“I didn’t know how long I had been in the King’s prison.”
First line in The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Hi, guys and thanks for stopping by this post. I recently finished the fifth and last published book in The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, Thick as Thieves. I can now for sure say that it is in my top 10 of all time favorite series, and I therefore want more people to read it, of course.
It’s far from what I would call a popular series, but whenever I see a review for it, it always seems to be positive. Hence why I thought to take this opportunity to create some awareness about these amazing books. As the title says, I’ll try to highlight the specific reasons why I think you should read this series. First a little overview of the series:
- The Thief – published in 1996
- The Queen of Attolia – published in 2000
- The King of Attolia – published in 2006
- A Conspiracy of Kings – published in 2010
- Thick as Thieves – published in 2017
- Return of the Thief – expected publication: August 25th 2020
The sixth book is expected to be the last.
A synopsis for The Thief:
The king’s scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king’s prison. The magus is interested only in the thief’s abilities.
What Gen is interested in is anyone’s guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses
Now onto all the reason why you should start reading this series.
Loveable Characters
This series is filled with characters you can’t help but fall in love with. They will capture your heart with their strong sense of morality and their unbreakable friendships.
Even though we follow a different main character in almost all of the books, Turner will always draw you in and make you invested in the certain character. They each have their own struggles. Turner is amazing at making you see the character’s point of view and thereby understand them. The character development across all the books is realistic and beautiful, so you can’t help but root for them. They are certainly characters you can get behind even though they aren’t perfect. There are also so many characters in this series that I just want to give a hug so bad.
No Cliffhangers
If you’re the kind of reader who hates those cliffhanger endings that are just there to make you pre-order the next book, this is definitely a series for you. Each book essentially works as a standalone with its own set up and conclusion. It gives you the opportunity to take your time with the series and just read a book once in a while when you’re in the mood. Cliffhangers can often make you feel like you need to rush through a series just to know how it ends. At least that happens to me quite often. The Queen’s Thief is a nice divergence from that trend.
I just want to be clear: Even though I said they work as standalones, you still have to read them in publication order unless you want to be spoiled.
Mindblowing Plot Twists
The plot twists you find in The Queen’s Thief are the mind-boggling, life-altering, fall-out-of-your-chair kind of plot twists, and if that doesn’t convince you to read it, I don’t know what will. It’s the kind of plot twists that affect the entire book. You can tell it’s there all throughout the story. There’s something that don’t add up. There’s something you don’t know.
Turner even gives you the clues to figure these things out on your own, but personally I haven’t even been close to guessing where the story was going. It really takes an amazing writer to be able to do these kinds of plot twists.
It’s Short
We all have 1,000 books on our TBRs so you might be hesitant to add a six-book fantasy series to that giant mountain. I say, don’t worry about that because these books are super short. At least when you look at the standard for other fantasy books. Most of the books in this series are about 350 pages long (a little longer or shorter depending on the edition). With the first book, we’re even down to 280 pages.
Rich World Building
It’s the kind of series that starts off in a small corner of its fantasy world and with each book you get to learn more and more about the world. And I don’t mean just geographically. The amazing world building also include cultural, religious and political differences between each area. Turner has really taken her time to develop each area, and it’s wonderful to learn more with every book. It’s all very intricate.
I especially think this is a series for you if you enjoy very political fantasy books, because that is really where these books shine. Everything is so well thoughtout and there’s never a dull moment.
A Wholly Unique YA Fantasy Series
I promise you that you have never read anything like this before. I have to keep reminding myself that this is YA because it bears so little resemblance to those somewhat generic YA fantasy books you see nowadays. The Queen’s Thief almost feels like classic fantasy in its writing style and characterization. Don’t worry about coming across a page long description of a tree though, although you often find that in classic fantasy. That’s not what I mean when I call it classic fantasy. It’s just less modern with everything it does.
Mind you, the first book was published in 1996 when this resurgence we see in YA hadn’t started yet. However, the later books kept the tone of the first so don’t be afraid to suddenly have a love triangle thrown in your face.
Finally, I just want to say that of course, this series isn’t for everyone. If you consider yourself to be a 100% plot-driven reader, I think you might find this a bit boring. It’s a highly character-driven series although each book does have a plot. It just doesn’t come into play before the end of each book.
I also want to point out the first book in the series is the worst. A lot of people don’t like that one, me included, but I urge to pick up the second book even if that happens. If you find the things above intriguing, I promise you that it’s worth it to continue.
I really hope I peaked your interest about The Queen’s Thief with this post. Let me know if you intend to read it. If you’ve already read it, tell me if there’s some highlight I missed that you really love about these books.
