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

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!