Book Review: Megan Whalen Turner

I've been packing all day. It's been wonderful! Packing = relaxing. Since talking about that any more would be really boring, I decided I would do a book review! Or really series review! Yay!

So...Megan Whalen Turner! She is my favorite author in the whole world. I have read and reread these books so many times! DON'T read the Wikipedia articles (or probably anything else), there are big spoilers on all of them!

Book #1 The Thief
This book is sneaky. Gen, the thief, gets taken out of prison to steal...something. You think you know what's going on, it's a typical journey story, and then BAM! At the end there's a totally unexpected surprise! There are so many details that she builds up to this wonderfully complex thing. It kind of sets the stage for the rest of the books. Most of the characters that pop up in the other books are introduced, it describes a lot of the scenery, and there's lots of cool mythology. The world and myths are loosely based on Greece and Greek mythology.

Book #2 The Queen of Attolia
I LOVE this cover. It makes you wonder (for the first few chapters, at least). It's a few years later, and a lot more stuff is going on (politics, wars, more sneakiness). There's lots of Gen-inspired mischief happening in all 3 countries. I don't want to write a summary, really, because I wouldn't want to give anything away. It goes more in depth for the characters that are just mentioned in The Thief (especially Eddis and Attolia's queens) and has a broader view of the countries outside of the original 3.

Book #3 The King of Attolia
The second one's cover makes you wonder. This one's TITLE makes you wonder (until you get to the end of QoA, then you have it figured out). Crazy nonsense is going on in the palace after Attolia gets married - almost everyone is plotting something or other. You're introduced to Costis, who gets in trouble, gets pardoned, and then has no clue what he's gotten himself into. If I HAD to pick, I think this would be my favorite. The wording, mostly the metaphors MWT uses, is SO WITTY. Seriously, I giggle all the time reading this because she is just SO clever and subtle.

Book #4 A Conspiracy of Kings
This one is so different from the first three, because it shifts the focus away from Gen (sob), Attolia, and Eddis and to Sounis and...a character who I won't name because that might spoil something. Not really, but it makes it more suspenseful :) but I can't say anything about the plot or it would ruin, at the very least, books 1 and 3. That's how much of the stories and the identities of the characters are intertwined. The MC has to deal with a lot of stuff, mostly political shenanigans and rebellions, and a lot of important people from the first 3 books are part of the action again.

I realize that I haven't told you much about them, but that's because it's better for you to be surprised! Seriously, you can go back and reread the books and notice things that you didn't even think were important at the time. I own the first 3 and will have the 4th once it comes out in paperback and will gladly loan them to you (if you live near me) if you can't find them at a library.