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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
4.5 stars...
Although book #2 in this series was so much more in-depth in every aspect, I SO missed Eugenides' humor that was constant in book #1. I laughed the entire way through The Thief...
However, #2 did not disappoint and the unforeseen romance was executed brilliantly. Turner manages to leave you hanging and desperate to find out what happens to each beloved character next...onto book #3!
Although book #2 in this series was so much more in-depth in every aspect, I SO missed Eugenides' humor that was constant in book #1. I laughed the entire way through The Thief...
However, #2 did not disappoint and the unforeseen romance was executed brilliantly. Turner manages to leave you hanging and desperate to find out what happens to each beloved character next...onto book #3!
4.5/5
The Queen of Attolia is almost perfect. I loved the characters Attolia (Irene) and Gen and how they were developed throughout. It was consistent and well done. I also enjoyed the political intrigue and scheming. However, I found the storytelling to be too passive-- way more telling than showing. And, it took some time before I got into the story because I couldn't recall much from the first book. I also wanted more detail: more in-depth politics, more world building, and generally more time to get to know these characters better. I guess you could say I wanted this book to be longer than it was, which may not be such a negative. I look forward to reading the sequel.
Overall, this is a great fantasy novel with lots of political intrigue and wonderful characters, male and female, that are hard not to love. Highly recommended.
The Queen of Attolia is almost perfect. I loved the characters Attolia (Irene) and Gen and how they were developed throughout. It was consistent and well done. I also enjoyed the political intrigue and scheming. However, I found the storytelling to be too passive-- way more telling than showing. And, it took some time before I got into the story because I couldn't recall much from the first book. I also wanted more detail: more in-depth politics, more world building, and generally more time to get to know these characters better. I guess you could say I wanted this book to be longer than it was, which may not be such a negative. I look forward to reading the sequel.
Overall, this is a great fantasy novel with lots of political intrigue and wonderful characters, male and female, that are hard not to love. Highly recommended.
Just like the first book, I enjoyed this one much more towards the end than the beginning. Quite a bit of that is due to the pacing, which feels weird throughout a big chunk of the book where long passages are just short sentences that summarize what happened but don't actually get into the action of it. I also am not really into war strategy, so didn't really get into those parts.... But then the book did pick up and I was glad I made it through the slower parts.
I don’t even know what to say…. I’m astonished at how beautifully Megan Whalen Turner writes and how effortlessly she manages to get me so invested! I feel like I know these characters and find myself talking back to the book as if somehow I can, in some way, affect the outcomes.
I was literally furious at one of the main characters very early in this book and no one could convince me this … could… ever….. ugh! Iykyk
But then… wow… what an ending and Gens description of the “stone walls getting thicker and thicker” and you get a glimpse of a great and inexplicable compassion that is something to behold.
I’ve got to reread these books eventually. I read this one more slowly just so I could enjoy it. I normally speed through my reads but this I had to savor. So good
I was literally furious at one of the main characters very early in this book and no one could convince me this … could… ever….. ugh! Iykyk
But then… wow… what an ending and Gens description of the “stone walls getting thicker and thicker” and you get a glimpse of a great and inexplicable compassion that is something to behold.
I’ve got to reread these books eventually. I read this one more slowly just so I could enjoy it. I normally speed through my reads but this I had to savor. So good
I enjoyed this. I read it once as a kid, and I don't think I appreciated all the nuance and politics. I remember being very confused why the main character would ultimately make the decision about Queen Attolia...probably because I never read the first book first.
Definitely read it too young. Thinking about reading the next one, but I'm not sure yet. Wish you could add an extra half star.
Definitely read it too young. Thinking about reading the next one, but I'm not sure yet. Wish you could add an extra half star.
I'm feeling very conflicted!!! @ Megan Turner why did you choose to do That in the 2nd half!!
Love can come in many forms - as can courtship. The relationship between Eugenides and the Queen of Attolia is very different.
Oh come on! I've been scrolling down the reviews, trying to find at least one person commenting on the irrationality of this book! I don't want to sell it short, it was well written, shocking with it's twists and entertaining. However,
SPOILER ALERT
Gen loving the woman who impaled him? Why?!? The gods selling him out continually? what purpose did that have?! they are supposed to have explained it in the end but I'm sorry, I'm not buying that he had to have his arm cut off in order to marry that fiend from hell. Plus, they could have quite as easily drove the guy with the weird name off, without being betrayed, people been murdered and all that. They would simply have gotten married, made the treaty, drove him off then. No hanging of innocents off the walls! And again. He fell in love with her?! Wtf?!? It was supposed to be the other queen. "What did you want my queen?" "nothing, just that" "My queen!". Yeah, that's exactly the longing with which I speak to my friends right after I told them I'm in love with the guy I see in my post traumatic nightmares. That HE caused!!!!
SPOILER ALERT
Gen loving the woman who impaled him? Why?!? The gods selling him out continually? what purpose did that have?! they are supposed to have explained it in the end but I'm sorry, I'm not buying that he had to have his arm cut off in order to marry that fiend from hell. Plus, they could have quite as easily drove the guy with the weird name off, without being betrayed, people been murdered and all that. They would simply have gotten married, made the treaty, drove him off then. No hanging of innocents off the walls! And again. He fell in love with her?! Wtf?!? It was supposed to be the other queen. "What did you want my queen?" "nothing, just that" "My queen!". Yeah, that's exactly the longing with which I speak to my friends right after I told them I'm in love with the guy I see in my post traumatic nightmares. That HE caused!!!!
Don't worry, I'm coming back to this one. I had only read a chapter or so when I got a highly anticipated release in the mail and decided to put this guy on hold, and then only read a couple more chapters before I had to start reading a book for school. It's been so long and I've been doing so much heavy reading that I kind of want to pick up a lighter contemporary instead, with plans to pick this one back up sometime next year.
Updated Review Mar 7, 2019 (five stars)
I take it back again, I love Irenides, partially because I was reading it with someone else who had sm grace for her and was like "it's ok, he's almost cooler bc he can still do thievery and stuff without his hand and it's cool that he can slip by her and she'll ask if one of the mischief-makers was missing a hand, it's so cool!" which made me feel like yeah it was cool, and forget how mad I was.
And ik I said up there ^ that I rate it five stars. I'm leaving the rating at four - a compromise between my initial three and my final five...and also bc I'm indecisive and not too sure about it being as good as The Thief or King of Attolia, yk?
Also, I just want to draw your attention to the fact that, in my original review I said that Attolia doesn't seem like she really loves him, well I just want to make it clear for everyone: p244-45, p311-13, p316 & p317 and then ofc at the end, p359 (these are all the most obvious ones, but there are more you can find) - these are all the parts that made me convinced and also made me go "aww" bc it was sweet how much she cares even though she doesn't show it. I'm marking it spoiler just so it won't take up space and you can skip if you don't want to read it:
Inside the room Eugenides looked to be sitting on the floor, his legs curled beside him. His head and shoulders rested on the bed, one arm for a pillow. [...] His eyes were closed. He didn't move. As Attolia waited in the doorway watching him, he didn't stir or wake. On the floor beside the bed a tray held the remains of a meal. There was a wine cup. It had tipped over and broken, spilling the lees onto the floor.
Attolia stood, caught at the threshold [...]. She thought of Nahusaresh. How many poisons did he have at his command? How many allies [...] among her barons? [...] She should have listened to what her seneschal wanted to tell her. [...]
How cruel of the gods, she thought, to send her a boy she would love w/o realizing it. How appropriate that the bridegroom she would have chosen to marry be poisoned, Who could contest the justice meted out by the gods?
(more background: she hears Eddis coming and looks into the future as she sees Eddis returning to war bc he's dead, Medes aiding anyone but Attolia, Sounis fughting against her)
None of it mattered. Attolia was alone as she had always been, but she had never felt so desolate. [...] Who was the Thief that she would love him? A youth, just a boy [...]. A liar, she thought, an enemy, a threat. He was brave, a voice insider her said, he was loyal. Not loyal to me, she answered. Not brave on my behalf. Brave and loyal, the voice repeated. A fool, she answered back. A fool and a dead one. She ached with emptiness. [...]
(Eddis goes over, says he's alive, he moves but doesn't wake up)
Attolia, seeing the movement, breathed again and pressed a hand to her chest where it hurt.
On p316 she gets mad at him for joking about having a mistress and she says if he does, she'll cut his other hand off. Why? It's pretty obvious why.
p359 she talks about living with his grief and rage and pain ever since she cut off his hand. Those emotions were familiar to her, but she didn't recognize love until she thought she'd lost him in Ephrata (p311) and when she came into the room after he'd talked to the gods, he's lying on the floor and she says she thought she'd lost him a second time and realized she'd give anything up to keep him. If that's not love, what is? And she says "Then I see you here, and I see what I've done to you." And that's why I forgive her. She sees, and she regrets it, and that's what I missed the first time I read it. I didn't realize how much she was sorry for her actions. Which is why she gets mad every time someone disses his missing his hand, kind of like p244-245 (which is one of my absolute favorite parts in this book, but it's too long to fit here, so I'm only going to add the part I'm talking about):
[She wondered] when she had sunk so low that she had begun torturing boys. It was the question she'd asked herself night after night, lying awake in her bed or sitting in a char by the window, watching the stars slowly move across the sky.
"I listened outside your cell door every night before I sent you back to Eddis," Attolia said abruptly.
Eugenides sat quietly, waiting for her to go on.
"The first night you cried," She said. She looked for a reaction but saw none.
She had lingered outside his cell, in the dim light of the lamps, alone because she'd sent away her escort while she listened. Alone, because she had known, even then, that she would turn on any guard who mocked the Thief's pain. [...] The sound of his tears had kept her from sleep that night and woken her from nightmares since the evening she'd heard them.
She doesn't want anyone to laugh at or make fun of the Thief, and not only because she was the one who did that to him. And not only that, but she was kept awake by what she did, wondering what kind of person she was to torture boys. He haunts her dreams, isn't that cute.
"Who am I, that you should love me?"
"You are My Queen," said Eugenides. She sat perfectly still, looking at him without moving as his words dropped like water into dry earth.
"Do you believe me?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered.
"Do you love me?"
"Yes."
"I love you."
And she believed him.
I also want to point out that my original opinion was that it was lame that he got caught and how does Gen of all people get caught - to answer that, pg 346 answers the ppl like me who think Gen should be unstoppable (which he is). Moira told Attolia how to capture him. Attolia didn't outsmart him. She knew he'd been sneaking through her palace for a very long time, leaving things behind or tweaking them so that she'd know he was there. It made her mad but there's a reason he'd been doing it for so long, because no matter how hard she tried, he outwitted or outran everyone she put on him. The only reason she captured him was because the gods helped her, which means he can outsmart everyone but the gods. So he's just as awesome as ever
I'm still a little bit annoyed that Nahusaresh didn't get any comeuppance, but I'm patient. I don't remember if he does in the other books, but I'm willing to pretend he does, and it doesn't matter as much now as it used to the first time I read the book.
One thing I really appreciate about MWT and this series: she doesn't have those YA-novel, fictional stereotypes of "strong female character". The queen has ruled for most of her life so yes she's strong, but she wants Gen to rule, she'd love to hand over her kingdom to him if he'd take it, and I appreciate that bc I think most of us would do that (us as in people, not specifically us females), especially after she sees how smart he is in dealing with difficult people. Also, the queen of Eddis, tho more of the typical "tough girl", she's still interested in getting married to Sophos and letting him rule. I just like how MWT isn't trying to be like every other author out there.
I guess in conclusion, I would recommend this book. But I would also highly recommend rereading it after a year (or reading it with someone who loved it) if you hated it like I did.
Original Review Feb 15, 2018 (three stars)
OK, I TAKE IT BACK, THIS IS NOT FIVE STARS. I know I said it would be in my review of The Thief but I was wrong.
I know most people thought this book was amazing. I didn't. This book was lame lame lame. But I really enjoyed it. (like how)
I just hate how he and I was hoping, the whole book, that he would. That the gods would make it happen and they didn't. I was so disappointed and irritated at Nahuseresh because I was hoping she would cut off his hand, and have a "back atcha" moment. That didn't happen.
This book was a lot like The First Sir Percy in that they both have the same sense of humor (Diogenes and Eugenides) except that Gen has a more complainy attitude (not complaining about it, it adds spice), and they both have almost impossible names, and they both get maimed. Only Dio doesn't believe in gods, and he doesn't get maimed the same way and the book ends on a happy note, despite being maimed.
I mean, sure, this book ends on a happy note, too, but it's less happy. It's sort of happy. I found myself not really wanting the marriage to happen because she just didn't seem like she loved him. I really wanted him to get together with Agape even though I knew that wasn't going to happen. I just wish maybe Attolia had been nicer but I guess that's just not her personality. :( I kept expecting, though, when he's and I just kept hoping and hoping even after that, maybe that she would change her mind. Also it never says what her name is (not Attolia, the goddess).
Anyway, so yes I liked it. I would have really liked (maybe even loved) it if all my wishes had been fulfilled (ahem) but I guess that's the way the story's supposed to turn out. And besides, I keep remind myself that it's only a story, it's not real... and also that she's younger than he is and also shorter. :P (I mean, Eddis does say that she just seems older because she's been through a lot that seemed to make her older - like ruling a country at a very young age - so it's not farfetched to imagine her as younger and just acts older).
So if you've read The Thief, and you fell in love with Eugenides (we all did), then you might not want to read this book. Or maybe you do. Whatever, ruin your world if you want to. Like I care anymore...
I take it back again, I love Irenides, partially because I was reading it with someone else who had sm grace for her and was like "it's ok, he's almost cooler bc he can still do thievery and stuff without his hand and it's cool that he can slip by her and she'll ask if one of the mischief-makers was missing a hand, it's so cool!" which made me feel like yeah it was cool, and forget how mad I was.
And ik I said up there ^ that I rate it five stars. I'm leaving the rating at four - a compromise between my initial three and my final five...and also bc I'm indecisive and not too sure about it being as good as The Thief or King of Attolia, yk?
Also, I just want to draw your attention to the fact that, in my original review I said that Attolia doesn't seem like she really loves him, well I just want to make it clear for everyone: p244-45, p311-13, p316 & p317 and then ofc at the end, p359 (these are all the most obvious ones, but there are more you can find) - these are all the parts that made me convinced and also made me go "aww" bc it was sweet how much she cares even though she doesn't show it. I'm marking it spoiler just so it won't take up space and you can skip if you don't want to read it:
Spoiler
p311 - (a little background: Attolia forgot to free Gen so she's coming back to do that and her assistant keeps trying to tell her something about Nahusaresh escaping and something happening but she's in a hurry, doesn't listen, and this is what she finds)Inside the room Eugenides looked to be sitting on the floor, his legs curled beside him. His head and shoulders rested on the bed, one arm for a pillow. [...] His eyes were closed. He didn't move. As Attolia waited in the doorway watching him, he didn't stir or wake. On the floor beside the bed a tray held the remains of a meal. There was a wine cup. It had tipped over and broken, spilling the lees onto the floor.
Attolia stood, caught at the threshold [...]. She thought of Nahusaresh. How many poisons did he have at his command? How many allies [...] among her barons? [...] She should have listened to what her seneschal wanted to tell her. [...]
How cruel of the gods, she thought, to send her a boy she would love w/o realizing it. How appropriate that the bridegroom she would have chosen to marry be poisoned, Who could contest the justice meted out by the gods?
(more background: she hears Eddis coming and looks into the future as she sees Eddis returning to war bc he's dead, Medes aiding anyone but Attolia, Sounis fughting against her)
None of it mattered. Attolia was alone as she had always been, but she had never felt so desolate. [...] Who was the Thief that she would love him? A youth, just a boy [...]. A liar, she thought, an enemy, a threat. He was brave, a voice insider her said, he was loyal. Not loyal to me, she answered. Not brave on my behalf. Brave and loyal, the voice repeated. A fool, she answered back. A fool and a dead one. She ached with emptiness. [...]
(Eddis goes over, says he's alive, he moves but doesn't wake up)
Attolia, seeing the movement, breathed again and pressed a hand to her chest where it hurt.
On p316 she gets mad at him for joking about having a mistress and she says if he does, she'll cut his other hand off. Why? It's pretty obvious why.
p359 she talks about living with his grief and rage and pain ever since she cut off his hand. Those emotions were familiar to her, but she didn't recognize love until she thought she'd lost him in Ephrata (p311) and when she came into the room after he'd talked to the gods, he's lying on the floor and she says she thought she'd lost him a second time and realized she'd give anything up to keep him. If that's not love, what is? And she says "Then I see you here, and I see what I've done to you." And that's why I forgive her. She sees, and she regrets it, and that's what I missed the first time I read it. I didn't realize how much she was sorry for her actions. Which is why she gets mad every time someone disses his missing his hand, kind of like p244-245 (which is one of my absolute favorite parts in this book, but it's too long to fit here, so I'm only going to add the part I'm talking about):
[She wondered] when she had sunk so low that she had begun torturing boys. It was the question she'd asked herself night after night, lying awake in her bed or sitting in a char by the window, watching the stars slowly move across the sky.
"I listened outside your cell door every night before I sent you back to Eddis," Attolia said abruptly.
Eugenides sat quietly, waiting for her to go on.
"The first night you cried," She said. She looked for a reaction but saw none.
She had lingered outside his cell, in the dim light of the lamps, alone because she'd sent away her escort while she listened. Alone, because she had known, even then, that she would turn on any guard who mocked the Thief's pain. [...] The sound of his tears had kept her from sleep that night and woken her from nightmares since the evening she'd heard them.
She doesn't want anyone to laugh at or make fun of the Thief, and not only because she was the one who did that to him. And not only that, but she was kept awake by what she did, wondering what kind of person she was to torture boys. He haunts her dreams, isn't that cute.
"Who am I, that you should love me?"
"You are My Queen," said Eugenides. She sat perfectly still, looking at him without moving as his words dropped like water into dry earth.
"Do you believe me?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered.
"Do you love me?"
"Yes."
"I love you."
And she believed him.
I also want to point out that my original opinion was that it was lame that he got caught and how does Gen of all people get caught - to answer that, pg 346 answers the ppl like me who think Gen should be unstoppable (which he is). Moira told Attolia how to capture him. Attolia didn't outsmart him. She knew he'd been sneaking through her palace for a very long time, leaving things behind or tweaking them so that she'd know he was there. It made her mad but there's a reason he'd been doing it for so long, because no matter how hard she tried, he outwitted or outran everyone she put on him. The only reason she captured him was because the gods helped her, which means he can outsmart everyone but the gods. So he's just as awesome as ever
I'm still a little bit annoyed that Nahusaresh didn't get any comeuppance, but I'm patient. I don't remember if he does in the other books, but I'm willing to pretend he does, and it doesn't matter as much now as it used to the first time I read the book.
One thing I really appreciate about MWT and this series: she doesn't have those YA-novel, fictional stereotypes of "strong female character". The queen has ruled for most of her life so yes she's strong, but she wants Gen to rule, she'd love to hand over her kingdom to him if he'd take it, and I appreciate that bc I think most of us would do that (us as in people, not specifically us females), especially after she sees how smart he is in dealing with difficult people. Also, the queen of Eddis, tho more of the typical "tough girl", she's still interested in getting married to Sophos and
Spoiler
leaving Eddis, andI guess in conclusion, I would recommend this book. But I would also highly recommend rereading it after a year (or reading it with someone who loved it) if you hated it like I did.
Original Review Feb 15, 2018 (three stars)
OK, I TAKE IT BACK, THIS IS NOT FIVE STARS. I know I said it would be in my review of The Thief but I was wrong.
I know most people thought this book was amazing. I didn't. This book was lame lame lame. But I really enjoyed it. (like how)
I just hate how he
Spoiler
NEVER GETS HIS FLIPPIN HAND BACKThis book was a lot like The First Sir Percy in that they both have the same sense of humor (Diogenes and Eugenides) except that Gen has a more complainy attitude (not complaining about it, it adds spice), and they both have almost impossible names, and they both get maimed. Only Dio doesn't believe in gods, and he doesn't get maimed the same way and the book ends on a happy note, despite being maimed.
I mean, sure, this book ends on a happy note, too, but it's less happy. It's sort of happy. I found myself not really wanting the marriage to happen because she just didn't seem like she loved him. I really wanted him to get together with Agape even though I knew that wasn't going to happen. I just wish maybe Attolia had been nicer but I guess that's just not her personality. :( I kept expecting, though, when he's
Spoiler
really mad at the gods and they're like what, didn't you deserve this, and then she asks how much he'd give to have his hand back ("Your sight?") and he's like wait what and she's like lol no jkjk just a hypothetical question (BASICALLY saying "What's done is done"), and I'm like really why? Why can't you just let him have his hand back? It would help him so muchAnyway, so yes I liked it. I would have really liked (maybe even loved) it if all my wishes had been fulfilled (ahem
Spoiler
him getting his hand backSo if you've read The Thief, and you fell in love with Eugenides (we all did), then you might not want to read this book. Or maybe you do. Whatever, ruin your world if you want to. Like I care anymore...