A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner - Book Review

A Conspiracy of Kings (The Queen's Thief, #4)

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I finished The Queen's Thief series with this final book which traces Sophos' story. Like the previous book The King of Attolia where the story is said from the general Costis' point of view, this book too hardly has Eugenides as the principal character. I had liked the first two books purely because it was written with Eugenides as the focal point. This fourth book was not my favourite among the four.

Still it made for a breezy read with the usual political intrigue and suspense and innuendos which fall in place as the plot moves on. This last book is about Eugenides' friend Sophos' rise to the throne of Sounis. There is not much action or adventure in this book, but there is a lot of good dialogues and suspense. I have been reading a lot of YA books even though I am so much older, and not the intended reader anyway. However, I think N.K.Jeminsin's books were much better than this series.

While reading all of these books written by Megan Whalen Turner, one element kept needling me. There was a lot of empathy and understanding for the main character Eugenides. People in the book, especially the women went out of their way to make sure he was protected or looked after or not have his feelings/opinions hurt. Of course, Eugen doesn't need any of these niceness they show him as he is very capable of taking care of himself as well as others. But this sensitivity and empathy that is shown in the books is so unlike that expected of people of that time when they had to be hard as a nail and cold as the winter to survive. There wouldn't be place for such pampering in a book like The Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings for example. And that only reinforced my belief that a woman writer can bring sensitivity and empathy into a book and make it sound nice and readable.

Megan's best book in the series is the Queen of Attolia, book #2. She brings out the yearning and love between the characters so well and with a lot of sensitivity and intrigue. I think she should write a few romantic stories as well.

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