2594

To be quite honest, I spent a good portion of the book trying to remember who Sophos was. Why did I care about him? Why did Eugenides care about him? Who the hell was he? This was not a stand-alone book, and if you haven't read the previous books you will be lost and confused. Hell, as evidenced by me, you might be lost and confused regardless.

I liked the book well enough, but couldn't care about Sophos, who was too passive by far for about 90% of the book, and then suddenly towards the end develops a spine and a (before unseen) political conniving and foresight.

But mainly, I wanted more Eugenides. ( )

We learn what happened to Sophos, the heir to Sounis, very likeable erstwhile apprentice to the Sounis magus from the first book but who has disappeared in the second. Here is his story. Very enjoyable although the 'plot' clunked a bit here and there to stay on track and sometime Eugenides' intransigeance becomes a bit tedious, but then you remember that that is how he is, drives everyone mad. Obviously perfectly happy to be reading it as I did virtually nothing else while doing so. ****1/2 ( )

I have fallen in love with Megan Whalen Turner’s high-fantasy series “The Queen’s Thief”. I just finished the fourth in the series, “A Conspiracy of Kings”. I have to say it is not my favorite, however it did not disappoint. It feels like a spin-off of the first three and not all the major characters arrive in the book until closer to the end. This one slowly builds to a great conclusion. I am confident that this book will somehow tie into the rest of the series.

The world-building is set in a Greek or Romanesque world with lots of picturesque scenery that is easy to envision. Plus, I am a sucker for unforeseen twists! Oh yes, there are twists that are clever and not ones that you see coming.

For being a YA, I found “A Conspiracy of Kings” to be an easy, fun read and I'm looking forward to jumping right into the next one and devouring the rest of the series. This gets a solid 3.75star rating from me.

The Queen's Thief:
1996 The Thief --> 3.75stars
2000 The Queen of Attolia --> 4stars
2006 The King of Attolia --> 5stars
2010 A Conspiracy of Kings --> 3.75stars
2017 Thick as Thieves --> 10stars
2020 Return of the Thief --> hope this isn’t the end of our favorite little thief ( )

A good addition to the series, although it brings into focus one of the issues I have with these books; I don't know how frikin old anyone is! ( )