COMMUNITY READALONG PART 4: The Queen of Attolia, Chapters 8-13

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Ladies, gentlemen, and reprobates, gather 'round for the next installment of the Community Read-Along! (And please remember: No spoilers for ACoK!)

Reading this week from: "Spring came earlier on the coast than it did in the mountains..." to "They would not risk a stop on the shore until it was time to disembark."

Favorite Lines:

- "He'd be stomping around in Attolia's grain fields right now if it weren't for you, and you know it.*" (pg 111)

- "Go on- without derogatory comments about people of my profession, please." (pg 119)

-"Oh, how inconspicuous I will be when next I am in Attolia, dressed in Eddisian formalwear with gold frogs on the front." (pg 153)

Favorite Scene: Honestly, I cannot choose, as this section is perhaps my favorite in the entire series. Curse this indecision!

Thoughts, Questions, Observations: There are more than two scribbled pages of these, believe it or not. So, I shall hide them in conveniently labeled cuts so that you can read or skip them at your leisure. Please chime in!

The War

This is the point at which we begin to see Gen's involvement in this lovely little war (we're rather thrown into it, actually). And how he does get involved: stealing the Magus, with the eternal line "the magus in question" (pg 106). This war, and the politics that surround it, is really one of the most interesting things, I think, in Queen. For one thing, it really shows Eddis off. And I so so love Eddis. Thoughts on the war? The Magus?

Eugenides

There's quite a lot going on here, so much that I can't but touch the surface. Firstly, there seems to be a new harshness to Gen (pg 112), yet he's also, as Eddis puts it, naïve (pg 119). But we get to see Gen being more than a thief, more than a sort of eminence grise, if you will. What do you see in the way he's changed? And, for that matter, how much has he changed?

Attolia

Wow. And we really begin to see more of Attolia here. Perhaps the most revealing (and amusing!) thing to me is all the different ways in which she's seen. We have Eddis calling her an "astute strategist" (pg 190) and yet also hinting that she's "edging towards insanity" (pg 186); Eddis (the country) cursing her name; Eugenides, well, doing his own thing; and Nahusaresh imagining her to be easily led. And we learn about her shadow princess past (pg 201). Thoughts about Attolia? How much of the Mede idea of her is her own mask, and how much is Nahusaresh's blindness?

Also of interest regarding Attolia are the glimpses we're given of just how alone she really is (pg 205, 219). Thoughts?

Next Week: The Queen of Attolia, chapters 14-21, led by jade_sabre_301.

*All quotes and references are from the paperback version with the lovely/terrifying hook on the cover.

Comments

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

this, yes, exactly--she wasn't alone. Yes.