The Queen of Attolia

Turner, Megan Whalen. The Queen of Attolia.

I was very surprised as I began this sequel to The Thief, because the light-hearted atmosphere was gone.The novel opens with a thrilling, but heart-breaking episode in which Gen is discovered in the Queen of Attolia's castle. A much more serious and grownup episode than any in the previous book, it came as a bit of a shock and was a foreshadowing of the more serious events to come.

In spite of losing much of the cheerful and humorous aspect of the first novel, Turner manages to probe deeper in a skillful manner and produces a novel that makes the transition from light-hearted to an often somber tale without missing a beat. The humor is less frequent and darker and there is grief and suffering that were not present in the first narrative.

Just as I refrained from mentioning twists and turns that occurred in The Thief, I will keep quiet about much of what happens in this second novel. I will, however, let you know that I still love Gen/Eugenides, although he is no longer the scamp of a boy who drove everyone nuts in The Thief. The more dramatic events in this novel--war breaks out between Eddis and Attolia--call for a more serious hero, and like it or not, Gen must deal with the consequences of his capture by the Queen of Attolia.

The hero's journey continues, but in the process, Gen is forced to grow up and accept some things he would have found impossible to imagine a year earlier. Turner's inventive and carefully constructed plot, her marvelous characters, her creation of a world in which the reader can believe are all deftly managed.

HINT: Do not read the Amazon review or the customer reviews if you want to find out what happens for yourself. I did not and so was able to experience the events as they unfolded. I was surprised at what was revealed in the reviews that I would not have wanted to know in advance.

Final Comment: I loved this one, too! Only one more book left in this series, and I look forward to it, but with a kind of regret that then this adventure will be over.

Fiction. Fantasy, YA. 2000. 360 pages.