Return of the Thief

The Queen's Thief #6

by Megan Whalen Turner

The thrilling, twenty-years-in-the-making conclusion to the New York Times–bestselling Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner.

The epic novels set in the world of the Queen’s Thief can be read in any order.

This beloved and award-winning series began with the acclaimed novel The Thief. It and four more stand-alone volumes bring to life a world of epics, myths, and legends, and feature one of the most charismatic and incorrigible characters of fiction, Eugenides the thief. Now more powerful and cunning than ever before, Eugenides must navigate a perilous future in this sweeping conclusion. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Patrick Rothfuss, and Sarah J. Maas.

Neither accepted nor beloved, Eugenides is the uneasy linchpin of a truce on the Lesser Peninsula, where he has risen to be high king of Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis. As the treacherous Baron Erondites schemes anew and a prophecy appears to foretell the death of the king, the ruthless Mede empire prepares to strike.

The New York Times–bestselling Queen’s Thief novels are rich with political machinations, divine intervention, dangerous journeys, battles lost and won, power, passion, and deception. Features a cast list of the characters in the Queen’s Thief novels, as well as two maps—a map of the world of the Queen’s Thief, and a map exclusive to this edition.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Audiobook, Adventure, Young Adult Fantasy, Mythology

459 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 6, 2020

About the author

Megan Whalen Turner is the author of short stories and novels for children, teenagers and adults. She has won the LA Times Book Award for Young Adult LIterature, a Boston Globe/ Horn Book Honor and a Newbery Honor. She won the Mythopoeic Award and was shortlisted twice for the Andre Norton Award.

Reviews

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great conclusion to the QUEEN'S THIEF series! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature. I also did an interview with the author here on FanLit, so please go check it out!

Megan Whalen Turner’s QUEEN’S THIEF young adult fantasy series, a masterwork of twisting plots, deceptive plans, and occasional divine interventions from the first book to the last, winds to a close with Return of the Thief, twenty-four years after the publication of The Thief. Return of the Thief introduces us to a new narrator, Pheris, oldest grandson and nominally the heir of Baron Erondites, Eugenides’s powerful enemy from The King of Attolia. (Alert readers, however, will recognize Pheris from a few brief scenes in Thick as Thieves.)

Baron Erondites, whose two sons, Dite and Sejanus, were so memorably disinherited as part of the events that occurred in The King of Attolia, also has a daughter, Marina, whom he’d earlier disinherited for marrying against his will. Pheris, Marina’s oldest son, is a boy who is speechless and otherwise severely physically disabled. Eugenides enters into an agreement with the Baron that the heir to the House of Erondites will be raised in the king’s palace, “away from the malignant tendencies of his family.” The Baron offers up Pheris, sight unseen.

The Baron has restored Marina to the House of Erondites (apparently disinheritance in Attolia is not necessarily as permanent as we were once given to understand). Everyone — including Pheris himself — assumes that Pheris will be rejected as a member of the king’s court and sent home, and the Baron, having gotten one over on the king, will then have Pheris killed and make his younger brother Juridius his heir. But Gen, surprising all, decides to clean up the filthy boy and make him one of his attendants.

“He is Erondites’s grandson and heir,” said the king, “and I have conceived a great desire to see him live to adulthood. Now all of you go away.”

But Gen has more to worry about than the scheming Baron Erondites and his troublesome young heir. Eugenides is now the high king of the Little Peninsula where the three countries of Attolia, Sounis and Eddis are located, but his acceptance isn’t universal in any of the three countries. Worse yet, the encroaching Mede empire from across the sea is weaving new plans to invade and annex their countries. The QUEEN’S THIEF world opens up as more borders are crossed and more countries get involved in the growing conflict.

The political conspiracies and surprising plot turns that mark the entire QUEEN’S THIEF series are alive and well in Return of the Thief, and Eugenides, as usual, is at the center of the plotting. I shouldn’t be surprised by Gen at this point in time, but somehow he still manages to misdirect and beguile me. His mercurial character takes more of a central role in this book than he did in the prior two books, and my increased enjoyment of this book reflects that. Gen’s quirks, stubbornness, and lightning-quick insights, along with his ability to mastermind change, make him one of the most engaging and memorable characters in fiction, and his wife Irene, a queen in her own right, is a match for him.

Almost every book in this series has a different narrator, and Turner branches out in a fresh direction with Return of the Thief. Though the series has dealt with disability before in connection with the memorable loss of Gen’s hand, Pheris’s profound disabilities make him an unusual and challenging central character. Pheris has suffered greatly in his life, both from physical pains and the cruelties of others, not least his poisonous family. “Little monster” is typical of epithets hurled at his face. Pheris is not mentally disabled, though, even though most people wrongly assume that’s the case, helped along by Pheris’s deliberate misbehavior (“the less people want to see you, the easier it becomes to be invisible in plain sight.”). Both Pheris and the people around him — and by extension, we as readers — have something to learn about the ways in which a disabled person can grow and even serve when given opportunity and encouragement.

Turner engages in some interweaving of her timelines in the last few books of the series. In this case, the first part of Return of the Thief takes place concurrently with the last section of Thick as Thieves, and continues from there. There are several callbacks and allusions to events in the prior books, rewarding readers who have good memories for details … or, that lacking, have access to the earlier books and can revisit them (I have to admit I had completely forgotten the subplot surrounding a coveted statue owned by the Mede ambassador, but it was worth going back to refresh my recollection).

It’s bittersweet to finally reach the end of the QUEEN’S THIEF series, but it ends on a high note. I’m sad to leave these characters behind (hopefully one day Gitta Kingsdaughter will call Turner back to this world, though she’s making absolutely no promises). The entire series begs for a reread, though, and I suspect it won’t be long before I’m dancing on the rooftops with these characters again.

Thanks so much to Greenwillow for the eARC!

Update #2: MORE EXCITEMENT! I have an ARC in my hands!! This is like the literary high point of my month. 🥰

Update: We have a set publication date now: Oct. 6, 2020! I am SO EXCITED!!

Initial post: I don't know if I can wait until April 2019 now summer 2020 *sobs* for this! Maybe I should just reread the whole series ...

[kiwi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in mourning.

For those of you who may not know, I am highly, highly picky when it comes to books. I did not like Harry Potter. I did not want to live in that universe. I did not even like Leigh Bardugo's much lauded Six of Crows, and did not want to live in that universe either.

But oh.

Living in the universe of the Queen's Thief or at least visiting it is something I would do in a heartbeat because I love these characters. I think MWT loves these characters. In fact, I am hard-pressed to find anyone who would not love these characters, particularly Eugenides.

(While he is often times called Gen, I'm sorry, but he will always be Eugenides to me.)

I am in mourning because the series is now over and there will be no more visiting this world, at least for now. Though the fact that I immediately returned to re-read book 3 ought to be telling. For everyone to understand, this for me is what it must have felt like for everyone when they finished the last Harry Potter book.

I am satisfied with this ending. Greatly. Mainly because it has been a long, long time since I read a book I legitimately enjoyed and had begun to think that I no longer LIKED to read. It was depressing. I began to think I would not even be able to finish the goal of reading 60 books this year because I simply cannot find a single book that does not frustrate me by its author's insistence on bloating her work with American politics and virtue signaling at every turn.

MWT's books remind me everything that I loved about reading as a child. I want every one of these books in their hardcover copies on a bookshelf in the new apartment I am moving into in a few weeks. I want a large, printed copy of this world's map. I want to forget I ever read them and read them again and again.

I first read The Thief as a child still in elementary school. It was written and published before I was born, and was only something my sister stumbled across in the library before passing it on to me.

We both loved it. We loved the next book. and we absolutely adore beyond belief the third book, which I still think is perhaps my favorite despite how much I enjoyed this installment as well.

Now, I will admit: to me, this is more like a quartet with two side books to expand the plot. Eugenides' story, to me, feels like it covers books 1-3, and 6 while 4 is obviously about Sophos, and 5, Kamet and Costis.

Now, I love Costis. I really, really do. I think he is my third favorite character behind Eugenides, of course, and Irene/Attolia, while Eugenides' father is my fourth favorite (odd choice, I know, but if I have room I will expand). But readign books 4 and 5, which I still enjoyed, made me long very much to go back to Eugenides and Irene. Because I wanted to see what happened next with them.

Granted, when Costis took a while to appear in THIS installment, I texted my sister to say "I miss Costis :( ". So just know I am, as always, very difficult to please. Nearly impossible, some might say.

But I love these books. I love how much care MWT puts into them. How skillful she is at writing a rich world and characters who somehow never disappoint. I love how Eugenides is a very flawed, yet skilled character, and how Irene does not emasculate him and he does not detract from her. They are probably 1 of 3 couples that I will ever genuinely "ship", as you kids say.

Reading these books makes me smile like an idiot at the antics and often times I am asked "What? What's so funny?" which is awful because it's impossible to explain without telling someone they simply have to read and find out for themselves.

I was wary at first, to have a new character introduced as the narrator. But MWT does it masterfully. And while everyone knows that I am not the sort to give props to authors for inclusion of any kind, I will give her kudos for this (again, in the words of the people):

We stan a "fuck ableism" queen.

Which may seem strange to most folk, but anyone who knows even a little about me and my reviews, and also who lives in our world, may have noticed that a) I hate ableism, eugenics, the way people with disabilities are often treated and b) that those with disabilities are the most discriminated minority group in the world.

MWT manages to hold up a mirror to our society and remind us just how terrible those with disabilities are STILL treated, without making it political or obvious. And I love her for this. Great, great care was obviously taken into crafting every one of these characters, not as "representations", but as people.

That probably means more to me than it does most of the other people on this site, for personal reasons. This is not meant as an insult, but many of you have the luxury of not seeing the ugly side of our very ableist world. I think many of you don't see it because, honestly it IS so ableist that it often pushes those considered "less than perfect" away. Hides them and belittles them.

So to have one of my favorite series of all times actually touch on something personal to me without compromising its story or its world? Is something that I would never have thought to ask for, and yet, MWT gives it.

These books do not pander. They do not sell out. They can be enjoyed by everyone, and I love that. If you are an adult, you can read between the lines very easily of what is going on, while some of those things may pass over a child's head, yet they can still read and enjoy it because MWT is so subtle yet so skilled.

The re-read value of her books is enormous. Least of all because of the intricate ploys and plots, but also because the subtle character relationships. The genuine emotion and honor that they treat one another with. At least, our heroes. But the villains have a certain respect to them as well. Some of them do, anyways. And others, we love to hate.

Nahuseresh barely appears much after book 2, and yet when he appears yet again in this installment, you can still feel how much Eugenides hates him. Even without it being noted explicitly why, you know why Eugenides hates him. It is personal, having to do with his hand, the attempts on his life, but also Nahuseresh's treatment of Eugenides' wife. Even before he married Irene, but certainly the implications of how Nahuseresh still sees her afterwards.

I think as well that Nahuseresh's demise and the final stand off of the Attolian forces at the pass is particularly well done. We don't need to know precisely what happened. We can picture it from the hints we are given, and what little Eugenides says of it. There were genuine moments, while Irene searches for Eugenides in the mist and the mud where I was 100% sure that he was dead, and I was already prepared to be heartbroken.

There is just so much subtlety and so many moments of awe. They are simple moments, but appreciated ones. Very few times have I ever believed that two characters loved one another the same way that MWT has convinced me utterly that Eugenides and Irene love each other, yet it is never sappy or cringe-inducing and never delves into fan-service. It is entirely sincere.

And that's really the best way to describe MWT's writing: it is sincere. It is mature. These are stories told for stories sakes and for enjoyment, and that is really the heart behind it. These books began before I was born and have ended, now, nearly 25 years later. The only series comparable in that way, I suppose, is Game of Thrones, but honestly, I could not even get through a chapter of GoT and I love MWT's books beyond compare.

I don't fully know what it is about them. But you really believe in them.

I guess the only last way I can try to explain this is to touch on Eugenides and his father. We do not see much of them together through the series. But we understand the relationship well because we know Eugenides, and we have heard things.

We know his father wanted him to be a soldier. We know Eugenides did not want to be. We know his father is a stoic Eddisan of a man and Eugenides is a skillful killer who hates killing. And the little, tiny bit that we see of them together in this book is time well spent. MWT sells you utterly on their relationship in just a few pages, so that when his father dies, and Eugenides mourns for him, it feels earned. It is genuine. And the fact that he wants it to be said in stories and songs that HIS FATHER was the one who cut down Nahuseresh even when no one really knows who did, is SO MEANINGFUL.

Eugenides has waited years for revenge against Nahuseresh. Years. This is perhaps the man he hates the most, even more than Erondites. And he gives that honor to his father's legacy. That was not something I thought I would see from him. It is a very humble side to Eugenides. Granted, we don't know who really killed Nahuseresh. But it doesn't matter. Eugenides could have claimed that song and story for himself. He would rather his father have it.

There is honestly not much more I can say. But, though this is not a spoiler, I have to say that the entire time I was practically chanting "Give them a baby. Give them a baby. Give them a damn baby, MWT, I want my happy ending for them".

This is probably something that many modern-day feminists would take umbrage with. I know many people do not like female characters having children at the end of their story, which is mind-blowing considering it is an attack on female biology itself, yet I digress. Because part of Irene's power is the fact that she is a woman. And she wields her being a woman unlike any other "progressive feminist" character I have ever seen. So that if anyone sees my other reviews complaining about pseudo-feminist characters that essentially just...are men in a woman suit, and you would like to know what characters I see as truly feminist, I will point you here. To Irene and Helen. Who are excellent in every way.

In fact, Eugenides learning to ASK his wife to return home from the battlefront instead of commanding her to, to respect her that way and to really finally learn what it means to be a king and husband at the same time, and for Irene to submit to that good judgement given the circumstances especially is such good character development for both of these highly stubborn, possessive characters who do not want to be away from one another.

And thank you MWT for heeding my wishes. Giving Eugenides and Irene twins is excellent. An heir to the throne and a Thief. It is a perfect ending.

And though this may be an odd place to end the review, I must end it here without giving anything else away. I will leave by saying a few final comments: I love the interplay between the supernatural and the mundane in this universe, especially as it pertains to those who can and cannot see the influence of the gods in this world. I love the character interactions and relationships. I love that each character has been very carefully crafted, the new ones in this installment and the old ones. No one has been forgotten about.

I think I will take a few months, then buy all the hardcovers of these books in a splurge and read them all over again.

Until then, I will say goodbye to Eugenides for now, knowing he would probably be very smug to know that he is one of my favorite characters ever written.

[Lois Bujold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well. That was... brilliant.

Very satisfactory conclusion to the series, but do not begin here. Start with the first book, The Thief. Do not read any cover blurbs or reviews or front matter or other descriptions or discussions first, just turn to page one and start reading.

Now would be a good time.

Publisher's blurb somewhat plaintively tries to present this one as a stand-alone, which I interpret with some experience as "Please, please don't put this book down without buying it and wander off because you haven't read the others!" Yeah no. Read the others. The Thief first, The Queen of Attolia second, and after that you should be able to figure it out on your own.

(I just reread two of them, booting up my memory for this new one, and may circle back for the rest before I'm done. I find them all very rereadable, a quality which usually boosts a book up a star on its own for me, but there's more here.)

By the historical accident of its publication, the series is classified as YA, so you may have to look for it outside the usual F&SF sections. Do so. (Though e-editions make these artificial barriers more moot, happily.) It's actually in a class by itself, but I'm not going to attempt to define it.

Ta, L.

[- ̗̀ DANY ̖́- (danyreads)]

concept: everyone in this book has A GOOD DAY

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I had hoped it would be.
I was so afraid Turner was going to break my heart. She didn’t. Obviously. But it felt like I held my breath for the entire book, dreading some huge misstep on her part.



This last installment takes us to the end of the journey with Gem and this whole cast of characters that I came to genuinely care for, and I wasn’t really ready.
It’s not easy to write a review about a book you love. Much easier to complain about what you didn’t like, because usually what you do like is so difficult to articulate.



This time the story is told through the journal of a crippled young man who can’t speak in the traditional way, inserted into Gen’s court as a pawn by his hateful grandfather. I wasn’t sure if I would like this new character, but he quickly grew on me and I was rooting for him as hard as I had rooted for all of the others.



The peek at the brutal choices the kings and queens made for the good of the many, tempered with the deep love and friendships they feel for the few was so well done. And the subtle way the gods nudged and poked the characters into action was superb. They are such a huge part of the world, but you never really feel as though they are taking over what ends up being a very human story.
And I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t read this series yet, but I loved what Turner did when it came to incorporating the last book into this one.



I know I didn’t do it justice in this review, but Return of the Thief was the perfect (for me) ending to what will certainly go down as one of my favorite fantasy series.
Highly Recommended.

[Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return of the Thief follows Pheris, the grandson of powerful noble Erondites, and his relationship with Eugenides, the high king of Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis. Written in the style of a tragic autobiography, it’s a delight to read.

Much of the novel takes on Gen’s fights alongside Irene, Sophos, and Helen to keep the bay theirs, away from the Medes. I honestly found these sections less compelling than the rest, but perhaps this is only because of my adoration for our newest narrator. Pheris has been given up by Erondites in an attempt to pull one over on the king, by giving him a grandson he believes to be not just physically but mentally disabled. But Gen and Pheris soon strike up a close bond, one impossible not to get invested in.

Pheris is perhaps one of my favorite characters of this series so far. Megan Whalen Turner’s emphasis on his agency in the narrative, and clarity in making this a goal, will long stick with me. [And allowing him to be friends with Kamet is wonderful.]

With cameos from all of our other favorite leads, and as many political games as ever, this was an excellent conclusion to a series I will long value as one of my favorite fantasy series. This series is just a delight.

series: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

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[Alienor ✘ French Frowner ✘]

2' after learning about the delay : I.... I just really wanted 2019 to be worth it, yknow? 😭😭😭

3' later : This said, I'd wait twenty years for Eugenides. So it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay it's okay I'll be there

there's thief in the title so of course I'm emotional agrgdhfj

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I can objectively judge these books anymore, because I am such a slavish fan of MWT's writing and find the way she her words together so incredibly soothing and satisfying.

Return of the Thief is a long book, but it was never boring to me. It is, however, quite complex, so I need a couple of rereads (and not in the time of an anxious pre-election brain fog) to get a better grasp of the things I've surely missed. I also should have reread the rest of the books in the series again, because some characters faded in my memory.

It's not exactly a spoiler to say that this novel is about Mede's slow approach to conquer the small peninsula of Sounis, Eddis and Attolia. It is mostly about political machinations and plots, broken down by my favorite scenes of love, heartbreak and courage. In tone, Return of the Thief is more like A Conspiracy of Kings.

I was also pleased that MWT FINALLY, had it in her to show some queer characters. I am still bitter about how opaque and wishy-washy things were on that front in Thick as Thieves.

Can't wait to read all these books again and decide more firmly between 4 and 5 starts. Did I love it or just like it? At this point, I think "liked it" is a fairer rating for now.

Gen's journey is over, but, like many others, I am hoping a certain someone will have a story too.

P.S. Do read a short story at the end - it’s a lovely romantic little thing that combines all my favorite ingredients of WMT’s writing.

[Charlotte Kersten]

"Where the king gives his heart, he gives it completely."

So What’s It About?

Neither accepted nor beloved, Eugenides is the uneasy linchpin of a truce on the Lesser Peninsula, where he has risen to be high king of Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis. As the treacherous Baron Erondites schemes anew and a prophecy appears to foretell the death of the king, the ruthless Mede empire prepares to strike. The New York Times–bestselling Queen’s Thief novels are rich with political machinations, divine intervention, dangerous journeys, battles lost and won, power, passion, and deception.

What I Thought

It’s never easy to end a series, especially when the series is as beloved as this one and the ending is decades in the making. I’m happy to report that in this case Megan Whalen Turner absolutely delivered on the kind of ending everyone in the series deserves.

Part of what I like about this series is that it always tries something new to keep you on your toes, and I think in this case Turner has written her most interesting narrator yet in Pheris, a disabled and disfigured young boy who is nearly universally despised and held in contempt. He’s an excellent character and a challenging narrator with his determination to play dumb as often as possible and his suspicion and loneliness that bloom into fierce loyalty to Gen. It is immensely difficult to read about the hatred that the world throws at him and I treasured every victory that came his way from him discovering his love of math and bonding with Relius and the magus to learning how to ride with the help of a friendly stablemaster. You see how meticulously he keeps track of every slight and every act of kindness because these mean the difference between life and death for him, and I am so glad that he ends up saving the day and finding his place in court.

I will say that the handling of perspective felt a little ungainly in this book compared to the others – there are long stretches that fall into third person before switching to Pheris’s first person again. The abrupt changes bothered me. My other major complaint is that there are a truly massive number of servant/attendant characters to keep track of, which quickly became irritating.

Mostly, though, Return of the Thief delivers on the classic staples of the series – there are well-considered politics, intrigue and scheming that made me think hard and revisit passages before culminating in a number of very clever reveals at the end of the book. The second staple of these books is that Gen more or less acts like a giant diva, moody and petulant and charming and never without a really dangerous, complicated plan. In this case I loved how he funds people to denounce him to take the weight off of Eddis’s shoulders. I will say that Gen’s final plan in this book feels a little less elaborate and satisfying than they have been in past books, but it was still very rewarding.

There are FINALLY gay characters in this world but they’re relatively minor and their presence does nothing to allay the irrevocable truth that Kamet and Costis should be in love. There are also some touches of feminism that get explored when Eddis faces dissent and doubt from her barons and Attolia fights to go to war while pregnant.

It was especially lovely to see the moments of bonding between Gen, Irene, Sophos and Helen, and all the other characters whose stories have intersected with theirs along the way. I especially liked seeing how Gen and Irene function as a couple now after their history of enmity and political marriage. It’s a pretty much perfect ending to a fantastic series and it will remain one of the best I’ve read, YA or otherwise. For now I’ll leave the gang dancing on the rooftops, and I’m sure to return sooner or later.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would 100% name a child Eugenides except it looks so much like Eugenics and that's just awkward.



But more importantly guess what...I DID NOT CRY. Not even when I turned the last page and it said: "The End."



And...and that actually gives me a lot of mixed feelings. Because I came in expecting to be emotionally devastated (in the best possible way) and instead I spent most of the book going:



It was a lovely book. Great quotes. Stirring moments. Terrific symbolism. A good ending to this series filled with pain and hope. We've got all the narrators from the previous books with at least cameos. I honestly am already looking forward to re-reading this one. But it really wasn't at all what I was expecting.

Enough rambling: lets talk spoilers.


My favorite, favorite, favorite moment possibly of the entire series is when they are going into battle and everyone is serious and worried and Gen goes: "I want an elephant." And instead of being like, "Can we have this conversation later?" Attolia is like: "Where would you put an elephant?!" and it made me love those two soooooo much.
That was 100% an ENFP/INTJ conversation and just shows why their relationship works so well.

The first...hesitation (I dare not say complaint because I_love_this_book) I have is with the narrator. Now, in some ways he is a brilliant selection. Pheris mirrors Gen in many ways. And because of the mirroring, the book's "twist" actually doesn't depend on Gen so much as Pheris. If you would even call it a twist?
I guess actually that's my first problem hesitation. No great twists. Or rather, the book is full of little twists but nothing mind-blowing at the end. And I do think this is partially because while everyone else is shocked by Gen's actions, our narrator isn't. He is shrewd enough to understand Gen's character and goes out of his way to help him. This is a different approach from the earlier books. Before when the narrator switches, we lose the previous understanding of Gen and the new narrator's misunderstandings help feed the reader's misunderstandings which creates the twist. Here, we've got a child who takes Gen at face value and was placed there to help him. The twist is Pheris. But the fact that he plays any prophetic role comes so late in the story that I was left...kind of unmoved. Clearly the rest of the book would have a very different tone if he actually led to Gen's death. But it didn't have that tone of impending doom so by the time we got to the high stakes what's-Pheris-gonna-do, I had confidence in Pheris to do the right thing.
And he does do the right thing because despite his physical impediments, he is kind of a Mary Sue. He showed some interesting character earlier on when he betrayed Gen for family but other then that we don't get anything "negative" out of him besides the fact that he is a kid doing what kids do.
Obviously, this provides quite a lot of room for the author. Because he is a child, he can sit in on lots of conversations others can't. He reacts "naturally" to everything and takes things, like, the King and Queen's relationship at face value, giving us some sweet moments between Gen and Attolia unclouded by expectations.
But Pheris's prejudices are strong and nuance not really existent, which fits oddly in a series that runs the line of nuance with enthusiasm. So, for example, when his grandfather betrays Gen, Pharis is relatively unsurprised. I am not sure if that was supposed to be a twist or not. Of course, the evil grandfather would betray Attolia...we've confirmed in every possible way from his grandson that the dude is an ass. What is more suspicious is that his son is so good hearted. But again, we only see him through a child's eyes and heart. So the perspective changes. I thought this was going to lead to another twist...but Gen going berserk (potentially a twist) is also not that surprising if you know Gen from past books. He has a dark side. And while we see that dark side wonderfully contrasted in this book, it isn't new. Also, once again, Pheris kind of takes it at face value.
My final hesitation is that this book was slow to get into. Obviously, the Queen's Thief books are often that way. Lots of set up for great payout. And that happened here. But I've been looking forward to this book for years and still set it down without any urge to pick it up again. That's not a good sign generally.
Which again perhaps we can blame on the narrator? As a child, Pheris doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to politics, especially initially. So while we get glimpses of the political machinations going on, Pheris is much more interested in his dinner, and by extension, the reader gets more detail about his dinner, than what the Medes are up to. Which again low-key leads me to question his use as the narrator if more wasn't going to be done with that obliviousness.

But enough of that. Let's talk positives.

The queens in this book were just...



Despite the fact that female are never the main narrators and not around much as characters, Turner does just an incredible job with Attolia and Eddis. They were such wonderful, strong, wise characters. Their machinations keep the alliance running (despite their husbands!) They lead armies, pop out babies, handle Gen like pros. They affirm one another and the scene where Eddis's slams a disrespectful soldier and she says "Now you don't have to talk down me." And Attolia is like "You go, girl."????
Oh. My. Gosh. GOLD.



I am also really excited about that ending which ties everything up but introduces two beautiful characters in the future king of Attolia and his Thief...



It was a moment so full of hope and joy. And even if Turner doesn't give us a series centered on the twins (please, please, please, please) I'll ever be grateful for that moment. I tried explaining it to my sister and was like "And then Gen offered to chuck his daughter off a roof..." and she obviously did not appreciate the moment but oh. I did. And it was glorious.

I love Gen. I love his dark side. I love in this book how we flesh out what it really means to be the Thief and why his Dad wasn't just a jerk who wants him to become a solider, but somehow who knew the full horrors the Thief would need to commit. It was so beautiful and poignant. And, obviously, bloody. But that's Gen: he's darkness and laughter in equal measure. His light hearted attitude and seemingly childish sulking doesn't hide the dark because the dark is him. But equally, the darkness isn't at odds with his light hearted side. Because that's him too. He's just such a great character and, oh man. Just my favorite.

And I'm really, really, really happy he didn't die which is something I've been dreading for months now. So, that's a weird weight off my shoulders.


Truly, a worthy and enjoyable conclusion with all the characters I've come to love over the past not-20 years (though it felt like it at times.)

Thank you, thank you, Kris, for surprising me with a copy!




Pre-Review

So, there is a synopsis now, and I am 100% certain I am going to bawl my eyes out when I finish this series.

I don't know if I can handle it. Heck, I'm already tearing up.

[Jamie Dacyczyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

2022 ebook reread: Reading this in snatches using the ebook on my phone, I was forced to slow down to read this one. However, unlike the earlier books in this serious, I don't think slowing down was necessary; this book is already one of the more ponderous in the series. I could see this frustrating some readers, since this book dealt with huge amounts of time on things like politics, court intrigue, and troop maneuvering. For me, and probably other die-hard fans, I'm just so happy to be spending more time in this world with these characters that I don't object to the pacing. If MWT wanted to describe every meal and every meeting that they sit through, I'd be pretty content. Pheris is growing on me more and more with each reread. As I said during the last reread, the gut-wrench near the end didn't knock me over like the first time since I knew it was coming (though I still felt the heartbreak), but I still found myself tearing up twice this time around: once toward the end when Attolis humbles himself to ask Attolia to do something for her own safety, rather than trying to pull rank and order her as high king. And second, I still leak actual tears in the last chapter when Eugenides gazes down into a certain little face, and this time I didn't even have to hear a certain name. Just knowing it was coming...the moment he freezes while looking down.... *aching sigh* I love these characters so so much.

2021 audio re-read: I can tell that I'm still in just the beginning stages of picking this book apart in my mind, and that it will get deeper and richer with each re-read. *happy sigh* I connected much more with Pheris on this 2nd read, and it was interesting to see all of my favorite characters through a new pair of eyes. The gut-wrench near the end didn't hit me as hard this time since I knew it was coming, but the tear-jerker scene got me just as choked up. So excited to see what MWT does next.

2020 first read: I'm very tempted to open this book back up to the front pages and begin rereading it at once, since I know these books get better and better with each reread. I have no doubt that this will not be an exception. Soooo many details to be gleaned here, but of course on the first read there's too much going on to really absorb the minutiae.

Without spoiling too much I'll say that my initial reaction to closing the book is a profound sense of peace. Some grief, some joy, but mostly contentment. There was a gut-wrench near the end of the book that almost got me, but a happy moment (specifically a name) later on was what turned on the water works. I'm sure in a little while it will sink in that this is the end of the Thief stories, and that will feel like a loss.....but I knew they had to draw to a close eventually. And, again, these books are made for rereads. The story made be concluded, but the enjoyment of the story has just begun.

Holy smokes, that dedication though? That made me swoon just a teensy bit. Oh Megan....

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 5 out of 5]

2025 Reread: Still a fantastic book and great end to the series!!!

_________________________________

Such a satisfying end to a phenomenal series! Seriously, this is an incredible fantasy series written for teenagers without speaking down to them. The world-building, character development, and political intrigue are complex and brilliantly executed to a degree I rarely see in YA fantasy. (no shade to YA fantasy at all, it just tends to focus more on emotional and romantic character arcs rather than intricate political and strategic ones) If you are a fantasy reader and haven't tried these yet, I highly recommend them.

In Return of the Thief the narrative is delivered through the perspective of a teen boy who is mute and severely disabled but secretly brilliant, particularly with mathematics. He may act as if he lacks intelligence and understanding on the outside, but in reality has a rich internal life and is incredibly perceptive. He is thrust into the court of Eugenides the king and embroiled in court intrigue and politics, chronicling for the reader the truth of what occurred during a time that has since fallen into myth. His character arc is such a good coming of age story, growing into who he CAN be rather than the expectations of his often hateful family.

This book continued to hammer home why Eugenides is one of my favorite characters in literature. He is constantly underestimated and wily as a fox. I won't say more about the plot specifics, but this was great and well worth your time if you've also been a fan of the series.

[Melissa McShane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put off reading this for a few days because I knew I would want enough time to read it in one sitting and then write this review. As with Thick as Thieves, I went into it cold, not for fear of spoilers, but for fear of trying to second-guess the author if I knew anything about the story. And, as with the other books in this series, I did not regret this decision for a moment.

Ending a series is bittersweet even when the ending was implicit in the rest of the series. On the other hand, I would never have predicted where this would go from reading The Thief, which is excellent and complex in its own way but not nearly as powerful as the later books. This book is an incredible achievement in bringing the story of Eugenides to a close, satisfying and complete.

I wrote in my review of Thick as Thieves that I expected the problem of the Mede to have to be resolved sooner rather than later. As a result, in many ways this is a war story, and it's an exciting and complex war story. But from my perspective, it is exciting and complex because of the personalities involved. There's never a moment where I forgot the cost of war is personal on so many levels. Even the accounts of maneuvering troops and fighting exhausting battles aren't tedious, and I never felt eager to get past them to find out what was happening with the characters.

Despite what I said, I didn't go into the book completely blind; I read the few lines at the top of the back cover:

This is a book about the reign of the High King. It is written by the grandson of the Baron Erondites. Because history is written by the winner.

This, along with the preface, promises a terrible change, not least because Erondites is a more present enemy than the Mede. But combined with Pheris, the narrator's, vow to record only what he sees or reliably knows, this is also a promise of a brilliant, unexpected future, because anyone who has read this far in the series knows that things never happen as we expect.

Pheris is a great choice as narrator. He may be Erondites' grandson, but birth defects and politics have forced him to hide who he is for his own safety. That means that on some level, he is nothing more than the fool and mental incompetent he appears to be, because you can't pretend on that level, can't be abused as much as he is, without some of it rubbing off. (I also wrote in that review that I wanted to know who "young Erondites" was, and I'm so glad this is how he was revealed.) But when he enters Eugenides' orbit, everything changes for both of them. I like how in his record, Pheris refers to Attolia, Eddis, Sounis when speaking of those rulers, but Gen is always and ever just "the king." That strikes me as telling when contrasted with how very much Gen hates being the king; this is a role forced upon him, not something he wanted.

This would not be a MWT Queen's Thief novel if there were not a twist, and I admit she did catch me: Stupid me, I actually believed Gen's capture didn't have some deeper plan involved. I'd feel less stupid if she hadn't put it in the damn title. And here I'm not sure what else qualifies as spoiler. In the most general sense, this book comes full circle to The Thief, down to the coda at the end.

In a more specific sense, this is a book about what it means to fight a war you cannot win by changing the playing field. Only Eugenides could have fought the Mede, and only he could have fought the war his way. Which isn't to say that they didn't need the army, because without the army, Gen wouldn't have been in a position to lull the enemy into complacency. And I love love love the end solution, where Gen determines that the High King cannot be hereditary, that the three countries must work together--and what that means for young Pheris' fate. Wow.

Other things, smaller things: I've never seen done with a female character what MWT does with Irene. I call it the Mr. Darcy Solution--Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice works powerfully as a romantic character because we never see anything from his perspective. Irene/Attolia is an incredible presence in this book because she is both distant and beautifully, intimately rendered. Most of the time, this happens with male characters, and MWT has been working on this for several books now. I think I love Irene most of all.

This overlaps somewhat with Thick as Thieves, but it's not obvious until a good ways in, and then we get a different perspective on certain events that have already played out once. I found that personally gratifying, because I like how well this author controls the flow of information, altering the reader's understanding of events simply by showing them from someone else's point of view.

And it ends so well. Everything is resolved, even a few questions I didn't really have, with happy endings for everyone I care about. The romantic in me is very happy with the coda. (Oh, and the dancing on the rooftops. Even Helen.)

At some point, I will read this series in one go, sometime when I've gotten emotional distance from it, because I admit to being personally engaged with the series and the characters in a way that is not always comfortable. For now, I look forward to seeing what Megan Whalen Turner comes up with next.

[Catling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can already tell this review is going to make it sound like I hated Return of the Thief, but I really didn't. Despite all my complaints, I think it was an adequate conclusion to a great series, and even a solid book on its own. So let's first talk about what I liked, because if I don't get it out first, I know I never will.


My favourite part of reading this book was definitely that not one word of it ever left me feeling indifferent. I maybe maybe not teared up at several points, yelled at a few others, and nearly choked to death once when, early on, the narrator so casually referred to a clearly disastrous ambush that hadn't happened yet. I highlighted A LOT of passages because they were funny or heartwarming or seemed to foreshadow... interesting... stuff. The web of references to events both past and future that MWT built did a really good job at keeping me interested.

I was also unspeakably relieved and happy that there was none of that trendy bleakness, and that none of the main characters died. Which isn't to say that it was light-hearted, because it definitely never was! Return of the Thief is full of betrayals, most of them expected to some extent, but the way they're revealed comes as a huge blow, not just for the characters but for the reader also. When the ambush happened, I was completely blindsided. I had of course expected Erondites to do something that stupid and disastrous, but the first 70% of the book did a really good job of lulling me into a false sense of security, and I foolishly thought it would all keep going as well as it had been up until that point. So when Hilarion was killed (just as I'd finally started to like him, too!), Gen captured, and the betrayal revealed, it caught me completely off-guard and I might or might not have yelled a little bit. I love betrayal in stories, love the drama of it, so that was really a highlight of the book for me.


Unfortunately, that's also where I started to be disappointed. Again, it didn't make actually reading the book a chore. I thoroughly enjoyed myself from beginning to end, because all of it was interesting, and because the previous books gave me so many reasons to care about the characters and the stakes. But once I finished the book and had time to think (it's very fast-paced and left me no time to reflect on what was happening), I quickly realised I wasn't entirely happy with it.

A lot of it is simply that nothing that happened genuinely seemed to matter in the end. If The Queen's Thief series has always strived on everything going as wrong as possible, and then, immediately afterward, unimaginably right - on foolhardy plans that somehow always work out in the end (Isn't that what Ornon says about Eugenides in tKoA? That he never loses because he never stops until he's won?) - this time around it felt too much like cheating. The gods' interference isn't anywhere near as subtle as it was been in the previous books, and the literal deus ex machina-s became way too obvious for me. The gods in general seemed a lot more important and active in this book, their existence and influence more immediately obvious to all the characters, which really destroyed the whole foggy mystery around them and made them seem more threatening.

In the same vein, I found the writing a lot less subtle than it was in previous books. I've re-read The King of Attolia (my favourite book ever) many times over the years, and there are still some things I'm not entirely sure I understand, some cryptic remarks that seem to have several possible explanations and are left to your own interpretation. This has always been one of the things I like best about The Queen's Thief series: the fact that it doesn't talk down to the reader. It gives you the clues you need to figure things out, usually provides the start of an explanation, and then allows you the freedom to make of it what you will.
But Return of the Thief didn't really do that, or at least not as well. Some of it might just be an impression due to the fact that I've only read it once and raced through it, but I honestly think a lot of it was either over- or under-explained. Things that seemed obvious were painstakingly spelled out for no obvious reason, and things that left me utterly confused were never addressed again.

Another thing that confused me was the pacing. The two halves (roughly) of the book were drastically different in themes, tone and pacing, to the point where it was jarring, and I can see no clear climax. A lot happened all the time, and unfortunately too much happened. The first half of the book seemed to drag on, like those games that have so many sidequests you could make a whole separate game out of them alone, and then the second half felt painfully rushed. I can't really care about the gods' weird shenanigans because no one lingered on them, they were ominous and treated in a very dark tone, they led to a lot of unspoken tension, but ultimately they were so easily, neatly resolved and never were much of a threat. I can't care about the MOW's death or even that entire battle because we see exactly none of it and it's brushed over - which I suppose, in a way was subtle, but so "subtle" it simply didn't have any weight.

That affected my perception of the characters, too, which is perhaps what I most resent. They didn't seem that clever to me anymore, but merely desperate. That could be a deliberate choice meant to convey the bleakness of war, but if so it didn't work for me. Eugenides felt like a total stranger in a way he never did, even though The King of Attolia was also from the point of view of a character who didn't know or love him at first. Irene, Sophos and Helen were all sidelined, and in Irene's case it was made worse by her pregnancy and the way it was handled. Gen's reaction, though perhaps understandable, pissed me off, and ultimately the narrative sided with him on the topic in many ways. Costis and Kamet barely appeared - which, again, can be justified, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
And if that was all meant to convey the reality of war, the relative irrelevance of individuals, or whatever, I feel that was undermined by how forgiving the book was. I'm of course glad that none of my favourite characters died, but all the deaths in this book were fairly minor and/or expected, and often brushed over. Maybe I'm too used to the grimdark nonsense now, but I can't reconcile that with the unpleasantness of some other writing choices and the supposed bleakness of war.


It feels strange to disapprove so strongly of the last book in a series I adore, of a book I don't even hate, but I can't imagine ever re-reading any part of it. Return of the Thief isn't a bad book by any means, reading it certainly wasn't a waste of my time, and it didn't ruin the rest of the series for me the way other relatively disappointing endings have ruined other series. But I don't like it.

Ultimately, I do think that some of the writing choices were questionable and sometimes even confusing or contradictory, but it's likely that for the most part, it simply clashes with my own tastes. I feel, personally, that it was uncharacteristically rushed and heavy-handed. The things I liked so much about the previous books were taken too far, but not by much, and other people might have different limits than mine. Regardless, it's still an overall satisfying ending to the best book series I have ever read.







Pre-release "review" under the cut.
"Neither accepted nor beloved"

"a prophecy appears to foretell the death of the king"



I apparently posted this 2 years ago and my feelings haven't changed ONE WHIT. If Eugenides dies I will simply have to never open another book again, forget how to read entirely, and bleach my brain so I don't remember he died.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glorious.

I've been rereading the entire series, working my way up to this final book. Reading them all in one summer has allowed me to see how every little piece has come together so cleverly. The intricacies of the politics, the personal relationships . . . just glorious. I'm in awe. And I adored, simply ADORED the new POV character Pheris. And had I not just read Thick as Thieves last week, I don't think I would have realized that Pheris was in that book, too, and how the narratives overlapped.

This might be the most well-executed fantasy series in years. There. I said it.

[Bibi · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are no words to describe how much I love this series. Too good.

[anne⁷ · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 August 2012: This should be called "The King of Kings"!

--------

28 April 2021

Not a review but some random thoughts about the Queen's Thief series.

-I need to apologize for the remark I made on the 6th of August 2012. I have learned the errors in my judgment and I have finally realized that the Thief is better than the King 🤧
-I thought it was anti-climactic that the author would gloss over details of the war but although war is definitely a major plot point, it's not really what the whole series is all about.
-I have a love-hate relationship with how the MWT makes the important parts soooo subtle that you would completely miss it if you don't focus on the story 101% like for example that person who came back at the end of the story was important but why did the author saw it fit to not state directly that it was him who came back ??
-The way I had to reread so many chapters because of the above random thought
-I've had a reading slump since January 2020 and this book healed me
-I never had to think twice telling people that this is my favorite series and now that the story has come to an end, I feel even prouder to say that it is still my favorite series.
-I read Queen of Attolia at least once a year since 2011 and every time it feels like I'm reading it for the first time. I can see Return of the Thief becoming like that
-I am very happy that my head canons for Irene and Gen came true at the end of the book
-Overall, I'm happy, satisfied, angry, sad, unfulfilled, impatient, and hopeful
-I'm considering becoming religious again. I need to gather disciples for when I build the Church of Eugenides
-Gen x Irene

-------
3 May 2021

I was reading community discussions about this and I hate that there are so many things I didn't notice, again, but at the same time, it cements my love for these series. There's no such thing as reading these books too many times because the reader almost always picks up a new discovery every time they read the books. If you didn't pick up a new discovery, it only means that you need to read it all over again.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It probably only works in Eddis.”

!!!!!!!!

Granted, I wasn’t shocked until page 338 (I kept thinking, why don’t I see where this is going?) - but then the shocks kept coming. There is so much here I wasn’t expecting - from the callbacks to previous books, so seamlessly folded into this more politically-advanced narrative, to that incident on page 338, and every incident which followed, to the ending - THE ENDING -

Frankly I am shocked by this, and by how much it had the capacity to surprise me.

“A king and his Thief” - I wanted to throw things in joy -

and dancing on the roof, a callback to book three -

and what I can only consider a reference to The Perilous Gard, an entirely truthful message seen most clearly in hindsight -

“Turnabout is fair play” -

and that Gen had to be the Thief -

“I can do anything I want” -

“People love a dancing bear,” he murmured. “No one wants to be one.”

I think I can say that this ending was foreshadowed most in The Queen of Attolia: “Diplomacy - in my own name.”

What a tour de force. What a spectacular account of the tenuous, shifting politics of small, seemingly unimportant kingdoms, and the meddling of their gods.

I’m not sure what to do with myself now that it’s over: let it settle, I think, and then reread it. I’m not sure this is a five-star book the way the first three are; in general, I’m not sure the second half of the series has that same strength for me. It gets so much bigger, though, and there are still pitch-perfect moments that show you it hasn’t lost sight of who it is...

But I’m less convinced by the character moments, and the back-and-forth of the loyalties. I think the series shines when its focus is on the politics and the gods and the larger-than-life surrealism they lend to the worldbuilding. None of the moments that shocked me came from the non-royal characters; instead, they were all born of the perfect juxtaposition of worldbuilding and plotting.

So I’m going to reread and come back to this. I’ll probably have a lot to say about point of view (that intro!) at some point, and more about Relius - frankly, he’s a loose thread, and the character that most bothers me; maybe the magus shouldn’t have been sidelined so much? Also from QoA, and maybe another apt summation of this book: “Your queen’s entire two-word answer: ‘War, then.’” - but I’ll come to those later. Somehow they feel less important than the big-picture things. Fittingly, I suppose.

This isn’t Harry Potter and the end of my childhood. It’s a capstone for something else, though - it must be - it’s too significant not to be.

And LOOK AT THAT DEDICATION.

PS: ELEPHANTS!

PPS: I was right, Brandy - it wasn’t Philo ;D (PHILO.)

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the 20 year wait. 🙌🏻

[Rubal · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

this was a WILD ride. mwt stuck the landing imo. need to re-read it a couple of times before I pick up every clue though and I look forward to re-reading and recommending this series.

eta: apparently, it's been further delayed to October 2020 :(

eta: it's been delayed to 2020. kellykapoorjuicecleanse.gif

update:

Neither accepted nor beloved, Eugenides is the uneasy linchpin of a truce on the Lesser Peninsula, where he has risen to be high king of Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis. As the treacherous Baron Erondites schemes anew and a prophecy appears to foretell the death of the king, the ruthless Mede empire prepares to strike.

ahhhhhhhhhhh. this is too much!! istg, if there is one (1) scratch on eugenides...

xx

"Expected publication: March 19th 2019"

i thought we would have to wait another 7 years after book 5 but!!! also, "return of the thief" ????? more focus on gen and attolia???

[Mayim de Vries · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without war, there would be no heroes.

The problem with this book is that no thief returns. It is yet another story told by yet another new protagonist and Gen serves as an excuse to tell it. Of course, sometimes he glimmers in the background and sometimes he is allowed to have a scene. In the end, I was very conflicted as to whether I liked this design or not.

I decided I mostly didn’t (it doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book, mind you!). Firstly, because this is a new new protagonist, freshly introduced. Not someone who we could have glimpsed before, but an entirely surprising choice for the new narrator.

Surprising? That is supposed to be a positive thing, right?

It might. Ms Turner definitely showed her capability to tell her story precisely through unorthodox characters. Perhaps it amuses her to seek more and more challenging vessels for her narrative. But this book for me had a touch of an unhealthy sport in it. Something of a “how far can I go” exercise in creating a challenge and then facing it in terms of writing a persuasive, relatable hero that is - again - not one of the usual suspects in YA. A misshapen boy in a world where fitness and agility matter as much as cunning is a challenge not many writers could meet. And while she did admirably meet it, at times, I was wondering: is this really necessary in a finale? It is not even that it was difficult to bond with this new person (and the truth is, he wasn’t that easy to befriend), but most importantly, it was yet another substitute for Gen, and I was hoping that after all those books about the Thief without the Thief, we will have him truly returned in all the thieving glory.

Well, we don’t have that, and this is the second reason for my unhappiness.

Oh, we do have Gen, we do. But it is again Gen seen from the third-person vantage point. And so we can admire him like a beautiful landscape, but we cannot truly experience this scintillating feeling I remember so well from the first two books in this series. I could only wonder: is there something wrong with Gen these days? Or maybe this is the real challenge that Ms Turner avoids? Maybe writing Gen is the one gauntlet she is unable (or unwilling; it doesn’t matter) to take up in fear that she has lost touch and the ability to show him the same but oh so very different.

I yearend for this Gen. And the main reason why I agreed to trudge through all these nonsensical diversions of books 3 and 4 and 5, was precisely the hope that finally, Gen will come back and we will finish this adventure just like we started it: together.

As it is, we are not together, we are merely allowed to accompany Gen from afar. Also, the adventure does not end here. Of this, we can be very certain.

Also in the series:

1. The Thief ★★★★☆
2. The Queen of Attolia ★★★★★
3. The King of Attolia ★★★★☆
4. The Conspiracy of Kings ★★★☆☆
5. Thick as Thieves ★★★☆☆

[R.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book pretty much in one sitting, and it was absolutely worth it.

This series is so complex, and there are so many subtle details to the narration (not to mention so many different narrators), that it's hard to imagine a final book could possibly wrap it all up in a satisfying way. Especially when you consider how many eagerly awaited finales of the past few years have ended badly and left fans devastated and furious.

I didn't really expect MWT to blow the landing on her own series, but even at that, she exceeded my hopes and expectations. I spent the last quarter of the book holding my breath because I was so afraid for the characters and so unsure of how the plot would play out, but in the end I was fully satisfied with the way things wrapped up and excited to go back and read all the books again. The Queen's Thief series truly is a classic, and an epic story I'll treasure for the rest of my life.

[Crowinator · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish for this to be longer; it could have been doled out as several more lengthy novels, right? Not that it was damn near perfect as is, tying so many stories and characters and political schemes together with subtle precision. I even cried for a character I despised. I also wish for there to be several more books coming. I don’t want it to be over. Despite that bittersweet realization, I loved being privy to this world and these characters and I sense several more re-reads of them all in the future, this one quite soon. I have already re-read several scenes already. Favorite scenes to re-read so far: the hilariously chaotic chase of Eugenides through the castle all to win a bet; the pitneen coat; Eugenides being interrogated and escaping the tent in darkness

[CM · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay but definitely not my favorite in the series. If it would have been the first one in the series I would not be continuing, but the fact that I already know and love a lot of the characters made it a bit better.

It was full of a lot of political intrigue and discussion; so much so to the point that that there was very little plot or character development. It read almost like a history book to me and I was quite bored to be honest.

Will still read the next one in the series but as for this particular book, it was unfortunately not so enjoyable to me.

[richa ⋆.˚★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5⭐

What I expected from the final installment of the series, exceeded my expectations by introducing us to Phaeris, the eldest heir of the infamous and conniving Erondites family, son of Marina the daughter of the exiled Lord Erondites. He has a limp and is physically disabled but that never obstructed him. He has sharp mind trained by his nurse to become invisible in dire times. Abruptly dropped into Attolia, he now has to learn to adjust to the wasps and vipers of Attolia. He finds a unique solace by being under the wing of Euginides, the King of Attolia.

Megan truly has a gift in creating humane characters with whom I could relate and sympathise to. Her writing shone and had me going through a roller coaster of emotions. She instills a surge of emotions with each chapter and it only helped us delve deeper into the story. The series began with a Thief and ended with his true wish. I had the best time reading this book — half scared and half elated. I have this unexplainable joy everytime I read about Irene and Gen and it only went deeper. There were so many character deaths and new additions. I think this book could ~4.5 but I am too emotional about Phaeris. This series is now added to one of my favourites.

[Kacie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waiting for Return of the Thief was the longest two years of my life! But the wait finally came to the end and I found myself in the possession of the perfect finale to a perfect series. Wow, Turner. What an emotional rollercoaster! I cried...happy tears and sad tears, laughed, grinned like an idiot, and almost had several heart attacks! Sometimes I just wanted to strangle Eugenides and other times I wanted to give him a big hug!!

That ending. Wow. It was absolutely perfect! And Irene's and Eugenides's twins!!! Ohhhh my heart melted, I literally could not stop smiling! It was so sweet. Also that end dancing scene with Eugenides's entire court dancing on the roof....wow. I have no words for this ending. All I can say is that it was perfect.

Pheris was such an interesting character to have as first person! I will admit, I was a little bit skeptical at first but it grew on me. I ended up really liking it

Every time I reread a book in The Queen's Thief series I find some new detail that I never noticed before. I'm already looking forward to rereading Return of the Thief so I can catch more details and anything I missed.

[charlotte, · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rep: amputee mc, mc with unspecified physical developmental disorder, bi character, gay character

CWs: mentions of miscarriage, torture

[mairiachi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer, please do not take everything as gospel truth, this is just a stand-in review before I reread it and then come back and rewrite this, don't let it discourage you from reading the book. My thoughts are all over the place with this one and I'm not sure what I think about this book. It kind of shows in this disjointed, incoherent review, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

To be completely honest, it's a three for me, so apologies to Turner but I'm rating it honestly, not wishfully.

This is not because the writing wasn't good, but because in comparison to the other books in the series (specifically the first three), it didn't hold a candle to them in regards to the plot, its twists, the world, the characters and their growth, etc. It didn't seem as multifaceted as the others and I was surprised at how straightforward it was - the things that people warned were going to happen, happened. The people who said they were leaving, left. The iffy people who said they'd be loyal to Gen, were, in fact, loyal - even though there was good reason to doubt, and MWT did layer the doubt on thick in this book. There were no backstabbers, really, and there were no people with ulterior motives, mostly.

If I hadn't had a playlist of songs and if I hadn't been reading it along with my sister (who preordered the book for me, so be blessed in all ur endeavors sis, tyvm), and if we hadn't stopped every few pages to talk about what was going on, and Easter eggs, I wouldn't have had half as much fun with this book. Although I do have a really strong feeling that this is the kind of book where you initially think "eh, it was good, nothing to write home about" but then you reread it, catch all the things you missed, get blown away, and put it on your stack of favorite books. (Which is why I'll be rereading it someday, so don't take this review too seriously.)

It might also be that I was younger when I read the first couple books and I've since gotten a lil bit older.

even tho ITS NOT A PHASE MOM 😭


Some things to note, that you may or may not appreciate -
- 1. The book is mainly about the war Attolia is (about to at the beginning, and then is at the end) waging on the Mede empire.
- 2. There is a lot of dialogue and preparation in the first half of the book, more action in the last half.
- 3. A lot of characters we get to know in the fifth book become more prominent in the last one.
- 4. A lot of main characters that were in the foreground of the first three (maybe four) books have all but disappeared in this one, a few favorites have melted to the background and we don't get to see as much of them as I'd have liked (similar to the last book in the Penderwicks series, it's not really a reunion of all our favorite characters and is more a wrapping up of the previous book. As if the last book is a part two).
- 5. It has a very different, almost familial feel to the last book, like Gen and Irene have gotten older in the few months we've been away from them, as if they're tired from having seen too much in their lives.
- 6. There's a feeling of too much change while also not enough change (maybe because there's change in all the wrong places or smth, idk)
- 7. Helen, Sophos, Kamet, COSTIS! none of these people make a [significant] appearance in this book. There are some references to them, and I believe Sophos and Costis do show up once or twice ? but for like a page, and not for anything very significant. I find that incredibly disappointing because all my favorite characters step out of the story for the last book and I was hoping to read more about them before the world is wrapped up forever.
- 8.EDIT: just saw Janine's comment after editing out #8, but basically I mentioned how the previous books hinted at some characters' sexualities and this book is much more up-front. I'm not sure why I felt it necessary to point out, but I'm putting it BACK in because I want her comment to make sense LOL
- 9. It's a war book. What happens in war? uh huh. There's a lot of that in this book, more than I expected. No spoilers, but it happens to some people we like. rip Ion.
- 10. It was a little bit too long. As in, I'm pretty sure she could have slimmed it down, and it felt a little bit dragged-out. Though it is the last book, so it's excusable.
- 11. While the other books were centered around one specific person (first was about Gen, second about Irene, third about Costis, fourth about Sophos, fifth about Kamet), this book centers more on the war than on the people of Gen's empire. While it does center around one person we've never met before (Pheris, who's been talked about but not in a direct way), he seemed more like the side character.
- 12. The last half of the book doesn't even take place in Attolia.
- 13. The war and the way they strategize seemed (to my very inexperienced self) badly planned and poorly executed. While I've never been a general and I've never had to go to war with anyone, I kept being surprised at the plans they made and the way they carried those plans out. While I don't know what smart strategizing would look like, I'm pretty sure it doesn't look like that. Could be wrong. War strategists, hmu in the comments.
- 14. Despite it being a war, there was a lot to slog through, because much of the book is sitting around in the mud and drizzling rain. I was almost as uncomfortable and bored as the soldiers. It moves really, really slowly when they're not fighting.
- 15. Be warned, the title of the book is misleading. The thief has all but disappeared in this one. There is nothing up his sleeve, no tricks, no surprises, and no stealing. This is my one major complaint about this book, but she may have written it that way for a reason, and I probably missed something that made it understandable. In the end, I really missed old Gen and felt like I was reading about a completely different person.

(Edit 1: I think, looking back, she's probably giving us a glimpse of what he is now - matured, older, more strategic and methodical, and definitely more capable of ruling a kingdom. Tho tbh the feminist in me kinda struggles with that one - the fact that Irene just gives up all that she's worked on securing and stabilizing as soon as she's married. Gives me 1950's housewife vibes even tho she's definitely a strong character/presence in her own right.
Edit 2: basically what Janine is saying I think haha)

Because my review is so bad, I 100% recommend reading this: https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/s... because it's way more enjoyable and the discussion that they have is really, really good (scroll down to the comments, that's where the fun is). They not only really dive into and dissect the sixth book, but they also go back and break down the previous books as well, taking into consideration how much they influence the last book. There's a lot about the previous books that I didn't know, and that I didn't catch in the last book, which made for a really enjoyable, eye-opening discussion. In fact, I would have loved to incorporate some of their points into my review, but there are a significant amount of spoilers and I hate when reviews are mostly spoilers so I try to stay away from that as much as possible. They have good points, and great observations on things that totally went over my head, though, so if you've already read the book and you're not sure how to understand or dissect it, I strongly suggest it. They really get the wheels turning in your head.

I need to reread this book asap, because everything they talk about I managed to miss when I read the book. Also, huh? did not realize Gen was actually POSESSED BY EUGENIDES the actual GOD HIMSELF. What is this book and how did I totally miss that-

okay my brain is kind of breaking after reading the discussion thread, so I'll just let you sort all of this stuff out by yourself, my sincerest apologies for having such an incoherent review. I'll be back to edit the thing and make serious improvements in like six months to a year. 3-5 business years 😃

[Brandy Painter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book produced so many feelings. The dedication is spot on. This is definitely for us.

I love Pheris with my whole heart. I haven't been this thoroughly and instantly captivated by a first person narrator since I read The Thief the first time. I would read 14 Volumes entitled "Pheris's Observations on the King and his Attendants" and still need more.

That scene with the Pent ambassador may displace the "Diplomacy in my own name" scene as my all time favorite. "No one paints moments like these on walls." Phresine. Gen vaulting the table. The couches. I died.

I have so many connections to this series, but one of the things I've always loved most about it is its exploration of the relationship between the human and the divine, and there was a lot of good stuff in this volume that added to the strength of that overarching theme.

As I was reading, I laughed; I teared up; I rejoiced; I mourned. In the end I was happy and satisfied.

And I only slept three hours because that's all my brain would agree to shut down for.


I didn't think MWT had the power to surprise me anymore, but I had to read page 229 multiple times to be sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. And here we thought the Eddisians were the most functional royal family of the three. LOL. Even if what Eddis was implying were only ever rumors and never truths, the fact that the questions were ever raised sheds so much light on character motivations and choices. (I wonder if the magus ever regretted the wording of that proposal message...He clearly knew the rumors were powerful enough to use as a threat that would either see Eddis deposed or remove her Thief from the equations he was calculating.)

Everything else, while delightful, wasn't surprising to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting there.

I was so happy to be back in a front row seat for Gen and Irene's relationship and see how far it had come. They are my otpest of otps forever and ever. And I'm so happy with how their story "ended". THAT LAST CHAPTER.

"I did not become inappropriate all by myself!" Now a top 3 favorite line of all time.

Irene got him his elephants because relationship goals.

Irene's lost, deranged few minutes when they begin to find the bodies in the pass broke me. That was the one time I cried because my one fear in Gen not making it was what it would do to her sanity. Thankfully that was short lived. Only to be followed by her finding Gen slumped over the MOW's body. I knew his father was going to die. I love that the emotion in that scene came from Irene's careful approach of Gen and how she pulled him from his grief enough to start functioning again.



I'm looking forward to reading it again. Possibly today. Definitely this week.

[Elevetha]

OH MY GOSH

Originally:

So unbelievably happy that there is a sixth planned.



Less so that the publisher will most likely s.......I shan't say it.



But please, I beg of thee, Greenwillow, publish this book when the manuscript is available. And Megan, take all the time you need to make it better than as good as KoA.

Until then:




Also, thank you, thank you, thank you, for introducing me to THIS series. I shall be forever indebted to you and it shall never be enough. Thank you, Miss Clark.