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The Queen of Attolia: "Nothing mortals make lasts; nothing the gods make endures forever."

Wtf is in that vial? Is that in the book?

 Our journey through the Megan Whalen Turner series continues! With The Queen of Attolia. I was assured by certain parties that this would be much better than The Thief, despite me liking The Thief muchly. I HAVE SOME THOUGHTS.
Different thoughts from that

 So The Thief was pretty much a big road trip book, and this is more a sitting around, plotting & scheming book. THE SCHEMES ARE COOL, but I do like me some road tripping, so that was a lost element IMO. Along with the road trips came the made up mythology stories (more made up than normal since they came from Megan Whalen Turner's mind and not the zeitgeist of an entire nation), and in this book there is only ONE made up mythology story. It's a really good one. But still. One.

In Queen of Attolia, we're still in the place that is basically Ancient Greece, with the kingdoms of Eddis, Attolia, and Sounis. This book obviously has a pretty big focus on Attolia, but the series overall focuses on the dynamics between these countries (kingdoms? places? city-states? I don't know). Eugenides (the Thief) is still doing his thieving and pissing off kings and queens, BUT ALSO, the Medes (aka Persians) are trying to sneakily get in and take over everything because that's what they do. Damn Persians.
THAT'S YOU, PERSIANS

 I will say that I had a hard time putting it down last night when I was a third from the end, and I am someone who can put down a book when I have eight pages left ("I'll just get to that later on..."). I very much enjoy reading about the queen of Attolia, and I hope the next books in the series fill her out even more, because Imma need that. 

 I'm not saying this is my favorite, but it feels like MWT's building to something big in this series, and I am super-into putting in a lot of effort along the way to make the final part way more satisfying (I did not mean for that to sound sexual but it did and now I'm not taking it back). Like with soap operas. You watch them for YEARS and then something finally happens that you want to happen and you're like "YES I HAVE BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME WITH THESE PEOPLE." Same thing happens in a Dickens novel. So what I'm saying is I'm totally here with you, Megan Whalen Turner, and I will keep reading your books. So just keep writing them and don't die before they are done.
constant face while looking at the author
of an unfinished series I am enjoying
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