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4.52 AVERAGE
4.52 AVERAGE
“Nahuseresh says I am a bastard, not a king.” I saw Attolia follow his gaze, this time to Eddis, as the king continued. “A Thief and not a king. He wanted to know what I can steal now, and I look forward to showing him.”
Four and a half completely biased stars.
Turner does the same thing she’d done in her previous books, which is bring us a new character who’s the main perspective of the book. But this time I actually loved the main character, Pheris. I liked reading about how Pheris as an outsider views the main characters like Gen, Irene (*vomit* I still hate her), Eddis, and Sophos. And how over time Pheris who was hated and ridiculed by everyone for being disabled becomes one of the closest to Gen, his family’s enemy and a king Pheris serves from his heart.
Turner lets the main characters in the Queen’s Thief series shine, which in my opinion didn’t get to happen in Thick As Thieves. The style of narration for this book is a bit different from the previous ones. Instead of staying in the first or third person, it shifts back and forth and takes the form of an autobiographical account. Let’s hope that Pheris, the writer got some important facts right:
“… Melheret is, this very minute, lecturing [Sophos] again about shooting his ambassador.”
…
[Gen] assured the Braeling in a high-handed manner that he wasn’t going to start firing at ambassadors the way [Sophos] had…
…
[Gen] conceded waving his hand. “You’re right. [Sophos] can shoot [the Mede ambassador] instead.”
…
[Susa] went on to catalogue [Gen’s] transgressions: the many examples of rudeness, the theft of the Mede ambassador’s statue, the assault on the Pent, every complaint a thread with which, loop on loop, he meant to bind [Gen]. Susa even blamed him for the shooting of the Mede ambassador by [Sophos].
Yep, sounds about good! It’s okay because even if Pheris happened to miss it, a hundred years after he has died, Gen will come back to life to remind us all that Sophos shot an ambassador.
Anyway, in this book the kingdoms of the Little Peninsula are up against the powerful Mede empire. In an attempt to have a fighting chance the three kingdoms unite in which our Gen becomes the high king. While Gen was viewed more distantly from the previous books, this book and its central conflict gives Gen the time to shine despite his many flaws (temper, sharp-tongue). He’s still that scheming, shrewd thief he’s been since book one. You still root for him. That’s what made this book fun to read.
Well that’s the end of the series. I feel a little sad. But when I’d finished Return of the Thief I also felt like giving the book a hug (which I didn’t cause that’s weird and I’d read this on my iPad as a library loan so no physical book to hug). I don’t know how to explain this but despite never having given any of these books five stars the series is so close to my heart. I can’t believe it’s actually over. If we go back to the old covers I might buy the entire series. Actually I love the characters so much I might ignore the cover changes for all of them.
WOW!!!! I loved this series so much! She is such a smart and thoughtful writer, and seeing the characters develop throughout as well as the plot was a joy.
I binge read this series in six days and I'm not joking when I say that even five brilliant books could not have prepared me for the absolute triumph that is the last one.
YOU GUYS.
I can't say anything here hardly at all. If I had to try to extremely vaguely describe this book, I'd say it's a good blend of Queen of Attolia and King of Attolia.
Just know that every single one of my predictions was wrong and I am ECSTATIC about it.
Edit 02/23/2024: I STILL cannot believe we got an everybody lives/nobody dies story, guys. It's been 4 years and I am still SHAKEN to my core.
I hope MWT knows how worried she had me. I hope she understands the chokehold of terror she had me in, absolutely sure that Gen was going to fall ill and die a premature death, or any other manner of awful things were going to happen. Especially with the UNCALLED-FOR tagline on the back of the book "history is written by the winners" making it clear the book was "written" from an Erondites POV! Cruel and unusual.
And then she does THIS. I'm aghast, but I'm not mad. How can I be mad when I was given everything I could have ever wanted????
Some spoilery things:
I can't say anything here hardly at all. If I had to try to extremely vaguely describe this book, I'd say it's a good blend of Queen of Attolia and King of Attolia.
Just know that every single one of my predictions was wrong and I am ECSTATIC about it.
Edit 02/23/2024: I STILL cannot believe we got an everybody lives/nobody dies story, guys. It's been 4 years and I am still SHAKEN to my core.
I hope MWT knows how worried she had me. I hope she understands the chokehold of terror she had me in, absolutely sure that Gen was going to fall ill and die a premature death, or any other manner of awful things were going to happen. Especially with the UNCALLED-FOR tagline on the back of the book "history is written by the winners" making it clear the book was "written" from an Erondites POV! Cruel and unusual.
And then she does THIS. I'm aghast, but I'm not mad. How can I be mad when I was given everything I could have ever wanted????
Some spoilery things:
• There is so much literal divine intervention in this book. I thought the gods were getting a little frisky when they manifested just to stop Gen from tossing Pheris out, but then later...!
• All the kings and queens and their relationships <3<3<3 Again, I can't believe we got to have ALL OF THIS. When Sophos douses Gen with a bowl of water... Hearteyes. It's what Gen deserves.
• Pheris is a very interesting POV character. Because he's always hiding, he gets away with "coincidentally overhearing" important plot points in a way that's ALMOST but not quite unbelievable. His development from pretending to be an imbecile to eventually finding his place and his role is great. The part at the beginning where he just goes to sleep and then wakes up like "oh, I've missed Sophos and Eddis's wedding" YEAH THAT'S FINE. COMPLETELY FINE TO JUST MISS THAT ENTIRE SCENE. AND JUST MOVE ON. MEGAN.
• The Eddisians are fully feral in a way that the previous books did not fully communicate. Also it's FASCINATING to see how tenuous Gen's position was in Eddis through the more explicit window opened by this book.
• The Pent ambassador scene... I cannot express in words the perfection of this. Gen walks in and Attolia just yells "RUN" because she knows. She knows. And then Gen being all offended at her and her getting offended right back because SHE was the one who was assaulted. Iconic. Flawless. Unparalleled.
• The one single crime this book committed is yet again not enough Costis and Kamet. When Costis was there he was EXCELLENT, though.
• Attolia in this book in general. We get to see so much more of her personality than we previously have, and she even makes the occasional joke. You can just see how she is THRIVING.
• The entire war. I love the concept of Attolia and Eddis orchestrating everything because of their extensive past experience prosecuting wars, meanwhile Gen and Sophos do who-knows-what down with the soldiers.
• Gen getting a "Henry V in disguise around the campfire" moment.
• I did NOT see the betrayal from the greater powers of the continent coming. I don't know how, but for some reason that suckerpunched me.
• The minister of war ;_;
• THE BABIEEEEEEEEES
It took me months to finally get around to reading this because I was TRULY TERRIFIED that I would be let down; books four and five were fine, enjoyable, fine times, but QoA and KoA are absolutely the pinnacle of literature as a whole and impossibly hard to beat. And, for me, the final book didn’t beat them—which is fine! They are the pinnacle of literature, they already exist in this world and are perfection! This book was perfectly enjoyable in its own right, and there were many things I loved:
-Pheris as a character and narrator: PERFECT, easily my favorite since wonderful himbo Costis as KoA’a third-person narrative
-Some absolutely lovely and perfect Gen moments, including everything in the Mede camp and, my favorite, when he resigned in an apparent fit of rage and all the barons Lost It
-Teleus and Relius have been IN my brain since KoA and I’m SO GLAD THEY ARE IN LOVE and also that Relius was not in fact dead, that would have been a BAD CHOICE and I am WELL pleased
-Eddis and Attolia as friends and comrades is just absolutely excellent and I love and adore them
-The final scene with everyone dancing on the roof was just ;—; everyone in this book please have a nice day every day
Things I liked less:
-I do NOT UNDERSTAND why Kamet/Costis is not just clear and open, I’m so perplexed by this and am never going to understand it and am ALWAYS going to be frustrated by it. I’m frustrated! It’s frustrating!
-honestly that......was the main thing
-I DO wish we’d gotten to see Dite one last time, bless his heart, but I was pleased with the Sejanus arc tbh, that was well done indeed
-somehow it felt like there was slightly too little Sounis, I thiiiink we could have spent a little more time with him, but! It’s tricky balancing so many characters and trying to sum everything up, so I get it!
-HONESTLY THOUGH KAMET AND COSTIS I JUST!!!! Like they are CLEARLY a thing, I just wanted them to have like A Dance but they didnnnnnnnnt and I’m sad
On the whole, a deeply enjoyable ending for all my wonderful kids. I’m very pleased with where everyone ended up and glad about the happy ending! Not quite as much depth as there was in books two and three, but there is not as much depth in ANY book EVER written as there is in those two books, so. I feel well-served by a most excellent author and am so so pleased to have gotten to spend so much time with these, my favorite characters in literary history.
-Pheris as a character and narrator: PERFECT, easily my favorite since wonderful himbo Costis as KoA’a third-person narrative
-Some absolutely lovely and perfect Gen moments, including everything in the Mede camp and, my favorite, when he resigned in an apparent fit of rage and all the barons Lost It
-Teleus and Relius have been IN my brain since KoA and I’m SO GLAD THEY ARE IN LOVE and also that Relius was not in fact dead, that would have been a BAD CHOICE and I am WELL pleased
-Eddis and Attolia as friends and comrades is just absolutely excellent and I love and adore them
-The final scene with everyone dancing on the roof was just ;—; everyone in this book please have a nice day every day
Things I liked less:
-I do NOT UNDERSTAND why Kamet/Costis is not just clear and open, I’m so perplexed by this and am never going to understand it and am ALWAYS going to be frustrated by it. I’m frustrated! It’s frustrating!
-honestly that......was the main thing
-I DO wish we’d gotten to see Dite one last time, bless his heart, but I was pleased with the Sejanus arc tbh, that was well done indeed
-somehow it felt like there was slightly too little Sounis, I thiiiink we could have spent a little more time with him, but! It’s tricky balancing so many characters and trying to sum everything up, so I get it!
-HONESTLY THOUGH KAMET AND COSTIS I JUST!!!! Like they are CLEARLY a thing, I just wanted them to have like A Dance but they didnnnnnnnnt and I’m sad
On the whole, a deeply enjoyable ending for all my wonderful kids. I’m very pleased with where everyone ended up and glad about the happy ending! Not quite as much depth as there was in books two and three, but there is not as much depth in ANY book EVER written as there is in those two books, so. I feel well-served by a most excellent author and am so so pleased to have gotten to spend so much time with these, my favorite characters in literary history.
I didn't really care for all the retconning of characters and relationships that happened in the pages of this book, and even less for the severe sidelining of the female characters, but I liked the new POV character very much and still enjoyed it as an entry in this well-established, beloved, interesting world.
The Queen's Thief series will forever be one of my favorites with the wittiest and funniest main character I was ever introduced to.
In this latest book in the series, the story is told from Pheris point of view, the physically disabled and mute grandson of the Baron Erondites. After Erondites eldest son was exiled and his second son imprisoned, the High King Eugenides made an agreement with Baron Erondites, to take in a child from his family to be raised in the palace, away from the scheming family of the baron and to make sure he is not corrupted by them. The baron in turn, decides to send Pheris, as he never plans to let him become head of the family and only wants to let him live long enough until his younger brother is ready to become heir.
What I absolutely love about the books in this series, is that there is a new POV in almost every book and I wasn't disappointed with this stunning conclusion either. I loved to see the story unfold from Pheris' POV and to see him become one of Eugenides' most trusted companions. Rarely does a book introduce its' readers to a set of characters as outstanding as the ones in this series, with so much depth and amazing character development, that you just can't help but adore.
With every book I read in this series I was astonished again and again by the twists and turns the story took and the incredibly surprising revelations. What is more, the author has such a uniquely amazing writing style - hiding details between the lines so you get to find them like little hidden easter eggs if you're attentive. I found myself rereading entire passages just for the joy of rediscovering them and I can't wait to one day reread the whole series to discover the ones I might have missed the first time.
In this latest book in the series, the story is told from Pheris point of view, the physically disabled and mute grandson of the Baron Erondites. After Erondites eldest son was exiled and his second son imprisoned, the High King Eugenides made an agreement with Baron Erondites, to take in a child from his family to be raised in the palace, away from the scheming family of the baron and to make sure he is not corrupted by them. The baron in turn, decides to send Pheris, as he never plans to let him become head of the family and only wants to let him live long enough until his younger brother is ready to become heir.
What I absolutely love about the books in this series, is that there is a new POV in almost every book and I wasn't disappointed with this stunning conclusion either. I loved to see the story unfold from Pheris' POV and to see him become one of Eugenides' most trusted companions. Rarely does a book introduce its' readers to a set of characters as outstanding as the ones in this series, with so much depth and amazing character development, that you just can't help but adore.
With every book I read in this series I was astonished again and again by the twists and turns the story took and the incredibly surprising revelations. What is more, the author has such a uniquely amazing writing style - hiding details between the lines so you get to find them like little hidden easter eggs if you're attentive. I found myself rereading entire passages just for the joy of rediscovering them and I can't wait to one day reread the whole series to discover the ones I might have missed the first time.
What an ending to such a beloved series. Because I didn't love books 4 & 5 the way I loved the first three, I was a little nervous about this final chapter, especially when we are introduced to yet another new narrator. But instead, Ferris turned out to be maybe my favorite narrator of all and the plot of Return of the Thief is beyond outstanding--I never knew which way it was going to turn. Eugenides remains one of my all time favorite characters, but with elements from so many of the previous books woven in here all I can say is that this feels like a masterpiece of planning and craftsmanship from Megan Whalen Turner. And obviously, Steve West nails the narration without fail. One of the all time greats, I'd listen to him read a grocery list.
I put reading this off for MONTHS because I didn’t want it to end, and I didn’t want one of the worst years of my life to influence my enjoyment of it. And much like the first book, that I consumed in a single night’s sitting, I ate it up in record time and it took my breath away. I bow to the queen Megan Whalen Turner one final time. I will literally read anything and everything you write for the rest of my days. Please never stop.
I read this twice in very rapid succession, once to find out how everything resolved, and once to savor these last stories of Gen and Helen and Irene and Sophos.
Strengths:
The new Erondites, his point-of-view narrative strength and his relationship with Relius in particular
Turner's ability to describe so many competing events and personalities with clarity
The moments of suspense and their (generally) happy resolutions
The final scenes with Gen and Moira
Weaknesses:
Gen's status as a near superhero, and his retconned ability to deploy the powers of his God in human conflicts
The confusing, unnecessary idea that Eddis's council of ministers was going to have Gen killed when he was still a teenager (before the events of [b:The Thief|448873|The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1)|Megan Whalen Turner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1427740839l/448873._SY75_.jpg|1069505]), because somehow they recognized his future powers and saw him as a threat, even though he hadn't yet had any encounters with the Gods that they knew of -- not to mention the ridiculous idea that neither Eddis nor the Minister of War could overrule the Council's choice
That last one still bothers me. It's unnecessary and ridiculous. It retroactively diminishes the power of Gen's journey to find Hephastia's Stone, and I hate that, because that story remains my favorite of all of these. Gen didn't start out as a superhero, and his growing ability to achieve all his goals was the central weaknesses of the whole series.
Still, I was immensely relieved that (almost) everyone got their happy ending, and I'm sad to see the series end.
Strengths:
The new Erondites, his point-of-view narrative strength and his relationship with Relius in particular
Turner's ability to describe so many competing events and personalities with clarity
The moments of suspense and their (generally) happy resolutions
The final scenes with Gen and Moira
Weaknesses:
Gen's status as a near superhero, and his retconned ability to deploy the powers of his God in human conflicts
The confusing, unnecessary idea that Eddis's council of ministers was going to have Gen killed when he was still a teenager (before the events of [b:The Thief|448873|The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1)|Megan Whalen Turner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1427740839l/448873._SY75_.jpg|1069505]), because somehow they recognized his future powers and saw him as a threat, even though he hadn't yet had any encounters with the Gods that they knew of -- not to mention the ridiculous idea that neither Eddis nor the Minister of War could overrule the Council's choice
That last one still bothers me. It's unnecessary and ridiculous. It retroactively diminishes the power of Gen's journey to find Hephastia's Stone, and I hate that, because that story remains my favorite of all of these. Gen didn't start out as a superhero, and his growing ability to achieve all his goals was the central weaknesses of the whole series.
Still, I was immensely relieved that (almost) everyone got their happy ending, and I'm sad to see the series end.