The Queen of Attolia

Oh how wonderful! I love Turner's ability to seemingly slow down the plot while simultaneously having chaos and war at stake. The character development in this is second to none and I was awestruck by her portrayal of the Queen of Attolia as I went from loathing her to being utterly impressed by her by the end of the book. Her female characters are amazingly complex and some of my favourite passages have to do with the two queens' developing friendship. Such carefully detailed writing too which conveys a range of emotions. Beautiful series.

This is a multiple reread for me, and I love it. I’ve rarely seen a series level up like this from the first book to the second. I love Gen, and I love seeing him grow up in this. I love how he lives through his own private, personal apocalpyse, and finds himself again — different and the same — on the other side. I even like how this book handles disability, and I very, very rarely like that, especially in books by non-disabled authors. (I don’t know if Turner is disabled or not. I’m just saying.)

But what I really about this book is the women: Eddis, with her good heart and her good kingdom, and most of all Attolia, who is constrained and hemmed in on every side, fighting with the few weapons at her disposal to be herself and show more achieve her ends. She has been living through her own personal apocalypse for many years. I love that in this book she gets her first glimpse of the other side. show less

I enjoyed this even more than my first time: knowing the revelations to come gave me opportunity to appreciate how neatly (and oftentimes invisibly) the author laid their foundations. Knowing the characters better I could also really savour the exchanges between them - frequently a few short sentences packing in volumes of meaning. That conciseness makes it possible for her to lay out the diplomatic history and strategems of an entire war involving ultimately four countries, while remaining tightly focused on Gen and Irene: you get the impression the author knows this world like the back of her hand and could spout a story about any given inhabitant or stone at the drop of a hat. Astounding intricate craft, I could re-read it again and show more again. show less

Book 2 of 6. A gripping young adult series full of political intrigue, mystery, plot twists, memorable characters, dry humor, and some laugh-out-loud moments. Set in a fictional world with Greek sounding names and its own mythology and pantheon of gods, this series is similar to (but pre-dates) the False Prince series by Jennifer Neilsen. Each book is told from a different character's perspective. It's every bit as intricate and complicated as The False Prince, but a bit darker and more violent, with more involvement of "the gods" and more actual cursing (damn, hell, bastard, and the like) and mild innuendo (non-explicit references to lovers, marital infidelity, and what might or might not have happened on a wedding night). There is show more some sweet, understated romance, not all steamy. I had to read the first three books at least twice and used the search feature on the ebooks to piece together the pieces of the puzzle for a better understanding. There were some plot twists that I was able to predict, but some caught me by surprise. After reading all the books, I went back and listened to the audiobooks. I liked the ones narrated by Jeff Woodman best, but it appears that he hasn't narrated the later books, so I had to settle for Steve West as narrator for those. show less

I loved the first Eugenides book. This was a lot less fun and way harder to follow. I think that choosing to tell the story in the third-person instead of from Eugenides' POV was a mistake. Sure, it allowed the reader to follow the Queen of Attolia, but it just took so much away from the writing style, which went from humorous and engaging in Book 1 to pretty dry and complicated in Book 2. There are some interesting surprises thrown in, but they didn't make up for the overwhelming gloominess of the book. I found it in the children's section of my local library, but I think it probably belongs in the teen section, or maybe even the adult section.

So, as a big fan of The Thief, I was disappointed by Queen of Attolia. But, if you think show more you'd like to read about the battle strategies of four fictitious warring kingdoms, this is the book for you.

One last complaint: Turner overdid it with the confusing mishmash of real and fake mythology in this book. The Helen of Troy story stays the same, some of the island names are taken from Shakespeare, and there is a story that is kind of like the Persephone/Demeter story, only different. I mean, talk about crazy confusing to a kid who is maybe actually learning about this kind of stuff. Why couldn't she have just made it all up? show less

The gloves are off with this one. The stakes are higher, the secret plots are more intricate. Our characters are driven to their limits, and faced with impossible choices.

It's amazing watching them thread through the disasters, sweating hard grasping at small victories or even just a defeat that won't completely undo them. It's satisfying watching them hold everything together with twine and a prayer. And whenever they manage to turn the tide and plant their feet on solid ground, I want to stand up and cheer.

In Book 2 Eugenides comes up with a truly wild plan to quell the Attolian fever to conquer Eddis -- kidnap the Queen who, conveniently, is not holed up in her capitol city but in a smallish megaron where she can overlook the fighting better. She is still, apparently, under the spell of the handsome ambassador of the Medes Empire, but she sure does hate his oiled beard (as do we)! During the course of implementing the kidnap plan, the Eddisians have to trek in secret down a river to Attolia's location. In some ways this plot is a bit like the trek down the river, at any moment the dam above could fail and overwhelm the soldiers. But in the end it all falls together enjoyably. These novels are great fun and I'm galloping through them! ****1/2