Book Review - The Queen of Attolia
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
It's typical that as soon as I get caught up on reviews I suddenly have a reading binge and end up 4 behind again! *grumbles* ah well I'm determined to stick to this reviewing resolution as best I can so here we go!
**Warning!! Description contains fairly important spoilers for The Thief so Beware!!**
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
Date: 13/1/2011 AM
Source: Bought
Description: When Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis, stole Hamiathes's Gift, the Queen of Attolia lost more than a mythical relic. She lost face. Everyone knew that Eugenides had outwitted and escaped her. To restore her reputation and reassert her power, the Queen of Attolia will go to any length and accept any help that is offered...she will risk her country to execute the perfect revenge.
Eugenides can steal anything. And he taunts the Queen of Attolia, moving through her strongholds seemingly at will. So Attolia waits, secure in the knowledge that the Thief will slip, that he will haunt her palace one too many times.
When Eugenides finds his small mountain country at war with Attolia, he must steal a man, he must steal a queen, he must steal peace. But his greatest triumph, and his greatest loss, comes in capturing something that the Queen of Attolia thought she had sacrificed long ago... (Description Taken from Goodreads)
My Review
After thoroughly enjoying The Thief when I read it late last year I bought the 2nd book with some of my christmas vouchers and then devoured it in one sitting last week. I'd seen some comments that people said they found this book predictable but I honestly couldn't see that. I find that Eugenides surprises me all the time and I can never really anticipate what crazy thing he might do next.
In this book we see a completely different side to Gen since in the Thief he was rather cocky and brash about his ability to steal anything but now we see how vulnerable he can really be. Very early on in the book he is punished harshly by the Queen of Attolia (the rival Queen to Gen's Queen) and he has to adapt to life with this injury. I didn't realise in the first book how young he was but I believe that he can't be much more than 20 years old which makes him even more impressive and yet it's kind of tragic what he has to go through.
I liked all the political intrigue in this book although we don't see much of the actual fighting between the three main countries in this world (Eddis, Soumis and Attolia). I also love it whenever Gen gets up to one of his schemes since they're always wonderfully entertaining and I definitely didn't expect the direction of his plans but then he is rather good at keeping things close to his chest.
It was good to learn more about the Queen of Eddis and the difficulties she had to overcome because of being both young and female in a fairly male-dominated world. She's the kind of no-nonsense person you'd like to keep on good terms with or you can bet that things won't end well for you. Her sort-of brotherly relationship with Gen was also really interesting to read about.
Overall a very enjoyable and solid sequel to the Thief. I'm looking forward to reading the third book King of Attolia and seeing what will happen next to Gen and co. Megan Whalen Turner has created a wonderfully rich world and is written so that each volume ends well despite there only being 350ish pages long. If you like Tamora Pierce then I reckon this series would be right up your street.
My Rating: 4 out 5 Stars
If anyone knows of any other fantasy series that are similar to this one then please give me recommendations in the comments below!
LadyV
In this book we see a completely different side to Gen since in the Thief he was rather cocky and brash about his ability to steal anything but now we see how vulnerable he can really be. Very early on in the book he is punished harshly by the Queen of Attolia (the rival Queen to Gen's Queen) and he has to adapt to life with this injury. I didn't realise in the first book how young he was but I believe that he can't be much more than 20 years old which makes him even more impressive and yet it's kind of tragic what he has to go through.
I liked all the political intrigue in this book although we don't see much of the actual fighting between the three main countries in this world (Eddis, Soumis and Attolia). I also love it whenever Gen gets up to one of his schemes since they're always wonderfully entertaining and I definitely didn't expect the direction of his plans but then he is rather good at keeping things close to his chest.
It was good to learn more about the Queen of Eddis and the difficulties she had to overcome because of being both young and female in a fairly male-dominated world. She's the kind of no-nonsense person you'd like to keep on good terms with or you can bet that things won't end well for you. Her sort-of brotherly relationship with Gen was also really interesting to read about.
Overall a very enjoyable and solid sequel to the Thief. I'm looking forward to reading the third book King of Attolia and seeing what will happen next to Gen and co. Megan Whalen Turner has created a wonderfully rich world and is written so that each volume ends well despite there only being 350ish pages long. If you like Tamora Pierce then I reckon this series would be right up your street.
My Rating: 4 out 5 Stars
If anyone knows of any other fantasy series that are similar to this one then please give me recommendations in the comments below!
LadyV
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