, this woman plans ahead!
A Conspiracy of Kings - hmm! This reread has made me definitely think that King was the high point of the series, although it's not to say that Conspiracy is bad, and I still love it, just that it didn't grab my heart like King did. Here is where the political starts to overshadow the personal, and while that's not a bad thing, it is... not what I loved best about King, where they were integrated so perfectly.
I also still had the same problem with it that I did the first time I read it, where, Gen? That joke at the end is not as funny as you think it is. In fact it's not funny at all. It would maybe have been funny that he shot (but did not kill or even badly hurt) the ambassador if Sophos hadn't also just had to shoot and kill Hanaktos, yeah, but given that he did... I certainly can see a black humor in it, but it's like Hanaktos never existed when he makes that joke??
Thick as Thieves - Kamet! This is probably my second-favorite book, and not just because of Costis :P Also because I really liked how it opened up the world to the Mede Empire, and how Kamet's worldview is Mede and it's a struggle for him to think any other way. And how eventually he starts basically thinking through how to simulate non-slave behavior. (But also, okay, Costis as a mercenary protecting his guy -- and the mutual hurt-comfort, come to think of it -- is pretty great.)
Me: *reads the first two pages*
Me: *orders it immediately and starts rereading all five previous books*
(This may contain general spoilers for the first three books, although I've spoiler-cut specific spoilers. There are no spoilers for anything past the first two pages of Return of the Thief, as I wrote pretty much all of this entry before reading it. I have now read it, but I haven't finished writing it up yet.)
The Thief I remember not thinking was All That when I first read it, ages and ages ago because it was a Newberry Honor -- I don't think I even made the connection to Queen for a while. I've never reread it until now, and I'd forgotten everything about it but the central plot point. At least for me, it works much better both as a reread and as the first book of six than as a stand-alone and first read. It has a lot of dense politics in it that I'd totally forgotten (and honestly probably skipped the first time).
Hilariously, I had also forgotten that Sophos was the king's nephew, though I remembered that he was going to be Sounis eventually, and spent a while going "huh, did I misremember something?" before that reveal came out.
The Queen of Attolia I also don't think I've ever totally reread since the first time I read it (maybe once, a long time ago?) because of, well, what happens in the opening chapter. I still think this one has some weaknesses, the big one of which is that there is one particular major character-arc that is kept secret from the reader --that is, that Gen is actually wildly in love with Attolia --, and it just didn't work for me because it wasn't telegraphed at all beforehand and it was kind of this weird kneejerk thing.
Queen also, like Thief, does not fully integrate the personal and political (though it does a better job than Thief, and in my opinion is much better written than Thief in general), and I apparently first read it only for the personal and not at all for the political. Which worked out for me, as there was basically half a novel here that I didn't even remember reading before (and again, may well have skipped the first time).
The King of Attolia was an interesting contrast to the first two because I love that one so much, I've reread it a zillion times, and I remembered the majority of the character beats and the plot beats (though not all) -- but it is still brilliant to read. I think it is definitely true that King was where Turner hit her stride both in terms of her own writing and the story she is trying to tell. I feel like this book, for the first time, manages to seamlessly integrate the political and the personal in a way where reading the personal also meant reading about the political, whereas they were more separate in the previous books (which is how I managed to skip all the political). Costis is also a wonderful character, and I love and have always loved his entire world which is so different from everything else we've seen so far, him and Ari (and the way Ari and he act as foils -- e.g., the discussion of how Ari can't afford to have Costis' ideals because he's not a landowner is fantastic) and Teleus and Legarus the Awesomely Beautiful (which always makes me laugh) -- it's just all so so so so good.
I love also how she cheerfully decided to write this book from the main POV of a character we didn't know at all and had no connection to -- and had no connection to his world either -- and it was so the right choice and she made it work so brilliantly. (Unlike Mockingjay.)
I don't think that King stands alone as well as it does as part of the larger story, mostly because I think if I were coming to it without having read the first two, I'd be sort of annoyed at Gen being this trickster god character (though it's a heck of a reveal if you haven't read the first two, I guess), but as it was we all knew that part, and the joy was in watching it all unfold. But besides that it does work as a standalone, or at least not part of a continuous series, in a way that I'm not sure Thief or Queen do quite as much.
Given the first two pages of Return, I thought it was great that there is a throwaway line all the way back in King alluding to that character's parentage. Man, this woman plans ahead!
A Conspiracy of Kings - hmm! This reread has made me definitely think that King was the high point of the series, although it's not to say that Conspiracy is bad, and I still love it, just that it didn't grab my heart like King did. Here is where the political starts to overshadow the personal, and while that's not a bad thing, it is... not what I loved best about King, where they were integrated so perfectly.
I also still had the same problem with it that I did the first time I read it, where, Gen? That joke at the end is not as funny as you think it is. In fact it's not funny at all. It would maybe have been funny that he shot (but did not kill or even badly hurt) the ambassador if Sophos hadn't also just had to shoot and kill Hanaktos, yeah, but given that he did... I certainly can see a black humor in it, but it's like Hanaktos never existed when he makes that joke??
Thick as Thieves - Kamet! This is probably my second-favorite book, and not just because of Costis :P Also because I really liked how it opened up the world to the Mede Empire, and how Kamet's worldview is Mede and it's a struggle for him to think any other way. And how eventually he starts basically thinking through how to simulate non-slave behavior. (But also, okay, Costis as a mercenary protecting his guy -- and the mutual hurt-comfort, come to think of it -- is pretty great.)
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I'll be interested to hear what you think about the last book when you finish it! I didn't love it as much as I hoped I was going to....
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I really disliked "Conspiracy of Kings," I don't even really remember why but I don't want to read it again just to find out.
I haven't read the last one yet, I'm not in a huge rush but I definitely will read it eventually to see how the series ends.
no subject
I will say that on second read I liked Conspiracy more -- it's kind of disappointing coming right after King, and then the ending left a bad taste in my mouth, so I remembered not liking it that much, but the rest of the book is pretty good.
I will say that the last book struck me as about as good as Conspiracy, so... yeah, you don't need to be in a big hurry to read it :) (I did like it, but it's the kind of book where I think it helps to go in with lower expectations.)