Community Readalong, week 2: The Thief, chapters 8-12

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

Reminders: Please refer questions about leading discussions to Jade, and please keep all Conspiracy of Kings comments spoiler-free as a courtesy to us poor souls who haven't read it yet. Thanks!

(All page numbers in this post are from the hardcover Greenwillow edition, with the ugly statue of Hephestia on the front.)

First line: “ ‘We’ll have to wait until nearly midnight,’ said the magus. ‘We might as well get something to eat.’” (115)

Last line: “You’re welcome, my queen.” (219)

As Jade noted last week, the second half of this book is where the plot really takes off—objects are stolen, the Attolian Guard is evaded, prisons are escaped, and secrets are revealed.  We also witness Gen’s confrontation with the gods he didn’t believe in, learn of Ambiades’ treachery, and hear for the first time about the Mede Empire.  Furthermore, we are introduced to the queen of Attolia, the captain of her guard, the queen of Eddis, and Eddis’ minister of war.  And Pol dies.

One great thing about this book is that even with all the exciting plots, we get character development too.  Gen gains respect for his companions and risks his life to help the magus and Sophos escape from Attolia, while the magus comes to respect Gen in turn, believing he deserves to know about the Mede Empire, for instance, rather than treating him as a tool.  And we, the readers, get socked again and again by Gen’s brilliance.  (At least, I do.)

Lines I like:

“ ‘This way,’ I hissed, ‘when they hear us chatting like happy sparrows in our nest, they won’t immediately be able to find us.” (187) [Gen’s turns of phrase delight me.]

“A thief never makes a noise by accident.”  (194) [Another reminder that Gen is usually deliberate about his actions, even when he appears to be out of control.]

“Oh, I believe that Attolia sends best wishes that the Queen’s Thief is well and hopes that she will have a chance to entertain him for a longer period sometime in the future.” (208)  [Be careful what you wish for, Attolia!]

Let’s hear from you! What do you have to say about this week’s chapters?  Do you have favorite lines?  Plot moments that amaze you?  Moments that resonate either with this book’s ending or with the rest of the series?  What are/were your initial impressions of characters we met for the first time in this reading?  Any eulogies for Pol out there?  What about reactions to the reveal(s) of the ending in general—either from this read, or remembered from your first one?

Next week: The Queen of Attolia, chapters 1-7

Comments

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Yah, more discussion!

I must say, my favorite part is probably when Gen asks if Sophos can swim, and the Magus and Pol get really nervous. It speaks volumes for how much they all look out for sweet Sophos (that makes me smile), but it turns out Sophos CAN swim. This leads me to believe that Sophos is not as helpless as he seems, and has a hidden strength, which I am very excited to see in book #4.

There was one line that caught my notice...

"Tell me," I said "or I'll get up and strangle you with one hand."

-p267 of The Thief

Can you say deja vu...

"You know you can't strangle a man with one hand?" he said very seriously. "It's probably why I only have one."

-340 of The King of Attolia

So, so, so...

Foreshadowing or coincidence?

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

I've come to believe that in these books, nothing is coincidence...although obviously Gen has no idea of the repercussions of his strangling statement. (Also note that, thank goodness, it's his left hand that's currently incapacitated. Otherwise it would be way too creepy.)

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I think Megan's subconscious planted all kinds of things she was later able to play with.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do love book discussion!

Favorite Line: "Do you want to write a letter to your sweetheart?" he asked.
"What makes you think my sweetheart can read? Shut up and get me a piece of paper." (Greenwillow paperback, pg 174)

So, throughout this part I mainly noticed two things: 1) how many clues there are to the fact that Gen's both stolen the stone and isn't quite what he seems. I keep asking myself How could you have missed this? And this and 2) Sophos seems so young. I know he's only a little younger than Gen, but he just seems... very young. From what I've heard about ACoK, that's going to change.

A few other things:

"Discretion prevented me from saying that I thought she was a fiend from the underworld and that mountain lions couldn't force me to enter her service." (pg 233)

Oh, Gen. Don't say such things.

"No one was going to start a war over me..." (pg 245)

A very interesting comment, particularly considering what we know happens in Queen. I had to wonder if Gen was simply underestimating his own worth in the court's eyes, of if Eddis really wouldn't have gone to war over him at this point.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd read this book before I read Queen, but it's great reading Thief again and watching all the clues being so carefully sewn. I've also been paying much more attention to Sophos this time around.

Having subsequently gotten a degree in classics, this time around I can also recognize the depth of the research that went into the worldbuilding. It's pretty phenomenal.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Sophos seems so young. I know he's only a little younger than Gen, but he just seems... very young.

So true. Especially compared to Gen, who would be old for his age even if he were only what he presented himself as.

I had to wonder if Gen was simply underestimating his own worth in the court's eyes, of if Eddis really wouldn't have gone to war over him at this point.

I tend to think that Gen underestimates his own worth and reputation, to an extent. Iirc, he was surprised that Eddis went to war over him in Queen, right?

[magicsandwiches.livejournal.com]

This is stuff most of you know already, but since I wrote in the margins this time around, here are my notes (all page numbers are from the paperback with the Gift on the front):

1. p 153 Gen tells the Magus that when someone's clever, they're told they're clever enough to steal Hamiathes's Gift and also what happens when someone gets caught. "He [the magus} wasn't surprised that I knew. I suppose crime and punishment are things that most thieves keep track of." But that's NOT how he knows.

2. p 193 Gen shows the magus the Gift and the magus says, "You are a wonder, Gen. I will carve your name on a stele outside the basilica, I promise." And Gen laughs. Heh, so did I. Since Gen knows there's no way that's going to happen.

3. p 195 "He offered me two pieces of leather thongm one longer than the other. I tied up the end of my braid with the long one and kept the short one to use later." Gee, what for?
p 197 "I brushed shoulders with the magus for just a moment...." Heh, I so caught this the first time I read it and I thought I had the big plot twist in the bag. Little did I know there was so much more to come!
p 199 "I stared at him with my mouth hanging open like a horrified gargoyle." Nice act, Gen.
p 200 "I very carefully rebraided my hair and watched." Heh.
p 220 "When he didn't notice the bump under my hair at the base of my skull, I gave up protesting."

4. p 205 Gen's little act of deferring to people (and it WAS an act) is now over. We really get a taste of true Gen in a rage, snarling at everyone--even the magus--and generally acting like he's superior. Different than we (or the other characters) have seen him before.

5. p 216 "I'd sworn to the gods from the king's prison that I wasn't going to embroil myself in any more stupid plans." Heh.

6. p 233 "I have no particular loyalty to the king of Sounis, your majesty." Truth!

7. p 235 The god Eugenides says "His wife died in winter. His three children live with their aunt in Eia." He's talking about the magus, right?

8. p 240 Gen displays extensive knowledge of Attolia "This is a ledge that runs around the entire castle." And p 249 "There's a bridge."

9. Cross-reference pp 245 and 262. Gen's bedroom!

10. Cross-reference pp 262 and 143. Gen feels safer with mountains rising up around him.

11. p 223 "Something unpleasant had happened." pp 226-227 "That was the muddled and awful part. I'd felt my life dragged out with the sword, but in the end my life wouldn't go. It had stretched between me and the sword. I think that only the power of the gods could have kept me alive, but my living was at the same time an offence to them. I should have died, but instead the pain went on and on. Dying would have been so much easier." p 273 "There is something horrible and frightening and, I'd discovered, very, very painful about being trapped in this life when it is time to move on." The effects of Hamiathes's Gift, which didn't completely register the first time I read the book. And when he says something unpleasant happened, he's not just referring to having killed someone.

12. The last page where Gen reveals why he's telling the story. I realized Gen isn't necessarily being misleading when he leaves out certain facts in his narrative. After all, he's writing it down for Eddis, and is thinking of sending a copy to the magus. Both people already know the pertinent gaps in the narrative, just not all the details.

13. Also, I really loved and highlighted any little snippets about Gen's parents. SO fascinating!

[magicsandwiches.livejournal.com]

Agree about Sophos! All that blushing.

I marked the comment about starting a war, too. There are a number of lines that connect in freaky ways to the other books, it's crazy, especially considering Megan wasn't planning on later books.

[magicsandwiches.livejournal.com]

Yes!

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

These are all great observations! When I read most of these places this time, I kept going, "How did I miss this the first time?" So many lovely clues.

Re. #7: I think the reference is to the soldier Gen killed, who he's feeling guilty about. That was my impression, anyway.

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

I do the, "How could I have missed this?" thing all the time when I read The Thief. It's kind of fun, actually.

And I also agree about Sophos--he does seem very young. I don't think I'd grasped, the first time I read this, how young Gen himself is, which makes Sophos even younger. I think I'll be ready to see him grow up when I finally get to read the next book, but...he's kind of loveable just as he is.

And, "mountain lions couldn't force me to enter her service." Well, technically, he never does enter her service, does he? Though I'm pretty sure he calls her a fiend in QoA, too.

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

Yes, number 7. I also felt it was the soldier Gen killed. Gen wonders, did he have a wife or sweetheart? Did he have kids? I always figured Eugenides the god was basically answering his questions, here.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

I love Megan's worldbuiding. I think reading her books made my standards for literary worlds go up dramatically... it's actually rather funny: I find myself comparing fictional worlds to that in Queen's Thief all the time... and being disappointed.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Oh, ye gods, #5. No more stupid plans indeed.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

I still find myself amazed to think that Gen is young in Thief. I mean, he's obviously not old, and yet he's mature... it's misleading. And compare him to Sophos at that point... *shrugs*

I think you're right about Gen underestimating his own worth, but I have to wonder if at least some of the outrage over his de-handing in Queen was generated by his feat with Hamiathes Gift. Obviously Eddis herself and his family would have felt the same regardless, but perhaps the feeling of the Court in general was warmer towards him after the fact of his essentially saving Eddis' sovereignty.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Megan is amazing. There's no other way to say it.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Isn't it, though?

Gen's age in Thief constantly amazes me as well. I catch myself thinking he's about 20, and then I realize, "Oh, no, not yet."

Ah, such love. He calls her a fiend and she calls him a boy. If only all couples were so romantic...

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

I agree with this - plus there was the bringing-Sounis-to-his-knees-assassination-hinting thing. And as Eddis says later, he "kept the entire population amused". I love the idea of people all over Eddis telling stories about what that crazy thief is up to now.

[mortalasabee.livejournal.com]

Really! I find it really hard to believe that she wasn't at least sort of thinking about other books. She gives so much detail about the political situation, and she also opens up doors to different characters--Attolia and Eddis are only seen for a few pages, but they are such well-rounded characters it seems only logical that they would return. She also brings up Sophos/Eddis. :)

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

MWT's world building is UBER-WIN!!!!

I was totally inspired after realizing how complex her world was. It's impossible for me to write anymore, I'm constantly overwhelmed by ideas of what sort of world the story takes place in. I have millions of worlds and few plots to operate within them.

[mortalasabee.livejournal.com]

"Ah, such love. He calls her a fiend and she calls him a boy. If only all couples were so romantic..."
This made me laugh out loud. So true.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Well, speaking as a writer (albeit an unsuccessful one), I can tell you that I am always finding clues I have left for myself without knowing it.

[magicsandwiches.livejournal.com]

GAH! Thanks, you two. I was confused and couldn't for the life of me figure out who the heck he meant. Y'all are awesome.

[magicsandwiches.livejournal.com]

That makes sooooo much more sense.

[magicsandwiches.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA!