Which book did you read first?

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Over on the last While She Knits post ibmiller and I were both saying that we read The Queen of Attolia first in the series, before reading The Thief.

My question to you: which QT book did you read first, and what impact did that have on the whole experience of reading the series? Megan's website says:

Many people have read them and enjoyed them entirely out of order. However, reviews and even the jacket copyfor later books, will reveal major plot points for earlier books.

I'd like to think that finding out major plot points ahead of time won't ruin The Thief, but it will certainly change the experience.

On the other hand, I think The Thief spoils The King of Attolia. So there are pluses and minuses to any order you choose.

Agree? Disagree? Comments? Insight?

Comments

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

I'll just throw in that I read them in order because I was reading them as they were released.

*sets up camp and waits for smarter persons to begin discussing the other questions because this sounds fascinating*

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

I read them in order because I read them as they were released. I read "The Thief" very shortly after it was released (I think I was in middle school), and it was actually the very first book I bought in a bookstore with my own money (*sigh* That paperback copy that shows Gen in front of Hephestia herself).

"The Queen of Attolia" was released while I was in high school, and I remember requesting it through my school library, and then I started reading it in the school parking lot while my dad and I waited for my sister......so that devastating scene is forever cemented in my head the way I felt sitting there next to my dad, trying not to show my turmoil of emotions....

I always recommend people read these in order.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I saw the cover for King of Attolia on Amazon while I was looking for something else. It was a classic case of Extremely Attractive Cover Fascination/love at first sight. Naturally, I clicked on it and discovered it was the third book in a series. Being a good girl, I went to my library and found the hardcover of The Thief. I believe it was the Unidentified Blonde Person hardcover, which was a little disappointing, but I followed it up with the on-a-boat paperback of Queen of Attolia, which was/is super pretty. And then-FINALLY-I got to paw the beautiful KoA.

So, I read them in order, somewhat against my will.

I'm not sure when I discovered Sounis, but it was abuzz with anticipation for a fourth book, which was news to me. Such wondrous news. I think I came out of the lurkdom 'round about the time I won an ARC of CoK.

It feels like eons ago, and I'm fuzzy on the details, but I think I was confused by the end of Thief. (I'm curious--how does it spoil KoA?) It *got real* for me when Gen was in reclusive recovery in QoA (that's when I connected to him as a character) and then I met Costis in KoA... and the rest is history.

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

I think she said the end of The Thief would spoil KoA, because you'd know that Gen is a great ninja, so you'd know that the whole "I'm so helpless" act in KoA is just that -- an act.

[notemily.livejournal.com]

Even if you know, though, it's a lot of fun to watch Costis discover it.

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

Absolutely -- She writes Costis so well that I remember the first time reading it I was completely taken in by his view of the world...and I was surprised :]

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I too was so caught up in Costis' perspective, I felt his frustration and surprise even when it came to Eugenides. Of course I knew Gen was capable of more, but I think the situation was such that even I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what Gen would do, when he'd do it, if he'd do it. (I have so much awe & respect for MWT's handling of the various POVs.) The point at which Costis sees and accepts the true Gen (even figures out how to sort of deal with him) is at the top of my satisfying book moments!

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

The point at which Costis sees and accepts the true Gen (even figures out how to sort of deal with him) is at the top of my satisfying book moments!

Yes! This exactly. I'd be hard pressed to tell you which is my favorite book but the way that's handled in King is definitely among my favorite moments/plotlines.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I was so so proud of Costis in that moment! And it's curious to me how his 'belief' in Gen was practically simultaneous with him hearing the god-Eugenides speak. (Though Costis didn't see the god, but presumably Gen did?) I might be reading into it too much, but suffice to say that scene is ten kinds of awesome and I can't wait to find out what Gen and his god consorts have in store for our boy Costis!

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm going to add to the list of folks who read the series in order. I don't like reading series out of order, because I always feel as if I'm going to be missing out on something from the previous books.

I can't really say the twists really had much of an impact for me early in the process of reading the series, because I started reading The Thief back when I was a very poor reader. I didn't read books too much back then. So my thoughts when Gen revealed he was actually The Eugenides was along the lines of "Oh hey, look he's friends with a woman from the mountains. Maybe they'll get some rest now," instead of the usual "lajsdfl;askdjflsdkjf he was EUGENIDES all along???!!11!!1!!!!!" Then I started becoming more of an attentive reader at the end of Queen of Attolia, so by the time I got around to KoA, I was much more prepared (though I was still a terribly inactive reader).

But I think the main impact of reading the books in order for me was that I felt I knew Gen better. I was afraid for him in QoA and I was frustrated with him in KoA, because I knew what he was capable of.

[(Anonymous)]

Lol same here, I read The Thief series in my very early teens, and I remember during that age range I was rarely surprised by anything in a book...I'm kind of like that now too. The only part in a work of fiction that I distinctly remember being surprised by at that age was in the anime Bleach when Aizen was revealed to be evil (I was also surprised when he "died" initially). That was when I was 13 or 14.

Sadly, the tragic thing that happened at the beginning of The Queen of Attolia was spoiled for me because of some Amazon reviews. Since then, I've stopped reading reviews of things before I read or watch them!

KOA didn't surprise me either, but I did enjoy Gen's mad skills as king :)

But to answer the original question: I had never heard of this series until my mother brought The Thief home on a whim. She was a reading teacher at the time, and she would regularly go to bookstores to hit up the sales, buying 100s of dollars worth of books each time. The Thief was on sale, so she picked it up, and my brother and I read it. I ended up ordering the sequels online since they weren't available at our locals stores. We became instant fans, and my brother now reads the whole series once a year. He's on Conspiracy of Kings right now!

[archdyadove.livejournal.com]

I found The Thief in my local library while perusing the last part of the alphabet. I was immediately struck by how ugly the cover was (it was not one of the newer ones) and decided to take it home. I saw that the other books surrounding it were by the same author, and upon checking the dust cover, the same characters. Luckily for me I promptly forgot everything I'd read on the cover (including the name Eugenides), and started from the beginning unspoilt. This was only two years ago, I think, so I got all the books at once. It was fun, but didn't help me get my homework done...
When I've told other people to read the books, I've insisted that they start from the beginning. I personally believe that there's enough reread value in The Thief that it should be quickly read again after the others, for an experience that you wouldn't necessarily get if you saved it for later.

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

I love re-reading Thief. I love and have re-read all of them, but Thief is one I can finish and then immediately start again, a rare thing for me.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I always enjoy rereading The Thief for the magus. It's so fun to watch Gen pull his strings! :D

[(Anonymous)]

"I was immediately struck by how ugly the cover was and decided to take it home." <---- I can't stop laughing at this!

[enleve.livejournal.com]

I read them in order. I read The Thief first, and I enjoyed it, but was puzzled why people had so highly praised the books and recommended them. Then I read The Queen of Attolia and I found out.

If I had stopped at The Thief, I would have missed out. I'm glad I read it first, but my advice to someone starting the series would be to read The Thief first, but then to keep going to The Queen of Attolia before deciding whether or not they like the books.

[(Anonymous)]

Strongly agree on that, enleve - how it takes till book 2 sometimes to really latch onto the series... I read The Thief and loved it, though I had a hard time putting my finger on why - then made my brother read it so that he could help me find out - and then read QoA and that was when everything started really coming together.
To me, the emotional depths of Thief are very much hidden ones - after all, Gen is hiding what he really thinks about nearly everything - and so for a first time through, it can seem a bit more clever than heartfelt (at least it did to me). But in QoA it all comes out in the end, and it's beautiful, and the later books do color everything backwards into The Thief when I re-read it!

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

I agree that the future books seems to "color everything" in The Thief. What a great way to describe it! The Thief is one of those books that really improves upon acquaintance...I remember not even liking The Thief too much the first time I read it, but every reread since then I've fallen more and more in love with it--but I needed the other books to do that. Now it's one of my favorite ones out of the four books.

[sclerotia.livejournal.com]

I read them in order.

I came to these books as an adult through The Thief which I read not too long after it was published on the basis of a review I had read. It was great. I almost always am my own spoiler for plots, since, if I like a character, and I love that cheeky little thief, I get so worried about them that I have to check and make sure that they are going to come out all right in the end, so I read the end of the book about the time that Gen was wandering around in the maze. Even knowing the end I still got a kick out of seeing the "reveal". But I was sure that mwt had cheated, so I turned around and read the book through again, only to find out that the misdirection was because my mind followed her down the garden path rather than in actual statements in the text.

I had probably read TT twenty times by the time QofA came out. QofA was an enormous disappointment to me, not because of what it was, but because of what it wasn't. Quite without knowing it, I had had expectations of what was going to happen to the characters and, gosh darn it, mwt hadn't followed through with a plot based on those expectations. But I was able to go back and reread it later when those expectations had been quashed and appreciate it for the excellent book it was--although I admit I don't usually put myself through the first bit when I go back for another reread.

When KofA was published, I had found this community, so I read everything that anyone said and didn't read the book for a couple of weeks after it came out, so that I could try to weed out (on the basis of reader comments) any pesky false expectations before I read the book. It worked. However much I like Eugenides I didn't blame Costis for slugging the annoying jerk Eugenides was acting. I knew it had to be an act, though. That taunting wimp was certainly not the same person as the courageous and subtle intriguer in TT and QofA. I was relieved to read comments later from those of you got into the series with the KofA and loved the book, that you loved not only the admirable Costis, but also the slowly revealed Eugenides.

I would be interested to know how you would rank the books in order of the sneakiness of mwt. I found CofK less sneaky, but I suspect that might be because I have reread the other books so often that I have become less susceptible to mwt's misdirection.

And despite the fact I love all the books I still most like spending time with that impudent little devil in TT. My favorite line in all the books is not in some of the emotionally laden scenes, but the humor and wry wit when he compares himself to "a well behaved hammer".

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I would be interested to know how you would rank the books in order of the sneakiness of mwt.

Hm, I would say that even though TT had, maybe, a bigger twist, QoA was higher in terms of MWT sneakiness. It might be because there were so many times we were misdirected. Huh, now having said that, there's an awful (awesome?) amount of misdirection in KoA, too.

[frosted-feather.livejournal.com]

I would rank them QOA, TT, KOA, and COK.

The reason I put King of Attolia third is because anyone who has read the previous two books knows how awesome Gen is and is just waiting for him to reveal it. But what I like about that book is that even after the first read and you know what was really going on with Gen (the queen doesn't hate him, he's not inept), most of the emotions being displayed were real. Gen and Irene have a relationship that the court doesn't suspect, but they're still new at it and there are missteps. Gen is homesick and unhappy with having so little privacy. I think the book is brilliant by hiding some things but revealing others.

[sgwordy.livejournal.com]

I was just about to list this but you've already done it. :) Ditto to everything you have here!

[ejmam.livejournal.com]

I read them in order and liked how they built on each other, but my book club deliberately choose King of Attolia because some of us were fans who had read them all and some were new to the series and we wanted to see how it worked as an entry point. Everyone still loved it, so I guess it does work!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I read QoA first. I had come across a booktalk for it and thought it sounded really good. My library didn't have a copy of TT checked in, so I went ahead and took QoA. I remember reading the chopchop scene on the elliptical machine at the gym, pedaling faster and faster as Gen was chased through the city and caught. That book surprised me again and again and when I finished I was just stunned by the writing and how much I liked the story. I think Gen's amputation didn't bother me so much because I hadn't known him as Gen in TT. I barely knew him at all when that happened. It is still my favorite book in the series, though KoA is a close second.

When I then went back and read TT I just couldn't connect Gen of TT with Eugenides of QoA. The POV was so different and it bothered me that I couldn't get into his head in QoA the way I had in TT. So I went back and read QoA again, putting what happened into first person POV to get the same feel for Gen. In QoA there are so many times we just don't know what Gen is thinking and we feel much more removed from him. Those two books are so different and I'm not really surprised when, sometimes, younger or less sophisticated readers don't like QoA after reading TT. It's so much more complex.

[heather mulhern (from livejournal.com)]

I got my cousin's copies of TT and QoA one summer when I was twelve and looking for something to read. I loved TT and proceeded to read QoA. I remember reading the beginning on a couch at my grandmother's and having to read those four lines twice before I got what had happened. I was in shock, but couldn't put it down for a while. When I did put it down I went to where my aunt and cousin were hanging out (at least I think they were both there and my mom might have been as well) to express my horrification—someone reassured me that it got better and I should keep reading. So I read them in order starting with the first two (the rest weren't out yet).

TT and QoA then spent several years on my shelf, so that by the time a different cousin saw them and said "you know there's a third one" I had forgotten much of what had happened. I remembered that I'd loved them, images from scenes and had a vague sense of the plot (I didn't remember the twist in TT, I remembered how QoA began). I had experience of reading TT and wondering why I had loved it so much and then I reached the end and thought "oh that's why." KoA became my favorite book in the series and the books moved from the shelf to my bedside windowsill (for frequent rereading). I had the opportunity to reread CoK much (once if at all)—college took away my free reading time—so I can't quote it like the others and my memory of it is vague.

I recommend my friends to read them in order, but I had one friend who read TT and felt betrayed, because Gen turned out to be an unreliable narrator, she wasn't expecting it and felt she'd been lied (even though under examination he never actually outright lies to the reader). Anyways, she hasn't returned to or finished the series. So maybe if you know or determine that someone doesn't like unreliable narrators it might be good to have them start with KoA.

I've always wondered whether people who start with KoA feel a stronger connection to Costis than to Gen. Does anyone have any comments in that regard?

[sunshinebutter.livejournal.com]

I love how this question was able to bring out the stories of how everyone got started from seeing it at the library or its ugly cover on the book shelf.
Sort of glad that i wasnt the only one who was a bit inattentive in the first read. I started reading the thief when i was younger and in a phase of "I'm smart and I'm going to read a book in a day ( after fantastic fox). So when I saw it on the bookshelf a few years later, I read it again still thinking that i got it right the first time and just skimmed.
So it took me until I was 20 or so to pick up the book for the third time to be more attentive and actually see and appreciate the whole story. I couldn't believe all the time i wasted. Still i can't imagine being a teenager and in love with a fictional character. It's probably for the better...Still can't believe it. When I realised that there were 3 more books - oh it was amazeballs!
But I still feel like the only Australian who has read this series - imagine trying to describe the clever complexities of the characters and the story and telling them that there were 3 more! Oh you guys know what I'm talking about right? - you've probably all tried it.

[frosted-feather.livejournal.com]

I too read them in order, and I was able to read the first three all in a row. I remember reading QOA on the airplane to New York city and was spellbound. I finished it in the hotel, not even wanting to go outside until it was done. Then I searched the close bookstores for the King of Attolia, but it was not to be found, so I had to wait until I got home and could find it at the library. Those three days of waiting seemed forever! After that I was in the same boat as everyone else, waiting for ACOK, and now the next one.

[(Anonymous)]

I read them out of order. My library only had "The Thief" and "The King of Attolia," both of which I read furiously fast while I waited for "The Queen of Attolia" to arrive. While I wouldn't recommend that other people read them out of order like that, I found it a very enjoyable experience. Having only just discovered Gen's true nature at the end of "The Thief," I spent most of KoA wondering alongside Costis. I treated QoA like an extended flashback to fill in the gaps.

[sgwordy.livejournal.com]

I was wandering around the YA section in my library and the spine of QoA caught my eye. Not a clue why (it was the giant hand cover) as spines aren't generally eye-catching but I now just think of it as the book gods smiling on me. I took it home with a pile of other books though it wasn't the first I read. Once I started it, though, I could not put it down. I was thrilled to discover there were more titles by MWT and I went to get them asap. KoA had just come out. I think I read it and TT in parallel as I just could not get enough. QoA remains my favorite of the series (and one of my all time favorite books/reading experiences) with KoA a close second. Reading them in this way I didn't get to have TT twist which is a bummer but I don't think I'd take it back because my reading of QoA would have been completely different. Despite knowing what was going on, it still took a couple readings of TT before I truly got into it.

I'm torn when I recommend them because so many people don't finish TT when I recommend it. I think QoA is more immediately arresting (no pun intended) because TT is much more classic fantasy (my mom-in-law describes fantasy as "walk, walk, walk, fight, fight, fight, walk, walk, walk, repeat") and I think its deliberate pacing can lose some readers. However, if I were to recommend QoA to begin with then you don't get TT twist. (It's never occurred to me to recommend either of the other two as a jumping off point.) I usually stick to recommending TT and telling people it's a slow build. My husband is the only person offline who has read these books and loved them as much as me. Thank goodness for online communities so we can all find each other!!!

I did just recommend the series to a 13yo daughter of a friend. She's an avid reader. I read The Hunger Games series and am about to start Divergent so that she will read my suggestions. I figure tit for tat might help create a new fan! Fingers crossed.

[eme369.livejournal.com]

I discovered the series by an incredibly fortuitous accident: I first saw KoA (right after it was released, I believe) while browsing through Chapters, looking for a completely different book. I thought the cover was beautiful and extremely intriguing, and it made me immediately want to read the series. But, like a good girl book-addict, I started the series at the beginning with The Thief. :-)

By the time I finished The Thief, I was completely hooked! I think these are the only books in my entire life that I read the first time only to immediately re-read (since the books were so surprising and complex, I felt that they deserved a second read before I could even begin to truly grasp what I has just read). I am so rarely surprised by books, yet every single one of mwt's books has managed to give me moments of genuine shock. Furthermore, I absolutely love how mwt doesn't "spoon feed" the story to her readers; I love being able to analyze and re-interpret the scenes, and I adore how my interpretation changes with each reading. I now usually re-read the whole series at least once a year (and sometimes more ;)

[(Anonymous)]

I probably read it in the worst possible order. The first time I was at a bookstore, I saw The Thief, and I thought the summary was pretty lame, to be honest, so I put it down and ignored it. Then my mum came back with it for me one fine day when she went to pick up some other books, and then I read it, and thought that it was pretty good, so I went to search the book up, and realised that there were actually four of them. Then, I could only find CoK, so I read that first, got quite confused, spoiled myself with wiki, then when to find KoA, and read QoA last when I found it on the net.

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

As Checkers says, I read the books 2-3-1-4, because that's the order my library had them in order available two years ago. I actually came to Queen with the relationships, though not the events, spoiled, and I believe my pleasure in reading was actually enhanced that way. I believe I've recommended the series to most of my adult friends by starting with Queen, because The Thief, while a jewel, is on a smaller scale both emotionally and politically.

I believe Queen of Attolia is still my favorite, though King of Attolia comes within a hair. The relationship between Gen and Irene is incredibly powerful to me, and while Sophos and Helen are sweet, I was a bit sad that there wasn't much Irene in Conspiracy.

[(Anonymous)]

I read Conspiracy first, because I picked it up off the library shelf without realizing it was part of a series. I felt so cheated when I got to the back cover and it said "don't miss the first three books"! I think the main difference in how i experienced them is that Sophos is my favorite of the four of them (Attolia, Attolis, Eddis, and Sounis). I do love Gen, of course i do, but Sophos has a simple charm that i think people who get to know Gen first always overlook.

When i read Thief I go caught up in Gen's captivaiting narration and description of his world like everyone else, but I also paid attention to Sophos and I saw that even though he's an idiot, especially in the beginning, he is compassionate and smart. Of course, he'll never be as cunning or complex as Eugenides, but I think he provides a good foil because even though Gen is stronger and cleverer, Sophos has some power over him because Gen, somewhat inexplicably, cares about him.

It's interesting that, while I enjoyed the series no less than any of you, based on what I've read on these forums I think I see it differently. Nevertheles, Gen is one of the greatest characters I have ever met, and these books are amazing works of art.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Awesome, you are the first person I remember hearing who read ACoK first. I think poor Sophos gets the short shrift because he's *not* one of the super-dynamic characters. As Eddis says, "we can't all of us be throwing inkpots" or however it goes. Although Sophos' story is not as twisty or demanding of the gods' attention, it's still so compelling.

I never thought of him as being an idiot, no matter what the Magus or others might say. He was a sheltered introvert, who was thrust into an exciting, terrifying adventure in TT, and then into intrigue and a role he didn't feel ready for, in ACoK. In both cases, he rose to the occasion. I do love Sophos.