Tuesday, May 11, 2010

A Conspiracy of Kings

by Megan Whalen Turner

A Conspiracy of Kings is the fourth book in The Queen's Thief series, and in my opinion, it's the best one. This book focuses on Sophos (one of the minor characters in the previous books) and his dangerous adventures and epic rise to power as the king of Sounis.

There were three main things that made me enjoy A Conspiracy of Kings: the characters, the writing, and the plot. I really liked Sophos' character in this book - he was easier to sympathize with than some of the other characters. I felt that he was more accessible to readers and more people would be able to connect with him and understand his actions.

The writing was wonderful as usual - suspenseful and fast-paced. The plot was also fabulous, with several twists and turns. Megan Whalen Turner has this amazing ability to completely fool the reader and take them on this journey only to reveal some secret or something. It's hard to explain - it's kind of the opposite of dramatic irony, where the reader knows something that the characters don't. Instead, in this book, the reader is unaware of many things that the characters know, and therefore believes that one thing is happening when actually, something else is occurring. And it's always shocking when these secrets are revealed! Turner's writing also aided in this; she used potentially two-sided words that had double meanings.

If you haven't read this series, you must! And if you haven't read A Conspiracy of Kings yet, I would highly recommend putting it on the top of your to-read list.

2 comments:

KIKA said...

aaaaah!!!! I LOVE the thief series and I'm killing myself because I still haven't read a conspiracy of kings! what is wrong with me?! LOL, you can bet your bottom dollar I am going to fix that right. now.

Charlotte said...

Yes, Sophos is definitly the most hug-able!!!