Megan Whalen Turner's "The Thief", second time around

The first time I read "The Thief", I really liked it. But the narrative pace is so brisk and the plot so compelling that I rushed through it. And, given the tricksy nature of both that plot and of the main character, I suspected that if I read it again, I'd have even more fun than I did the first time.

Well, I was right.  :D I reread "The Thief" and it was SO GOOD the second time through. Now that I knew what our hero, Eugenides, was up to, I caught so many tricks and traps and nuances that I hadn't even suspected the first time around.

My admiration for Whalen Turner grows and grows. Now I can't wait to reread the rest of the series!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Book Notes: "The King of Attolia", by Megan Whalen Turner

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner


I might be more in love with Eugenides than I am with Miles Vorkosigan.

Miles is flashier and I love him to bits, but Eugenides isn't just clever and suffering and single-minded, he's pious. And that might be the difference.

I'm not sure. But, in "The King of Attolia" - which is totally about Eugenides - the main point-of-view character isn't Eugenides at all, but a palace guardsman named Costis. And having a side character show us the story allows Turner to play her customary hide-and-seek games with the plot, sneakily revealing one fascinating detail after another in order to distract us from what she's doing with her other hand.

It took me well into half the book to realize that the main conflict wasn't all the showy fights between Eugenides and his rebellious barons, but the argument that Eugenides was having with his god.

The argument between Eugenides and his god.

This is why I love really, really good fantasy: because it is the best kind of literature for the devout. In the story world, anyway, fantasy authors take theology seriously. That's my kind of story.

Anyway, I won't say much more about any of the story, because it's best read, not recounted. But only this one more tidbit to entice you:

On the side matter of Eugenides and our poor POV character Costis: at first I thought that Eugenides was being hilariously mean to his poor guardsman. But then I realized: Oh wait, he's being kind. Ruthlessly.

Eugenides is that kind of character.

Please write more about him, Ms. Whalen? Please?


-Jessica Snell

View all my reviews

Book Notes: "A Conspiracy of Kings" by Megan Whalen Turner

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, I meant to go to sleep at 11 last night and made the mistake of picking up this book. Ended up getting to bed close to 3 in the morning, completely satisfied because I'd just swallowed a most excellent story in one delicious gulp. Golly, Turner is good!

View all my reviews

-Jessica Snell

Book Notes: "The Thief" by Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think I found this book through a recommendation by Lois McMaster Bujold (whose own work I can't recommend highly enough) and I'm glad I picked it up.

This book follows a thief, Gen, on a quest to steal a magical object. The twist (well, the first twist) is that he's plucked from his jail cell by a magus and told he'll go on the quest or else.

The story is set in a fictitious world that's nonetheless highly influenced by the world of ancient Greece, and Turner did a marvelous job of it - you can practically see the silver light reflecting off of the leaves of the olive trees.

This story also did something I've never seen done before, and I don't want to talk too much about it for fear of spoiling the fun. Suffice it to say: it's very clever. The whole book is compelling, but after I read the last chapter, I wanted to go back and read the whole thing again, because there's information at the end that casts everything that happened before it in an entirely new light.

Yet even without that extra information, the first read-through is excellent. The story didn't need what she did at the end in order to be a good story - it already was. But the end gave you a second good story, almost as a bonus. It's almost as if Turner wrote two books, and you get to read both of them at the same time, and you don't realize that you actually read two till you're at the end.

And if that sounds confusing, well, the fault is mine. The book's not confusing, not at all. Just good, and clever. Recommended.

View all my reviews