The King of Attolia (2006)

4.5 stars ( )

Oh my goodness! A masterpiece. How can these keep getting better. This one gets more subtle and complex as well. Another seemingly very well thought out and interesting shift in the POV. Third person but mostly through the eyes of a king's guard - sort of.

I wish Megan Whalen Turner had a much larger list of books already written. The fourth book in this series has been ordered as well as her book of fantasy short stories. I'll probable be picking up the couple of anthologies listed that contain her work. ( )

This series seems to get a lot better as it goes along. In a way, I almost wish I hadn't read The Thief first, because if you've read that, Eugenides won't have you fooled at all in this book. Still, it probably helps to have the background information. At the end of the second book, I was unsure about the romance, and I'm not convinced that aspect was fully developed before it was introduced, but that doesn't matter as much in this book -- the characters are perfectly believable, now, as is their difficult relationship. The difficulties of it are never once forgotten, and the queen remains a strong character.

Costis, who is for the most part the POV character, is perhaps not that compelling in himself, but that doesn't matter so much -- for all that Costis is the eyes of the narration, Eugenides is the heart and soul of it. It's fantastic to watch his political hijinks, and the way he balances the right thing for Attolia, the right thing to do morally speaking, and what he wants to do. Even through Costis, we see Eugenides' emotional state when it's important, too, so I kind of felt there was nothing lacking here.

It was also funny, in that fantastic situational way where you can't explain it when someone asks. It's fantastic. ( )

I don't particularly like the star system of rating, but I can see where it comes in handy with my review here. If it wasn't for the 5, 5, 5 stars running down the page for this book, I would have marked it 3. It's just not that good.

It's a fun read, engaging and easy, but this author gets no quarter until she comes up with a few female characters that are more than Queen-pawns on Gen's chessboard. Even Dorothy L "Wimsey Worship" Sayers could write some cracking good female characters and they got something to do.

I was chuffed to read the short story about young Eddis at the end of my edition, so it's not as if Turner's incapable of female characters. More of that please.

Looking forward to Queen of Attolia, for which I am only approx 75th on the hold list at the library. ( )

Loved this one, once I got over the POV change. I think I'd like to re-read these in about a year, once I've forgotten enough, and see how I feel about the first one then.

This book plays a deeper game than the second. It's also a lot of fun, and deepens some of the characters appreciably. The plot twists and wriggles, and it's a nice ride.

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