The King of Attolia (Queen's Thief, #3)

by Megan Whalen Turner

[nitzan_schwarz]

Dec 29, 2018 re-read
Did I just read this in a day while drowning in University essays? Yes, yes I did. Because sometimes, mental health is important, dammit!

March 2017 re-read
This is definitely my favorite novel in the series. It is, to me, the perfect novel. Having just re-read it, I know this is the novel I will re-read again and again from this fantastic series.

I just spend an entire night, until the small hours of the morning, gulping this novel in one sitting, just as I had done the first time. Unable to let it go. When I reached page 320 and saw it was three in the morning, I tried to put it down. But my heart started beating fast and my mind started racing and all I could think about was seeing where things went from there, even though I already knew, so I gave up and returned to reading it. Ridiculous, right? But in the best way possible.

The King of Attolia is the story of an unwanted king, a king who doesn't even want to be king, proving to his court that he is not just a king... he is the king of kings. And he does so by what he does best - manipulation, long-game planning and play pretend.

Because at the heart of thing, Gen does not want to be in the spotlight. He does not want to be known, unless he must. But when he must... he is not a force to be reckoned with. He is a force to be feared and cowered from. A force so strong it could move mountains. And he does all of it not because he wants to be king.. but simply because he wants a woman, and he cannot have her without it.

And how this entire story plays out? Not through Gen's eyes, or anyone who believes him. Oh no... through the eyes of one of his opposes, a squad leader who--same as the entire Queen's Guard, and the court, and the people--considers the king to be a joke. He doesn't walk like a king, he doesn't talk like a king, he doesn't look like a king, and it seems like he doesn't care he doesn't. It's infuriating and humiliating to the queen they love.

Which is why he is the perfect pov to show us the gradual shift. The way Costis slowly changes his mind from hating the king to gradual respect and the eventual realization that he would die for him same as he would his queen, he is the entire court. He is the fruit of all of Gen's efforts. He is the perfect conduit. When the best and brightest of the Queen's Guard starts to talk about the joke king as a King, people take note.

He is also a new and unknown character - a character who has never seen Gen as The fearsome Thief of Eddis, the Thief who stopped a rivaling country from attack just by the fear of assassination. A Thief who is a hero. A Thief who is a master swordsman. A Thief who stole a Magus. A Thief who stole a Queen. All the Attolians see is a young, untrained, uninterested boy. And as long as it suits Gen, that's all they see.

Now, we as the readers, we know this. We KNOW this Gen. So we can only wait with held breath for it all to unfold, for all these stupid, underestimating people to come to realize who they're really dealing with... it's absolutely glorious.

And... THE OTP GAME IS SO STRONG IN THIS ONE. YOWZA.

2014 cleaning my shelves challenge + 2014 series challenge