Megan Whalen Turner - Tumblr Posts

AKA, How to sit on a throne when you’re Attolis Eugenides

Here’s my mismatched set in the place of honor on our bookshelf!

cannot recommend more putting secrets and hints in your creative work that you dont expect anyone to figure out

Attolia Irene the legend herself

Might I add my tips for old tumblr users:

1. read the queen's thief series by megan whalen turner

tips for new tumblr users:

1. read the queen’s thief series by megan whalen turner

This. Like the whiny side of him is real. He kept his personality and attitude, but not his identity. Which is interesting to me, because it means Sophos (as well as others) knows what he's like, the way he behaves, and all that. So when Sophos decides he likes him, he doesn't have to rethink that later, because he does know gen, he just didn't see all the signs.

And it let's the reader fall in love with him and get to the end and go "yup I love him"

one thing that i LOVE about the queen's thief series is that MWT really took the time to make sure that we all understand that the protagonist is a weird, whiny little shit. like, she could have said "oh gen was just PRETENDING to be whiny and insufferable in The Thief, he's actually cool and suave!!"

but no. she establishes that he's a genius who's been running a con the whole time, and ALSO he's whiny and insufferable.

A silly king of Attolia/the emperors new groove comic

i was watching a youtube video about the three main character deaths you can use in a story (physical, professional & psychological) and consequently the three main threats that can hang over a character’s head, and i realised one of the reasons eugenides’s arc is so interesting in the queen’s thief is that he suffers all three.

the physical aspect is fairly self-evident (*insert hand pun*). obviously, he never actually dies, but the threat is ever present and he does suffer quite a lot of physical harm which deeply affects the plot and his character arc.

this goes hand in hand (i swear i wasn’t actually trying to insert a hand pun) with the professional death, because the loss of his hand means, to him, that he can never steal anything again. he overcomes this, but it’s terribly hard, and he goes through a lot of development because of it. then he gets himself into a “disaster”: he becomes king. and he can’t be the thief anymore, not like he used to. he can’t be independent, he can’t do whatever he wants. even though he can still work in the shadows, he’s in the light and everyone is looking at him, and all those eyes expect things from him. the king of attolia is about him reconciling his identity as thief and his identity as king, about him stepping into his new role.

of course, he’s not just a thief, he’s the thief. in the last book, the figure of the thief acquires a darker meaning. it’s threatening, and terrifying, a slippery slope. gen is always at risk of tripping, of falling, of completely losing his humanity. he suffers a lot psychologically through the series, but i’d say this is the main psychological death looming over him. and he doesn’t die, because a lot of people love him, and a lot of people are ready to catch him. “saved him from what? saved him from becoming the thief, the murderous figure sitting alone with his dead.”

a friend of mine is reading the queen’s thief and guys. guys. will someone in my life finally understand the cultural significance of “diplomacy. in my own name” and “and she believed him” and “stop whining and go to bed” and “i love your eyes, i love your ears and i love every single one of your ridiculous lies” and “I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT”

Every time I finish rereading one of the books I pull up Tumblr, Pinterest, and livejournal to look for other people talking about it because I always miss stuff and other people are as excited as I am

Have just finished "Thick as Thieves", book five of Megan Whalen Turner's "Queen's Thief" series, and I'm frustrated I have no-one I can gush over this.

I've loved all five of the six books books in the series. Every one has had me on tenterhooks throughout, and with twists and turns that have frequently left me shocked and amazed, even when expecting to be tricked and bamboozled.

So if you want complex and clever storytelling, with well fleshed out and believable characters; telling a story of complex political intrigue set in a pseudo-Mediterranean fantasy world; then I thoroughly recommend this series

I am feeling things specifically about Kamet telling the naughty kitchen boy so much about Laela that Gen could be sure she would lie to save him.

Like.

That’s not “The kid liked my translations.”

They talked. Tight-lipped, haughty Kamet who was sure no one in Attolia cared about him at all told this naughty sandal polisher so much about his life and gave him money so he could make it home even thought slaves don’t do favors. He told him about his life and then the boy stuck with him so clearly that Kamet tells COSTIS about him! multiple times!

They were friends.

I didn’t think anyone in Attolia knew my name

my brother in Shesmegah you befriended an entire kitchen staff

I enjoy so much the crossed lines of communication threaded throughout this book that’s basically

Costis: hey trauma victim, my king is so chill, so kind, so cool, it’s all going to be fine, he won’t whip you or anything

Kamet: oh so he’s an idiot

The nice thing about a character as clever as Gen is he can be ascribed multiple motivations at once and it can be true. Like, with Kamet’s rescue, it’s spite, it’s kindness, and it’s politically motivated. All three are true.

With his befriending Kamet as a kitchen boy, maybe multiple things are all true at once. Maybe he saw a good source of information about the Medes and pumped Kamet for intel much in the same way Kamet was supposed to pump the Attolian servants. Maybe he really did want to know about the Mede gods and afterlife, to hedge his own bets. Maybe he was as interested in Kamet’s knowledge and scholarly ways as he had been with the Magus, as Pheris would be with Kamet later on. And maybe Gen saw how lonely Kamet was, isolated as he saw by his unusual status, and decided to plow right over that gulf.

So I started reading the Queen's Thief series and uh

is it still an incorrect quotes if it's by the author? anyway this post has been living rent free in my head for three years and it's high time i exorcised it with a sketchy lil comic.

The whole tower window tug-of-war scene is jussssssssst

Okay, first of all, Gen being a little snot and singing Dite’s song insulting himself and Irene where everyone can hear INCLUDING IRENE

Sophos taking the initiative as one of the few people, politically and personally, who can dump Gen on his behind without consequences (see: ACOK, also Sophos’s general Baby Of The Group nature), to defend his Now Very Good Friend Irene and give Gen some consequences

The absolutely Buster Keaton physicality of the entire scene

Sophos turning back to the window to yell something rude down at Gen only for Gen to be in the window nose to nose with him like

and then the absolute insanity of the Annux of the Little Peninsula and the King of Sounis tug-of-warring in a position that would mean actual death or broken bones at any outcome

And everyone’s just having a grand ol’ time (except Pheris)

The Thief is a great read that I really enjoyed!

every book in the series that followed it made me deranged and I mean that in the most positive way possible

My sister is dyslexic, so I read these books aloud to her. She completely missed the part about the hand, but not even halfway through goes, "I don't want it to happen, but I feel like Irene and gen will get together" and I had the hardest time not flipping out

My sister, who doesn’t often get into reading, started reading The Queen’s Thief and I am being so so normal about it