Who says it best?

[eachase.livejournal.com]

I came across the following line in An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass:

"I had to trust him. That was the hardest work I'd ever done."

In context, it is said of a thief. Just obviously not "our" thief.

The question is, who would say it? There are a lot of contendors. And more to the point, who would say it best?

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Oh, Irene for sure. But not until long after her conversation with Helen where she said, “ I might have to marry him. But I don’t have to believe him.”

Ok, I’m picturing her Drinking wine with her girlfriends ( not sure who all that would be but I sort of want to create it in LEGOs) saying, “Yeah, I had to trust him and, letmetellya, it was hard.

[eachase.livejournal.com]

Irene was my first thought, too. But what about the Minister of War? I can definitely imagine him writing that in his memoirs about the events of QoA.

[laserpe.livejournal.com]

Others already commented on the obvious choice; Irene-Gen; but what about that subplot with Irene and Relius in the third book? That also had a message about trust ...

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

Attolia! Only because of the "hardest" part -- I think she's the character who had the hardest time trusting others, because she's been taught not to. Other characters might find it difficult to trust Gen, but I don't think it was the hardest thing they've done.

Also, we seem to be reading very similar books! I started An Illusion of Thieves a while ago, but I set it aside after reading some reviews that made me reluctant to continue. How far are you into it?

[eachase.livejournal.com]

I don't know. As a parent, I can attest that we're often the last to see the maturity of our kids. And Gen and the Minister have such different approaches to the world... But you're right about Attolia and trust.

I finished Illusion last night. It's not going to join my shelf of honor, but I liked it well enough that I'll read the next one when it comes out. The set up and world-building took a long time, but as she intends to make it a series, I guess I can understand why. There are definitely some similarities to QT: a group of people who don't trust each other but become a great team, foolhardy plans, misdirection...

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

Ah that's good. Without being too spoilery, what can you say about the ending? Is it happy, or at least hopeful? I read some reviews that things don't turn out well for the main girl in the end, and it made me reluctant to continue reading, especially since she already had such an unfortunate beginning. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read such a downer book.

[eachase.livejournal.com]

Unless you thought you were reading a romance novel instead of a fantasy adventure, I have a hard time seeing how things don't turn out well for the main character. I definitely don't think it's a downer ending.

[mander-lee.livejournal.com]

Ok, I know this thread is now 7 months old, but I remembered this and decided to give Illusion a go again, and loved it so much I breezed through the rest of the series!

[eachase.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad you got back to it *and* really enjoyed it. I haven't picked up the rest of the series (yet), but that's a good impetus to at least get them on my list.

I attended the book launch for Floodpath (Emily B. Martin) and Thief of Sunlight (Intisar Khanini) tonight and am really excited to read them both.

[mander-lee.livejournal.com]

I would say that the 1st one was my favourite, and that the other two books had a different flavour to them. I was hoping for more, but I enjoyed their adventures overall.

I haven't read anything by Emily B. Martin yet, but I do remember enjoying Thorn by Intisar Khanani, so I'm excited to get to Thief of Sunlight!!

[eachase.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the insight on the Illusion series.

I read Thorn before the launch and didn't love it. I found it really slow. I understand why it was slow. Given the character's histories, it made complete sense for it to be slow.

But I'm pretty excited about Thief of Sunlight. I'm hoping a minor character from Thorn that I really wanted to see more of returns with a larger role. However, from the launch I do know that it has a cliff-hanger ending, so I may wait until the 2nd part is closer to publication.

I recommend Emily B. Martin! I'd start with her Creatures of Light trilogy (Woodwalker, Ashes to Fire, Creatures of Light). Sunshield and Floodpath are a stand-alone duology, but set in the same world a generation later, and reading them first will totally spoil quite a few things in the trilogy.