Monday Musings: Attolian Intrigue and Eddisian Cleverness
After finishing The Queen of Attolia last week, I picked up its sequel, The King of Attolia almost immediately. The twists and turns of QoA's finale left me craving more, and boy does KoA deliver more.
The King of Attolia picks up where its predecessor left off: with the marriage of Irene (Queen of Attolia) and Eugenides (Gen, Thief of Eddis, now King of Attolia or Attolis). After offering glimpses of the wedding night from various parties within and without the Attolian capitol, the story moves to Costis, a young squad leader in the Queen's Guard.
He's in trouble, you see. He punched Gen for baiting Teleus, the Captain of the Guard.
By rights, Costis should be executed.
But Gen has other plans. He makes Costis a lieutenant and assigns him to be Gen's personal guard and sparring partner. It makes Costis' life difficult, but his brothers in arms support him in his trials.
No one in Attolia likes Gen, except his wife. Everyone sees him as a buffoon, a puppet king who stole the queen and forced her to marry him. His attendants make Gen's life unbearable and he is unable to do anything about it because the only way to make them stop is to bring in Attolia's authority, proving that Gen isn't king.
In many ways, this book is about Gen proving to everyone -- himself included -- that he is king. And more than his reputation relies on his success. Attolia must be united to stand against the Mede Empire, who are intent on conquering Attolia and its neighbors. Without Gen as king, and the unified barons supporting him, that won't happen.
Costis, of course, does not know or care about Gen's reasons for being king. Not at first. Turner does a fine job of making us see the perspective of the Attolians, who have heretofore been the enemies or antagonists of the series. After Gen's bout with despair and his near-failure to save Eddis from its wars and Attolia from the Mede in the last book, his depression and ineptitude in this book are convincing.
Right up to the moment when the reader (and Costis) understands that they are meant to be convincing. Just as Eugenides is playing the court of Attolia, Turner is playing the readers and their expectations. (As she has for three books now; no comment on the later books until we get there.)
If The Thief is the opening act and The Queen of Attolia is the escalation, then The King of Attolia is the payoff. The court intrigue and broad perspective of QoA are honed in on the court of Attolia for this book. The narrowed perspective does nothing to lower the stakes; it simply impresses on us how the international politics of the series affect everyone from Queens and Thieves to soldiers and servants.
Gen is at his finest form here. He is clever, endearing, and infuriatingly stubborn as always. The stories that so many loved in The Thief get another reprisal with Phresine's tale. The reality of the gods and the often unsettling nature of that reality return in a smaller but no less moving way compared to the end of QoA. And in this book, more than any other so far, Turner displays her talent for characterization. These are complicated, real people she presents to us on the page. The problems they must solve are difficult and never waved away because of expediency. In short, The King of Attolia is a masterwork of young adult literature. It carries the emotions of its characters home, presenting small, intimate moments at the right times to reveal more than we thought existed in the hearts of Gen, Irene, Costis, and the rest.
(And with the knowledge of what comes in books 4 and 5, it's fun to see the seeds of those stories planted here.)
The King of Attolia picks up where its predecessor left off: with the marriage of Irene (Queen of Attolia) and Eugenides (Gen, Thief of Eddis, now King of Attolia or Attolis). After offering glimpses of the wedding night from various parties within and without the Attolian capitol, the story moves to Costis, a young squad leader in the Queen's Guard.
He's in trouble, you see. He punched Gen for baiting Teleus, the Captain of the Guard.
By rights, Costis should be executed.
But Gen has other plans. He makes Costis a lieutenant and assigns him to be Gen's personal guard and sparring partner. It makes Costis' life difficult, but his brothers in arms support him in his trials.
No one in Attolia likes Gen, except his wife. Everyone sees him as a buffoon, a puppet king who stole the queen and forced her to marry him. His attendants make Gen's life unbearable and he is unable to do anything about it because the only way to make them stop is to bring in Attolia's authority, proving that Gen isn't king.
In many ways, this book is about Gen proving to everyone -- himself included -- that he is king. And more than his reputation relies on his success. Attolia must be united to stand against the Mede Empire, who are intent on conquering Attolia and its neighbors. Without Gen as king, and the unified barons supporting him, that won't happen.
Costis, of course, does not know or care about Gen's reasons for being king. Not at first. Turner does a fine job of making us see the perspective of the Attolians, who have heretofore been the enemies or antagonists of the series. After Gen's bout with despair and his near-failure to save Eddis from its wars and Attolia from the Mede in the last book, his depression and ineptitude in this book are convincing.
Right up to the moment when the reader (and Costis) understands that they are meant to be convincing. Just as Eugenides is playing the court of Attolia, Turner is playing the readers and their expectations. (As she has for three books now; no comment on the later books until we get there.)
If The Thief is the opening act and The Queen of Attolia is the escalation, then The King of Attolia is the payoff. The court intrigue and broad perspective of QoA are honed in on the court of Attolia for this book. The narrowed perspective does nothing to lower the stakes; it simply impresses on us how the international politics of the series affect everyone from Queens and Thieves to soldiers and servants.
Gen is at his finest form here. He is clever, endearing, and infuriatingly stubborn as always. The stories that so many loved in The Thief get another reprisal with Phresine's tale. The reality of the gods and the often unsettling nature of that reality return in a smaller but no less moving way compared to the end of QoA. And in this book, more than any other so far, Turner displays her talent for characterization. These are complicated, real people she presents to us on the page. The problems they must solve are difficult and never waved away because of expediency. In short, The King of Attolia is a masterwork of young adult literature. It carries the emotions of its characters home, presenting small, intimate moments at the right times to reveal more than we thought existed in the hearts of Gen, Irene, Costis, and the rest.
(And with the knowledge of what comes in books 4 and 5, it's fun to see the seeds of those stories planted here.)
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