The Queen of Attolia (Queen's Thief, #2)

by Megan Whalen Turner

Discover the world of the Queen's Thief New York Times-bestselling author Megan Whalen Turner's entrancing and award-winning Queen's Thief novels bring to life the world of the epics and feature one of the most charismatic and incorrigible characters of fiction, Eugenides the thief.

Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief novels are rich with political machinations and intrigue, battles lost and won, dangerous journeys, divine intervention, power, passion, revenge, and deception. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R. R. Martin.

The brilliant thief Eugenides has visited the Queen of Attolia's palace one too many times, leaving small tokens and then departing unseen. When his final excursion does not go as planned, he is captured by the ruthless queen.

The Queen's Thief novels have been praised by writers, critics, reviewers, and fans and have been honored with glowing reviews, "best of" citations, and numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Newbery Honor, the Andre Norton Award shortlist, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.

• ISBN10: 0060841826
• ISBN13: 9780060841829
• Publish Date: 24 January 2006 (first published 26 April 2000)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 4 April 2017
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Greenwillow Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[nitzan_schwarz]

March 2017 re-read
There are two things I feel compelled to say about this novel after the re-read. Things I didn't consider the first time around.

First, this is not young adult, although the main character is rather young (unspecified, but believed the be around 17 or eighteen). It could also not be described as new adult. This is a book aimed at adult. Younger readers will enjoy it for sure, but they may find themselves struggling with the unique representations of both love and war in this novel.

When you think of it, it's only fitting that this novel discuss both these topics in such a unique way, as all is fair in love and war.

Secondly, this is a romance, and I've realized lately that some of my favorite romance novels out there are the ones that you don't realize are romances until the very last chapters (like in Howl's Moving Castle). So both the romantics among you and the anti-romance can relax, this book is both... at the very same time. And I enjoy every second of it.

Third... this book is such a raw examination of pain. Gen's reactions to everything that happen to him are so genuine. He is not a fierce, brave hero, unafraid and unwilling to let thing hinder him. He feels. He reacts. He is sometimes rush in his desire to rid himself of these emotions. He sulks and he takes his anger and frustration and fear on those closest to him. He is so human, and so relate-able, and his pain is palatable.

If any of those things sound appealing to you, as they are to me... pick up this series.

P.S - I find Turner to be such a unique author, because she knows which POV will benefit her novels the most and is unafraid to shake things up, even though she must know her reader expect a certain thing. Delightful.

2014 cleaning my shelves challenge + 2014 series challenge

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This book. OMG. Where do I begin. AHHH. I don't know. Geez, this book. THIS BOOK. I thought I knew what to expect from this book after reading the first. I DIDN'T. Oh my god. This book took me by surprise. I cannot believe the author did this. I am happy she did, cause I freakin' loved it. But... OMG. This book. I'm freakin' out. Okay, give me a sec. *takes a deep breaths* people, whether you read past this little attack of how-the-hell-do-I-talk-about-this-book-oh-my-the-feels or not.... READ THIS BOOK. Cause that'll be the bottom line of this review, and I don't want you to miss it.

As I said, and is clearly evident from the beginning, I did not expect this book. Rare are the times you find a series to be unique, in completely different ways, from book to book. I never thought I would have my heart broken in the first 70 pages. That I would be looking at the book with my eyes wide open, in denial, thinking "This can't be happening. It's a trick". And then crying a lot when I realized it wasn't.

Then there was the entire vibe of the book. It handled the subject of war in a way that I felt was unique and fresh. It...

To read the rest of this review, go here!

[ladygrey]

I'm kind of struggling with this book. It's well written; reminds me of [a:Anne McCaffrey|26|Anne McCaffrey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1323715139p2/26.jpg] or even a little [a:Robin McKinley|5339|Robin McKinley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1314406026p2/5339.jpg] but I wouldn't say it's as good as McKinley's work in the same genre - sort of the a-typical young adult book that's for teenagers but not kids but isn't really what you think of when you think of YA.

Mostly I had a hard time because it's sort of a dry, distant book, all about plot and politics and countries more than people. I like characters and I like emotions and I think we need good characters to move us through stories, otherwise we don't much care what happens.

And there are good characters in this story, but they sort of borrow on [b:The Thief|19063|The Book Thief|Markus Zusak|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522157426l/19063._SY75_.jpg|878368] rather than being well developed in this book. Gen loses all spark of mischievousness and knowing unpredictability he had. Understandably so, given what happens, but it doesn't make him especially interesting. Attolia is complex but we only get glimpses of her and one nicely done bit of exposition.

In fact, for the most part we only get glimpses of any of the characters, a paragraph or two of dialog or internal exposition that explains how and why we get to what happens next. It's much more a tool of the plot than any chance to connect to the characters, which was disappointing. And I was honestly dismayed with how Gen and Attolia's relationship played out. Their romance was plausible because [a:Megan Whalen Turner|22542|Megan Whalen Turner|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1489507023p2/22542.jpg] gave hints where Gen thinks she's beautiful and Attolia is sort of obsessed with him and weirdly protective. But it wasn't nearly enough to justify his sudden exclamation of love and the story turning on that moment into a whole different tone. Suddenly, the characters matter?! I mean, I like that but it just came out of no where and it's weird to going from a story where we don't spend nearly enough time with the characters to they're all that's left. I would have much rather see the characters more clearly; understood their emotions and thoughts throughout the story so that moment that changed everything seemed pivotal and not jarring.

And yet, despite the fact that it isn't what I want it to be, it's still a good book.