Exceptional. ( )

Turner's careful plotting and incredible payoff will never NOT astound me. Gen, I love you. With my whole heart. ( )

I anticipate re-reading this series, and especially this book, many times. They're full of sweet and funny moments, broad political power struggles somehow made fascinating, and clever tricks whose foreshadowing is often sprinkled across several books.

In The King of Attolia specifically, I love the way that the characters slowly unfold themselves to each other, becoming more vulnerable and more dangerous at the same time. Costis is charmingly blunt and is a great way to see Gen from a new perspective. In many ways he's the opposite of our perspective character from the first two books, the Magis, but it's still so fun to watch him get to know the queen's thief.

I don't want to spoil anything, so I should probably leave it there. I'll just add that Attolia, Phresine, the gods, and Gen's cousins have a cozy space in my heart and I wish all of the books featured them as much as this one does. ( )

First off, I don't understand why I found this book in the children's section of the library. The plot is so complicated, the revelations so subtle, the themes and tone so mature. (And there are zero children in it.)

The story follows the twists and turns of the struggle for political power in an imaginary kingdom called Attolia. In this book we see things primarily from the perspective of Costis, a member of Attolia's Royal Guard. As he is but a pawn in the great chess match that unfolds here, it takes the reader quite a bit of effort to figure things out before (or as) Costis does. Suffice it to say, I found it kind of difficult to follow myself.

I wanted to like this book (mostly because people whose taste I respect liked it and because I loved The Thief), but I didn't. While reading it I felt like MWT lost sight of her original audience, like she got so into the head games her characters were playing that she forgot about the young reader trying to enjoy a good story.

Also, I got the distinct impression that she avoided writing what would've been the most interesting scenes. We see relatively little of the Queen and King, and instead are forced to tag along with a rather boring ancillary character (sorry, Costis). Where's the fun in that?

And, finally, one of my biggest peeves was the (SPOILER ALERT) abandonment of her original supporting characters by the end of the story. What happened to Sophos? To Eddis and the Magus? Perhaps there is a fourth book in the works. I think the only way I'd be tempted to read it is if MWT went back to first-person narration, especially if said narrator was Gen. ( )

Wasn't as good as the first two books, but still enjoyable. ( )