purplecat | The King of Attolia (Reply)

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So finally I get to the King of Attolia.

ladyofastolat and

bunn are right. This is better than the Queen of Attolia. Although it is still written in the third person there is a much tighter focus on one main viewpoint character, a guard called Costis, and the book benefits from this. I still think the Thief is the best of the three. The King of Attolia engages much better than the Queen of Attolia but it has some structural problems avoided in the first book.

Although they didn't detract much from my enjoyment I felt there were three problems with this book. Firstly, we know more than Costis. In the first two books we didn't know more than the viewpoint. This turns what might be a great twist for a new reader to the series into merely a patient wait for Costis to discover what we already know and while this journey is entertaining enough I couldn't help occasionally getting a little irritated with Costis as he slowly figured things out. Secondly the main story - the "con" as it were - is revealed and essentially tidied up about two thirds of the way through leaving the last third to limp a bit to the actual conclusion of the book - where the King consolidates his power. Lastly, this is the first book in the series that clearly signals a sequel is on the way - the developing politics between Sounis and Eddis are mentioned but not resolved.

All that said I read this book in about 24 hours, supper on Friday suffered somewhat as a result, and its not often books are allowed to creep out of book-reading time in this fashion. It's well-written, gripping and page-turning. Perhaps, best of all, although it follows the same characters as The Thief it doesn't try to tell the same story.

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purplecat

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