Just noticed on The Thief re-read...

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I am finally embarking on a re-read of the series. I'm still only in The Thief, but I may have said "Ha!" out loud when I got to this quote from the magus:

--

His voice dripped condescension. "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Gen is a family name. The title of King's Thief is a hereditary one now in Eddis, and I think the current Thief is named Eugenides. Maybe you're related."

--

She completely laid it out for us, and I'm pretty darn sure I didn't even notice on my first read-through. Also, Gen's reaction ("I could feel my face burning and knew that I was red right up to the hairline") is, we can now guess, not so much due to anger (although I'm sure it's partly that), but alarm at how close the magus is to the truth.

Anyway, it's proving fabulous to re-read. Such a treat to catch all the subtler, deeper meanings of remarks and details. Very, very clever.

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I love all those clues, where you kick yourself for not catching on. During one of my rereads I marked them all with sticky notes. Keep sharing yours with us--maybe you'll catch one I missed!

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that one was pretty obvious (at least in retrospect), but there are dozens of subtler ones. Like when the magus is declaring how everything about Gen speaks of low birth (e.g., eating with his mouth open), Gen makes a point of not reacting, but we can now guess he's quite smugly proud of himself for pulling this impression off so well. :D

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

I think I remember a throwaway line on, like, page 3, where the magus asks him his name and Gen narrates,"'Gen.' He didn't want to know the rest." Or something of the sort. It's amazing.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

It really is amazing, the way every detail seems to have been accurately thought out from the very start. What a mind she has!

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

...And all the while, the future king of Sounis was taking notes.

The way this series unfolds is just magnificent.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, watching Sophos' development is a bonus treat. Granted, he genuinely is fairly innocent at this point, or at least not nearly as devious as Gen's being. :)

Innocence

[jessre.livejournal.com]

Gen is being completely devious, but he's also pretty innocent at this point, too. He is utterly sick and wants to die after he kills the Attolian guard, and in QoA, Attolia observes that before, he had been a boy, but in the months after she cut off his hand, he became a man.
I love how we get to see Gen (and Sophos) (and everybody else of importance) grow up over the series!

Re: Innocence

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

True, compared to what he eventually goes through, he's almost naive at this point. It's poignant to see him with the use of both hands, and feeling like his life's rough because he has to ride a horse. Oh Gen, if you knew what was ahead of you.

And Sophos, as the TV Tropes page puts it, totally levels up in badass by the end of book 4!

[maidenbeckah.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about that part! Darn, now I really want to reread The Thief again. :D

[ejmam.livejournal.com]

I had the joy of reading this to my kids, and having to be careful not to shade those clues with too much meaning, because surprising them is the best part.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

It'd be hard to keep an impassive voice with some of those hints! I look forward to my kids getting a bit older so they can enjoy these, though.

[furem.livejournal.com]

Imagine what the Magus must think of that comment, :D.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Indeed. :D Despite his condescension at this stage, I feel kind of sorry for the guy...

[mikkaybear.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite foreshadow-y bits I didn't catch until my last reread!

From Page 8 (as Gen is being led out of prison to the Magus):

"I kept my head down and my eyes nearly closed and didn't see much of the passageways at first... We went up a staircase where a painted pack of hunting dogs chased a lion around a corner to a door, where we stopped."

Maybe it was completely unintentional, but knowing MWT, I wouldn't doubt that's a bit of clever foreshadowing to the beginning of The Queen of Attolia!

(Gen also notices lilies painted on the baseboards, and lilies are the flower of Attolia. I wonder if the painted "tortoise" or "resting bird" has any significance, too?)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Ooh, there is a lot of possibility in symbolism there. That really does sound like Gen's capture in the beginning of QoA, now that you mention it! I wouldn't doubt it was intentional, given her attention to detail in nearly all things.

Favourite hints

[jessre.livejournal.com]

My favourite hints are when the Magus informs Gen that his mother told him one of the Eddisian stories about the gods wrong - but it's okay, the Magus is sure she didn't mean to debase the story - and the first night at the inn, when Gen sees that the Magus and Ambiades expect him to protest about washing his whole body, so he protests and washes rather less than thoroughly. *snicker* I bet he was just sick of being dirty, too.

Re: Favourite hints

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Ha, exactly - he plays so well at being "gutter scum," and I keep thinking of how fond he actually is of wearing lovely clothes (to the degree of looking like a parakeet, once he's king) and being resplendent. :)

If anything, I'm surprised at how much he lets slip about his mother's Eddisian background, and the fact that she was a thief, and died from falling off a roof, etc. They could piece it all together a tad too easily if he wasn't careful. But then, they don't, and he probably gets a thrill from being risky by dropping all these hints.

Re: Favourite hints

[jessre.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, could somebody PLEASE draw Gen as a parakeet? I mean a literal parakeet. Or in parakeet clothes. I have a really vivid mental image of that :)

I hadn't thought of that. He says that he has good reasons, and he does - his mother's nationality covers for any slips in his accent and any unexpected knowledge of Eddisian stories and customs; her career explains his; her death is easier to remember since it's true and lies are always more convincing when they're mostly true - but I think you must be right that half of his reasoning was the pleasure of outwitting everyone by telling (almost) exactly the truth about himself, but telling it slant. Or not even slant. Just not the whole truth.

Re: Favourite hints

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

lol! I would draw it if I had the skills. A parakeet wearing a crown. :)

And yeah, he knows what he's doing with the half-truths. They do make it easier to keep a cover story looking believable. Ha, his accent--I just got to a part where the magus says something condescending about his gutter slang, and Gen just laughs and thinks "I was very content with my slang and my half-swallowed words." Which is to say, he was very *proud* of his falsely and carefully constructed slang and half-swallowed words. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I love that moment - a very verbal - "Ohh argahaaha ahhh"

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hee! Well said. :) This series is just so diabolically intelligent. Much like Gen himself.