by Megan Whalen Turner
overall rating (so far): ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 1996 - 2019
spoilers? hopefully no, I tried my best to avoid them
Goodreads
The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead in the hollow of the queen's shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day.
If you've followed my reviews at all on Goodreads, you will know that books that don't contain a lot of action and me do not really get along. So, on the face of it, maybe you'd have thought that me and this series wouldn't get along either. Well, in this case, you would be wrong. Because although there is not huge amounts of action in the series, Megan Whalen Turner just does character-driven fantasy novels so well that I was consistently overwhelmed by how much I loved these books and characters. I wrote a brief review of The Thief when I first read it about two years ago, but now I've finally got myself together and read the rest of the series, I'm going to write a review for all of them at once. (As well as I can, without any spoilers, because you want to go into this series without any idea of what's going to happen. Trust me.)
I'm going to break this up into chunks in an attempt to actually produce something coherent, so, let's begin.
THE CHARACTERS
Having said that the series is character-driven, I figure I might as well start with the characters themselves. And specifically the fact that I love each and every one of them. In The Thief, we are introduced to Gen, a thief, who is languishing in the cells in Sounis, when the magus of Sounis picks him up out of them in order to steal something for him and the king. Gen is a compelling and funny narrator, and also [spoilers redacted]. And I don't think I've loved a character so quickly in a long while. And it's not just Gen I loved immediately. There was Sophos and Pol and Eddis too, and in later books, Costis and Kamet. Even the characters that you don't like straightaway have a tendency to grow on you: see the magus and Attolia. (No, but seriously, if you want an example of how to make an initially unlikeable character likeable, look no further than The Queen of Attolia. Melina Marchetta says she took inspiration for something Evanjalin does in Finnikin of the Rock from Megan Whalen Turner. Just so you know the level of pain we're operating on here.)
One of the reasons the characters are so wonderfully compelling, is that they all are realistic and flawed characters. Gen is stubborn and incalcitrant, even if his heart's in the right place, and he never tells anyone anything about his plans. Attolia is cold and also pretty stubborn, but when it comes down to it, just afraid of being vulnerable. I could go on and on about all these characters, but I won't subject you to that. Instead, just take my word for it that these are some of the most complex and appealing characters I've ever read.
(And they absolutely break my heart but that's a whole other thing.)
THE RELATIONSHIPS
You know what the best thing about having such great characters is? The relationships between them. I would tell you my favourites but, uh, that means spoiler so I'll hold off on that for now. So, given that I can't tell you specific relationships I liked and therefore why I liked them, I'm just going to ramble on a bit about them in a hopefully non-specific manner.
Firstly, because the characters are so complex, so are their relationships (case in point, this one I cannot mention because spoilers, but which everyone who's read the books will know I'm talking about). But I don't just love the complexity of their relationships, I also love just how detailed Megan Whalen Turner is in developing them, and how carefully she does it, until you're at the point where you think, okay, I can see why X just forgave Y that. (Yes, it's that specific example again.)
And beyond that, the development just feels so natural - slow and incremental and, above all, subtle. You're never explicitly told how characters feel about each other, but it's just there in the writing and GOD! I love it so much.
THE PLOT
Finally, let's talk plot. Like I said earlier, I generally have an aversion to books that don't have a lot of plot and rely on character-driven arcs. This was a definite exception to the rule. There's something about Megan Whalen Turner's way of writing character-driven arcs that has me captivated despite the lack of significant action for most of the book. It reminds me a lot of Melina Marchetta's ability to do so (not surprising given Marchetta said she took inspiration from this series. Perhaps that should have been a sign that I was undoubtedly going to love it).
Unsurprisingly, given how the rest of this review has gone, there's actually very little I can say about plot that doesn't spoil anything. (Like, seriously, it's one of those series where you absolutely cannot read the blurb of the next book until you've read the current one. Just don't do it. Do not.) But, as with the characters and relationships, everything about the plot is so detailed and well thought out and subtle, so that something will become significant long after Megan Whalen Turner first mentions it and you're just like OH, because it's so goddamn clever.
In conclusion, this review is a mess and I've really only managed to ramble all over the place, but I hope you can still see why I loved this series and maybe you'll be tempted to pick them up for yourselves.
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