Why I Love "The Queen's Thief" And You Should Read It

OK. I'm pretty sure you all knew this post was coming. It's time for me to shove one of my favorite series of all time (second only to LOTR, which is saying something, people) in your faces. Because The Return of The Thief is coming out in *checks calendar* 18 days, guys, and I am freaking out! And you need a little bit of background before I lose my mind on October 6th! (I might wait to jump on you with confetti until the 9th. For consistency, y'know. But I will definitely start freaking out on the 6th). And by "a bit of background", I mean, a big ol' party of a blog post. Have fun. 

Also, you might've noticed that my centering of photos/paragraphs is Not Consistent. And it's Not My Fault--Blogger is being Irritating.

The (Shortish) Background:

Our entire family loves these books--Mom, Dad, and I read them at the behest of an aunt of mine, Legolas just read them early this year, and Eomer just last week finished reading them for the first time. We gush about them all the time. 

Now that The Return of the Thief is coming out, we are all losing our minds. (Just ask Legolas or Eomer--at least once a week, I randomly yell "Return of the Thief is coming out on October 6, and I am NOT PREPARED!". I've not ever really been a part of a fandom for a series that's in progress? And it's not my favorite feeling.
We even have a death pool up on our whiteboard. (I would show you a picture, but it's spoilery). Like, yes, we are taking bets on which characters are going to die. Any other questions?

What The Queen's Thief Is:

-A YA series that the author intends for adults to enjoy (like, actually enjoy. And fangirl/boy over. Because this happens. On a regular basis).

-Fantastic

-Amazing

-JK, I'll be actually informative. A series of books that loosely follows one character (G) through his life/a series of decisions/a series of adventures/sort of.

-Very easy to spoil! I am going to try VERY hard not to give spoilers. It's so bad that even putting in the back cover summary from the later books spoils the early books...so I'm not going to do that. I'm also going to use initials for characters, to be unspoilery, esoteric, and mysterious. 

What The Queen's Thief Is Not:

-Predictable. Any YA trope? Not in there. Any Fantasy trope? No chance. Historical Fiction trope? Look in vain. 

-Boring. There is nothing boring about The Queen's Thief.

-In an obvious genre. It's not Historical Fiction or Fantasy, even though those are two of the closest...but it doesn't really fit in either. 

-Stereotypical. Ever. Never, ever, ever. 

Okay, now that you have a basic idea about what it is...

Why I love it SO MUCH, and the rest of my family does, too:

-The Author. Megan Whalen Turner (aka MWT) has put SO much love and time (24 years) into these books, and it shows. Additionally, she NEVER tells anyone ANYTHING about the world. Any query--"How old is x character?" "What happens between books x and y?" "Why did x character say y?"--is met with a strict "Not Telling", since she trusts the intelligence of her readers to figure out what is happening. <3 

-The characters. MWT really understands how humans work, and it shows. Her characters are so realistic, I feel like they're actually people. All of them, not just the MCs!

-The plot. You never, ever, ever, ever, EVER, know what's coming next.

-The level of detail. I like to talk about these books as a huge moving puzzle, where as you read and reread, a piece clicks into place every so often--but only every so often. New hidden pieces are unearthed all the time, and new conclusions formed. They are SO rewarding to reread.

-MWT trusts her readers. She doesn't explain things gratuitously, which really adds to the feeling of puzzle-ness, which I love. 

-The POV changes from book to book, which really keeps the reader on their toes, and adds to the panorama-y feeling.

Book by Book Thoughts:

The Thief

POV: First person 

Number of times I've read it: 3

My summary: In which Gen is amazing and unexpected things occasionally happen. 

My thoughts: Seriously, why does no one ever write books where the MC doesn't give. every. single. detail. about their backstory in the first minute of their being written about? Because it works SO. DANG. WELL. for the MC to save it for a little later. Sort of. And I really can't say anything else about this without it being spoilers? But this book is amazing. And the details. Are amazing. Wow. This book. <3 

The Queen of Attolia

POV: Third person 

Number of times I've read it: 10+

My summary: In which torture happens and E & A are both awesome.

My thoughts: Wow, MWT is good at psychology. And diplomacy. And putting them into books. And seriously, I still get shell-shocked every time I read this book. And MWT is ALSO so good at making time pass without saying things like "And then after three months..." and it's really seamless, and I. Love. It. And the surprises. And the emotional surprises. And the blufffiiiiinnnng. 

The King of Attolia

POV: Third person 

Number of times I've read it: 10+

My summary: In which E & A are both awesome, and the interesting ship from QoA is cute as heck.

My thoughts: This book miiiight be my favorite out of all of them. And seriously, besides Arwen + Aragorn/Beren + Luthien, the ship in this book is my OTP. *cries from adorableness* The court intrigue is flawless and accurate, and just wow. 

A Conspiracy of Kings

POV: Third person/First person

Number of times I've read it: 3-4

My summary: In which State Affairs occur, S is bumptious, and stuff switches around.

My thoughts: Okay, this one flows a little slowly for my taste (and there's not enough E! But I guess the scenes E's in are awesome, so. But there's also not enough C.) but I still love it. It's very nuanced. And there is stabbyness, and soft characters who have to do hard things, and hard characters who unexpectedly do soft things and make me cry. Not fair, MWT. Not fair. 

Thick as Thieves

POV: First person

Number of times I've read it: 3

My summary: In which the best male friendship ever happens, and the gods get crafty. 

My thoughts: WHAT IS THIS AMAZING MALE FRIENDSHIP WITHOUT A HINT OF ANY SORT OF WEIRDNESS? ALL THE YES! (the friendship happens later in the book, just fyi). Seriously, though, seeing a character through the eyes of a character we haven't seen him through is fascinating, and all the things that are woven in are clever, and wow, eyesight is both symbolic and subjective. Also, still not sure who P is. Need to know right now plz. 

And just because, since these are basically mini reviews...

Content

Um, spoilers? Haha. Injuries (not usually described graphically), battles (also not described graphically), implied deaths, mention of a "wedding night", a few uses of d--n. 

Overall Rating (for the series)

5 stars! I will shout these books from the rooftops FOREVER!

Reminds me of...

Honestly, the level of detail reminds me of The Lord of the Rings, and the setting reminds me of The Odyssey, but I can't think of any books that the plot or characters remind me of...they're very original. As I've said multiple times. :) Actually, part of one of the books recently reminded me of the Lay of Leithan, but it's a minor plot point. 

Have you read these ones? (If so, please fangirl with me!) Do you want to read them now? What's your favorite long-running series? What's your most anticipated release of October?