The King Of Attolia [Hardcover]

Megan Turner gets better with every book. Her writing is maturing, and each tale in the Eugenides sequence leaves us wanting more. These are stories to read once without interruption, to "find out what happens!", and then to re-read to savour all the details.

Suitable for mature juvenile readers to adults - younger readers will love the action while teens and older will catch all of the pyschological drama going on. Some very strong stuff in these books, love both passionate and platonic, betrayal, loyalty, motivations; the concept of accepting your fate as pre-determined and leaving outcomes in the hands of your "god" are presented in all three of these books and perhaps most strongly in this one.

That's all below the surface. At the simplest level, just great stories. Prepare to stay up late with these.

I won't get into the plot here, but will just say the Eugenides is running true to form while developing in some interesting ways. Attolia herself is revealed in greater detail through the story. Disgraced palace guard Costis, from whose point of view most of the story is told, is a very human and believable character, though sometimes you just want to shake him ...

While these three books will definitely stand alone as a completed sequence if the author so chooses, I personally would love to see another sequel. There are many directions which this tale could go ...

Note to the author if tackling another sequel:

Keep your prose crisp and clean as you have in these three books; please don't ever fall into the "Rowling trap" of top-heavy, under-edited, words-for-the-sake-of-words and "Hey, look what a huge fat book I've produced." You've got a lot to say and are saying it in a beautifully developing and maturing style, with open-ended and non-stereotyped characters who will be able to travel as far as you're willing to send them. Kudos to you from an admiring (and demanding!) reader.

I love this book.

Usually, I can't think of anything to say for any of my favorites, mostly because they leave me speechless. This is no exception, but I'll give it a shot.

So. Each one of the installments in The Queen's Thief series revolves around a different genre; The Thief was an adventure, while its sequel, The Queen of Attolia, is about love, war and politics. The King of Attolia, however, is about loyalty and trust; specifically, how Eugenides, the former Thief of Eddis, earns the loyalty of the court of Attolia. It's a bumpy ride: with silly pranks, more serious conspiracies, gossip, hatred and prejudice at every turn, Eugenides has to deal with homesickness for Eddis along with many other fears and worries. He's an amazingly complex character, who appears on the outside to be petty and in every way unfit to be king - the court calls him the "one-handed goatfoot who abducted the queen and stole her throne," - because they know nothing about him. He falls asleep at meetings, ignores his attendants' cruel jokes, and generally convinces everyone that he's an idiot who doesn't know how to act like a king nor how to rule like one.
But he's no fool: he's a cunning chessmaster who knows exactly how to make them bow down, using careful planning, negotiations and mercy instead of his queen's preferred executions. He only has to reveal himself, and he does. In the course of time, Eugenides proves to each and every one of them what a king and warrior he can be.

Of course, if we knew all his plans, it would spoil the surprise for us, wouldn't it? So the narrative of this novel is given to one of his subjects, a guardsman named Costis. Costis becomes the king's personal attendant due to an accident (which we later find may not have been an accident, but what in this book was?) I suspect this is also a tool to let the readers see inside Eugenides and his wife Attolias' personal life while still giving them privacy, but it's all fine to me. As much as I love the romance of Gen and Irene,

(Falling in love with someone who hates you, and staying in love even after she tortured you by cutting your hand off while you were only a boy? Or worse, falling in love with someone after you cut his hand off? If that doesn't make for a complicated relationship, I don't know what does.)

I know it's dancing on the line between young adult fiction and children's fiction to give us more than the few sweet kisses we get. I heard there's two more books upcoming after the fourth - titled A Conspiracy of Kings - and I hope to see more of this interesting and complex pair.

I'm really sad this book only has 3 reviews. It sorely deserves more attention.

THE KING OF ATTOLIA marks the third book that follows Megan Whalen Turner's mischievous and dangerous hero, Eugenides, who is known to his friends as Gen. While returning readers may be disappointed that this installment is not narrated by the roguish master thief (the story is primarily told by a young guard named Costis), they will appreciate the returning cast of characters. Newcomers to the series shouldn't be too confused, though everyone should probably read this book twice to get all the political intrigue.

The book picks up with the former Thief of Eddis, Gen, now the newly crowned king of Attolia, except no one is taking him seriously, not even himself. The people of Attolia are furious with "the goat foot" who stole their beloved queen, and humiliating the king has become a national pastime. Poor Eugenides has found snakes in his bed, sand in his food, and has been attacked by the palace dogs, but isn't willing to enforce his authority. His court thinks he's an oaf and a pushover, and an unwilling king is a serious detriment as Attolia faces a war with the Mede Empire.

When Costis, a young idealistic member of the Queen's Guard, makes the mistake of showing his dislike for the king, he thinks he gets a fate worse than death; Eugenides promotes him to a lieutenant and makes him his personal guard. Though being the king's scapegoat is no easy trip, Costis soon realizes the difficulties Eugenides faces as a foreign sovereign in a hostile court. All the characters are tested in THE KING OF ATTOLIA as various forces vie for political power.

This book was a joy to read. Megan Whalen Turner gives the reader rich descriptions of both the sumptuous Attolian palace and its many inhabitants. The novel seems even more plot-based than her previous two books. It twists and turns around the topics of espionage, assassination, and diplomacy. While a reader can still make sense of the story without reading THE THIEF or THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA, this book is a special treat for returning fans. One of the surprising things for me was how the wonderfully charismatic and clever Gen is transformed into a clumsy idiot under the prejudiced eyes of Costis. Turner hints at the drawbacks of underestimating people without being moralistic. I have waited over six years to read this novel and I'm delighted that it leaves plenty of room for future stories.

Reviewed by: Natalie Tsang