The Boy Hero all Grown up: A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

[attackfish]

The thing I hate about my favorite authors is that it always feels like it takes them forever to get a book out.  I swear to God, it’s not just my imagination that Magan Whalen Turner takes longer than most.  She’s also just about my favorite.  Fate, I think.

With Hamiathes’ Gift destroyed, the king of Sounis has settled for marriage to a cousin of the queen of Eddis instead of the queen herself.  Suddenly, the king’s nephew, Sophos, finds himself in the precarious position of waiting for the birth of the child who would make him no longer the heir to the throne.  But as the king’s barons ferment rebellion, Sophos is still a valuable political pawn, and soon with the help of a false friend, the barons kill the unsuspecting Sophos’ family and kidnap him to make him a puppet king.  Now he must win his way free to seak the aid his friend, Eugenides, now king of Attolia, and to the queen of Eddis, his beloved Helen.  And if he can do all that, he must then win back his throne and learn how to be a king.

I believe I may have mentioned in my previous reviews of the other books in the Queen’s Thief series, that these are the books that I hope have made the biggest impact on my writing. This is probably a futile hope, but still.

It’s not just that Turner’s writing and characterization are superb; it’s that her novels focus on everything I want to focus on in mine.  They’re so rife with political intrigue that there’s almost no room for anything else.  The four main characters of A Conspiracy of Kings are all monarchs, and Turner explores exactly what that means.  In The Thief, Gen and Sophos aren’t the rulers of anything yet.  Gen isn’t even the heir to anything, and Sophos is only the heir to the throne because no one else is available.  He never expects to actually rule anything.  They’re out in the middle of nowhere, and Sophos has no idea Gen’s anything other than a street thief until the very end.  When Gen delivers Hamiathes’ Gift and the heir to Sounis in what happens to be a pretty massive political coup, Sophos builds up a picture  of the brilliant, smart-mouthed Gen as a sort of older brother/mentor figure.  So it’s up to Gen to realize that they’re more than people.  They represent their respective countries, and they can never talk to each other just as friends again, that every word they say to each other, or to anyone else, must be examined in that light.  But they’re still both human beings and old friends, and Sophos feels betrayed.  Turner meshes the personal and the political together so deftly it’s impossible to know where one ends and another begins.  And she makes it plain that it’s that intertwined in the character’s reality as well.  Gen grieves for the loss of his autonomy as he disappears behind his kingly mask.

Periodically, Turner teases loyal readers with glimpses of the old Gen, hanging out with Sophos in secret, sneaking around his own palace at night, bantering with Irene.  These glimpses just make it all the more bitter for the reader as he becomes something he only showed flashes of before, bound by necessity and expedience rather than by choice.  Instead of being able to draw Irene out of her shell now that he’s her co-ruler, he’s building the same sort of shell she had been forced to.  The first three books in the Queen’s Thief series were about Gen triumphing.  A Conspiracy of Kings, on the other hand, is about him subtly losing.

And it’s a worse loss than even that.  The old Gen reveals himself most tellingly when he guides Sophos towards accepting his true responsibilities as a monarch and just what those responsibilities are.  It would serve his purposes beautifully if instead he were able to keep Sophos as a complete dependent, but he can’t make himself do that.  Thus he helps Sophos build his own royal shell, and so, Sophos, a kind, easily embarrassed, somewhat hapless young man, becomes much more like his mentor than he really wanted to.

Each of the books in the Queen’s Thief series has a different point of view, which Turner uses to great effect.  In A Conspiracy of Kings, however, Turner doesn’t just stick to one point of view.  She switches back and fourth between third person, when Sophos is at the Attolian court, and first person from Sophos’ perspective, telling the story to Helen, when he isn’t.  Ordinarily, these sorts of point of view games would annoy me, but Turner makes them work, using the advantages inherent in both.  When Sophos is telling the story, at first Turner uses him to provide context, comment on his hero worship of Gen, and to show by example Sophos’ slight pompousness and general uselessness.  When she switches to third person, she uses it to reveal emotions Sophos would be too embarrassed to express to Helen, and also to indicate that Sophos is no longer entirely the star of the show.  When she switches again to first person, she uses it to show how much Sophos has changed in his time at the Attolian court.

As I said before, Gen’s transformation, even while he’s winning in the political realm, gives A Conspiracy of Kings a decidedly tragic flavor.  I’m left desperate to see what happens in the next book, whether the old Gen will emerge again, or will he continue on his current trajectory?  Unfortunately, because this is Turner we’re talking about here, I’ll have to wait a few years to find out.

Also, will there be Mede butt kicking?  There has to be Mede butt kicking.

What impresses me most about Turner as a writer is that every time I go back to pick apart what makes her books work so well, I end up getting sucked back into the story, and reading them just to read them.

Comments

[hpstrangelove.livejournal.com]

You've got such a wonderful analysis here - I agree with everything you've said.

It's funny how you mention at the end getting sucked back into read the books all over again. I read the first two books from the library, before the King came out, and I loved them so much I had to go out and buy my own copies, something I normally wouldn't do for books that I'd already read.

There's just something special about this series that makes reading them a second and third time almost as pleasurable as the first.

[finding-further.livejournal.com]

Wow. Great review. I love this insight into Gen's path:

The first three books in the Queen’s Thief series were about Gen triumphing. A Conspiracy of Kings, on the other hand, is about him subtly losing.

I, too, felt that some subtle seeds were sown in this book hinting that Gen had grown terribly vulnerable as his Kingly power increased. Regarding the overall tone, I like the way you phrased it best, "a decidedly tragic flavor." Not only do we have the hints that his health is failing, but his kingly mask, as you so-aptly put it, is causing him emotional pain as well.

Would you mind if I linked to your review over at sounis? I'm sure there are dozens of people over there who would love to read this and weigh in with their opinions.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

It's true that some of Gen's power in previous books came from being outside the official political loop. He was able to come at problems from a unique angle, being the Thief of Eddis, subject to his own rules, but also related to the Queen and with the benefits of being royalty.

Well, enter Irene, and he gets himself tied up nicely. ;) But I think Gen is triumphing (was Irene not a triumph?) and will triumph still, as unexpectedly as ever. I have to remind myself that a large portion of CoK overlaps KoA, during the time when Gen was still (apparently) floundering around in his new Kingly shoes. But he got his court behind him by the end of KoA, and by the end of CoK he's got a pretty tight threesome going with Sounis, Eddis and Attolia. No mean feat, that. And expediently timed. (Still triumphing, see?) Next order of business: Mede butt-kicking.

[elle-winters.livejournal.com]

I love your review and how you put things into words that I cannot explain

Instead of being able to draw Irene out of her shell now that he’s her co-ruler, he’s building the same sort of shell she had been forced to.

How true! I didn't even realize this the first time around. I suppose it's harder to be Irene Attolia than one thinks. I'm glad Sophos pushed him to the ground. He desperately needed that.


The first three books in the Queen’s Thief series were about Gen triumphing. A Conspiracy of Kings, on the other hand, is about him subtly losing.

Ahh..the subtlety


Thanks for the awesome review attackfish!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Nice review! Good insight about the POV changes. We see Sophos from both his own perspective--which is skewed--then from everyone else's, where we see the good qualities that he can't seem to see in himself.

And poor Gen. He's bound to pretty scarred, permanently, by all that he's had to do in his new role as king. Sophos, too.

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the thought-provoking review! I didn't get the same feeling of failure that you did, but I think that's because I just didn't pick up on some character psychology. It's Gen's failure to connect that you mean, right?
I definitely got that whiff of tragedy in the final scene, even though I loved that scene. I especially loved and was saddened by Gen moving his feet over on the cushion for Sophos. Isn't there some mythology (Indian, perhaps?) where royal and godly status is signified by having one's feet raised off the ground (hence why Shiva always stands on this poor, babyish dwarf-like creature? It always looks like she's standing on a baby). One monarch making room for another monarch...

Gotta go read it again! :P

[finding-further.livejournal.com]

As I said before, Gen’s transformation, even while he’s winning in the political realm, gives A Conspiracy of Kings a decidedly tragic flavor. I’m left desperate to see what happens in the next book, whether the old Gen will emerge again, or will he continue on his current trajectory?

Hi. Just popping back in with another comment. As I said before, I agree with your assessment of Gen's change in A Conspiracy of Kings. But today I ran across an interview (http://hipwritermama.blogspot.com/2009/11/wbbt-megan-whalen-turner.html) that Ms. Turner gave in April where she describes Conspiracy as being about Sophos and "also about Gen, who hasn't changed much at all, at least not in important ways. He frets. He sulks. He has the occasional temper tantrum, but comes through in the pinch."

Hmmmmm... I don't get it.