Book Review: Return of the Thief
Mar. 11th, 2022 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerMegan Whalen Turner’s Return of the Thief starts by introducing a new character: Pheris, the King of Attolia’s newest and youngest attendant, whom the House of Erondites has dumped on the court in something of the nature of a cruel joke. Pheris can’t speak, and limps, and grows almost too stiff to move if he sits still too long, and is so obviously misshapen that his whole family regards him as an omen of ill luck who should have been exposed at birth.
Pheris spends the first hundred pages or so being spat on and kicked, and hiding in corners close to the king because he figures that if he gets outside of the circle of the king’s protection someone will take the opportunity to do away with him (and thus the ill luck he represents). I spent a fair amount of the first hundred pages wailing “This is A LOT OF WHUMP.”
Naturally I ground to a halt just before the whump begins to let up and Pheris starts getting lessons from the ex-spymaster Relius, as I discovered when I zoomed through the rest of the book last night.
I think this is a book that will need some time to settle before I’m quite sure how I feel about it, but for now, here are some preliminary thoughts.
Things I Liked
Look, I just love the characters in this series, and I loved seeing them all again, even though some of them got fairly small parts. Sophos, for instance, tends to be a background player in this book, but he still seems sweet and slightly overwhelmed by the responsibilities of kingship but nonetheless is gamely Doing His Best and trying to help the others get along. Costis and Kamet are mostly Sirs Not Appearing in this Book, but their brief appearances are nonetheless a delight.
I also love that Attolia, hearing that Kamet is in danger, says briskly, “He served his purpose,” because ice-cold political calculation is SO Attolia and I’m glad that she is still herself, even though marriage to Gen has softened her in some ways. (Although I am also glad that warmer head prevailed and Costis got to rush back to Roa to save Kamet.)
I also loved that we got more spotlight for Relius, in the role of irascible tutor for Pheris, and we discover that the magus and Relius have become academic penpals. Also surprisingly delighted by Relius/Teleus! It surprised me but also somehow made perfect sense?
Honestly I think the only character I had reservations about was Eugenides, who goes into full He Who Gazes into the Abyss May Become the Abyss mode… I go back and forth on this one. Possibly this is thematically and emotionally necessary for the book. This is what I mean about the book needing time to settle.
Things I Have Artistic Reservations About But I Liked Them Anyway
This is a book about a war and it has a high body count… which almost entirely spares the characters we care about. (Unless you had strong feelings about Eugenides’s attendants and/or cousins, which perhaps you did!). On an artistic/moral level I feel that this is cheating; as a human being with a heart I was deeply relieved that Eugenides, Attolia, Eddis, Sophos, the magus, Costis, Kamet, Teleus, and Relius all survive. (That fake-out scene at the pass where Attolia is looking for Eugenides’ body and it seems briefly, ominously inevitable that he’s dead? OH MY GOD.)
I was sad when Eugenides’s father died (also deeply amused to discover at the end of the book, when Eugenides and Attolia name their son after him, that he has a name other than the minister of war and it is Hector), but at the same time, in any fantasy epic someone has to be Boromir.
I Think MWT May Have Overegged the Pudding on this One
Near the end of the book we discover that the reason Gen went after Hamiathes’s Gift was that he had to flee Eddis because the council had just voted to execute him. What? We already knew that he had a contentious relationship with his cousins but that’s A Lot.
(Especially given that whenever we see him with his cousins, their actual dynamic seems to be “deeply exasperated fondness on both sides.”)
We are informed of this fact in a brief scene and then it never comes up again, so I might just ignore it.
The sheer whumpiness of the beginning of the book fell in this category too, at least for me. Turner can establish and then turn the established character dynamics on their head very economically (Costis’s switcheroo from “fuck the king!” to “I would die for him actually” in The King of Attolia is a fantastic example): we didn’t need to spend THAT long establishing Pheris as frightened and mistreated outcast before Eugenides fully takes him under his wing and Pheris decides that he too would happily die for this man.
Possibly the Final Book of the Series Should Not Be Structured Around Battle Scenes If You Don’t Like Writing Battles
On one level, I have to respect Turner’s chutzpah in deciding that she doesn’t feel like writing battles and then just… not writing battles. And it worked in Queen of Attolia, which also has a big war, but there the battles all take place offscreen - because our main characters are all in their respective royal palaces, and the real action of the book takes place in diplomacy and behind-the-scenes trickery.
Here, the main characters are actually at the battlefield, so it feels like something is missing when the battles are dealt with as cursorily as they were in Queen of Attolia. Probably we don’t need full-blown battle scenes (honestly I’m not big on battle scenes! I don’t want them for their own sake!), but… it just feels like something is missing.
Since we’re making Queen of Attolia comparisons, I couldn’t help comparing the scene where Gen gets captured and tortured by the Medes in RotT with the scene in QoA where he is captured and then maimed by the Queen of Attolia, and the scene with the Medes just doesn’t have the same menace or impact… which is unfortunate, because that’s basically the scene that starts Gen on his Staring into the Abyss routine. It needed to hit hard, and (perhaps because it is relayed at secondhand by Pheris?) it doesn’t quite land.
I’ll Forgive a Lot for That Ending, Though
Everybody is dancing together on the roof? Oh, God, fine, I’m just a sucker for an ending where all the characters are together and happy.
Pheris spends the first hundred pages or so being spat on and kicked, and hiding in corners close to the king because he figures that if he gets outside of the circle of the king’s protection someone will take the opportunity to do away with him (and thus the ill luck he represents). I spent a fair amount of the first hundred pages wailing “This is A LOT OF WHUMP.”
Naturally I ground to a halt just before the whump begins to let up and Pheris starts getting lessons from the ex-spymaster Relius, as I discovered when I zoomed through the rest of the book last night.
I think this is a book that will need some time to settle before I’m quite sure how I feel about it, but for now, here are some preliminary thoughts.
Things I Liked
Look, I just love the characters in this series, and I loved seeing them all again, even though some of them got fairly small parts. Sophos, for instance, tends to be a background player in this book, but he still seems sweet and slightly overwhelmed by the responsibilities of kingship but nonetheless is gamely Doing His Best and trying to help the others get along. Costis and Kamet are mostly Sirs Not Appearing in this Book, but their brief appearances are nonetheless a delight.
I also love that Attolia, hearing that Kamet is in danger, says briskly, “He served his purpose,” because ice-cold political calculation is SO Attolia and I’m glad that she is still herself, even though marriage to Gen has softened her in some ways. (Although I am also glad that warmer head prevailed and Costis got to rush back to Roa to save Kamet.)
I also loved that we got more spotlight for Relius, in the role of irascible tutor for Pheris, and we discover that the magus and Relius have become academic penpals. Also surprisingly delighted by Relius/Teleus! It surprised me but also somehow made perfect sense?
Honestly I think the only character I had reservations about was Eugenides, who goes into full He Who Gazes into the Abyss May Become the Abyss mode… I go back and forth on this one. Possibly this is thematically and emotionally necessary for the book. This is what I mean about the book needing time to settle.
Things I Have Artistic Reservations About But I Liked Them Anyway
This is a book about a war and it has a high body count… which almost entirely spares the characters we care about. (Unless you had strong feelings about Eugenides’s attendants and/or cousins, which perhaps you did!). On an artistic/moral level I feel that this is cheating; as a human being with a heart I was deeply relieved that Eugenides, Attolia, Eddis, Sophos, the magus, Costis, Kamet, Teleus, and Relius all survive. (That fake-out scene at the pass where Attolia is looking for Eugenides’ body and it seems briefly, ominously inevitable that he’s dead? OH MY GOD.)
I was sad when Eugenides’s father died (also deeply amused to discover at the end of the book, when Eugenides and Attolia name their son after him, that he has a name other than the minister of war and it is Hector), but at the same time, in any fantasy epic someone has to be Boromir.
I Think MWT May Have Overegged the Pudding on this One
Near the end of the book we discover that the reason Gen went after Hamiathes’s Gift was that he had to flee Eddis because the council had just voted to execute him. What? We already knew that he had a contentious relationship with his cousins but that’s A Lot.
(Especially given that whenever we see him with his cousins, their actual dynamic seems to be “deeply exasperated fondness on both sides.”)
We are informed of this fact in a brief scene and then it never comes up again, so I might just ignore it.
The sheer whumpiness of the beginning of the book fell in this category too, at least for me. Turner can establish and then turn the established character dynamics on their head very economically (Costis’s switcheroo from “fuck the king!” to “I would die for him actually” in The King of Attolia is a fantastic example): we didn’t need to spend THAT long establishing Pheris as frightened and mistreated outcast before Eugenides fully takes him under his wing and Pheris decides that he too would happily die for this man.
Possibly the Final Book of the Series Should Not Be Structured Around Battle Scenes If You Don’t Like Writing Battles
On one level, I have to respect Turner’s chutzpah in deciding that she doesn’t feel like writing battles and then just… not writing battles. And it worked in Queen of Attolia, which also has a big war, but there the battles all take place offscreen - because our main characters are all in their respective royal palaces, and the real action of the book takes place in diplomacy and behind-the-scenes trickery.
Here, the main characters are actually at the battlefield, so it feels like something is missing when the battles are dealt with as cursorily as they were in Queen of Attolia. Probably we don’t need full-blown battle scenes (honestly I’m not big on battle scenes! I don’t want them for their own sake!), but… it just feels like something is missing.
Since we’re making Queen of Attolia comparisons, I couldn’t help comparing the scene where Gen gets captured and tortured by the Medes in RotT with the scene in QoA where he is captured and then maimed by the Queen of Attolia, and the scene with the Medes just doesn’t have the same menace or impact… which is unfortunate, because that’s basically the scene that starts Gen on his Staring into the Abyss routine. It needed to hit hard, and (perhaps because it is relayed at secondhand by Pheris?) it doesn’t quite land.
I’ll Forgive a Lot for That Ending, Though
Everybody is dancing together on the roof? Oh, God, fine, I’m just a sucker for an ending where all the characters are together and happy.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 05:26 pm (UTC)Oh my god I spent the entire book convinced that Eugenides was going to die, especially because it let Gen and co. actually experience moments of levity in between all the war and political intrigue. Like, oh?? This character is experiencing joy??? DEATH. DEATH AND TRAGEDY UPON YE ALL.
I definitely teared up at the end. More series should end with a dance party.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 05:44 pm (UTC)I was so glad that he did and the book wrapped up with a joyful dancing scene instead.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-11 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-12 03:11 pm (UTC)ALSO I REALLY AGREE A RETROACTIVE REVEAL THAT 'THE COUNCIL WAS GOING TO EXECUTE EUGENIDES' WAS, PERHAPS, A BIT MUCH.
On the other hand, truly lovely to see everyone again, and I found myself unexpectedly invested in the sad story of the House of Erondites and Pheris and his uncles! and absolutely delighted for the two people in the world who somehow predicted in advance that Relius/Teleus was going to be the book's new ship while also thinking it is very funny of MWT to look her fanbase straight in the eye and go, 'yes, I do know queer romance exists. what do you mean you want more info about Kamet and Costis. I Have Said What I Have Said.'
no subject
Date: 2022-03-12 04:01 pm (UTC)But if Eugenides had died, I would probably still be ugly-crying as I type. So it's not exactly that I want the book to have gone that way... but I do feel a little wistful for what might have been. And the sheer gutsiness of that move! Rosemary Sutcliff would have done it. (So would Mary Renault, but Rosemary Sutcliff also had the guts to give a book a happy ending when it was called for.)
Also the gods striking Erondites' tent was SO MUCH. Was it too much? It feels like maybe it should have been too much and yet, somehow, it was not. It was exactly the right level of over the top for that scene.
The reveal that Eugenides went to steal Hamiathes's Gift because the Council of Eddis had voted to execute him, however, was perhaps simply Too Much. It came too late in the series and didn't jibe well with what we've already seen (and we've seen quite a lot!) about Eugenides' relationship with the Eddisian government. And it's mentioned so briefly! It just drops down and lies there and we never pick it up again!
Ha, yes, the Relius/Teleus shippers must be having a field day! The joy of having your seemingly-cracky little ship confirmed like that... I think MWT gets a certain energy from teasing her fanbase. What do you MEAN "Costis would have to be hacked to pieces before anyone could harm a hair on Kamet's head, and everyone knows it including the Queen of Attolia" isn't the piece of information everyone wanted about Kamet and Costis?