The Queen's Thief



""Steal peace, Eugenides. Steal me some time.""

A series of Alternate History-cum-Mythopoeia novels by Megan Whalen Turner detailing the adventures of The Hero, Magnificent Bastard, Gentleman Thief, Chessmaster, Impossible Thief, and walking-Crowning Moment of Awesome Gen -- full name Eugenides.

The series is full of thievery, politics, war, royalty, gods, goddesses, legends, love, adventure, clever schemes, and more.

The first book is The Thief. It is followed by The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings. A fifth book and sixth book have been confirmed but not yet given a title.

Contains examples of:
""I can steal anything." "I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT!""
 * Action Girl: Eddis.
 * Afraid of Blood: Played with. The stoic queen of Attolia normally won't even flinch at the sight of blood, but when ? Cue Fainting.
 * Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Poor . Can you blame him?
 * Sejanus, too. That's a hard fall.
 * Air Vent Passageway: Variation - they're not quite air ducts, but Attolia's palace is run with hypocausts, a series of small tunnels built to funnel smoke to provide heat in the winter, but Eugenides has better uses for them. To keep up the modern air duct parallel, it's outright mentioned that the only reason he can fit into them is because he's so small.
 * All Myths Are True: With the old gods of Eddis, this certainly seems to be the case.
 * Alternate History: The universe of the books is basically Greece/Turkey if there was no Roman Empire nor Christianity and some form of the Persian Empire still exists.
 * Arranged Marriage: Attolia's first marriage was arranged to a truly slimy jerk who was only interested in her throne. So she poisoned him.
 * Ass in Ambassador: You're setting a really great impression there, Nahuseresh, what with the insulting and all.
 * Anybody Medean ever. The fourth book continues the trend.
 * Author Appeal: Ms. Turner is a self-admitted huge fan of Greek mythology.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Most of the royals can hold their own in a fight in some way, most notably the entire Eddisian royal family.
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning: Averted. With, we never actually see the coronation.
 * Played completely straight with .
 * Badass: It'd be easier to list who isn't badass than to list who is.
 * Badass Army: The Eddisian army. There's a remark in the books along the lines of how "they have nothing better to do all winter but perfect their crafts and train for war."
 * Badass Back: Eugenides when fighting opponents not at his skill level. Very few opponents are at his skill level.
 * Badass Boast: Many. (Often by Eugenides, naturally.)

""She may be a fiend from hell to make me feel this way.""
 * Badass Bookworm: The Magus of Sounis was a soldier before becoming a scholar and is still very good at it. Eugenides can apply, too.
 * Bad Liar: Everyone's onto you, Nahuseresh, you idiot. Same goes for you, Sejanus.
 * Sophos is a horrible liar, but he actually manages to turn this to his advantage.
 * Balance of Power: Eddis maintains the balance of power between Sounis and Attolia by acting as a barrier between the two against invasion. Of course, that means either country (particularly Sounis) would like to get control of the other, and Eddis is in the way...
 * Barehanded Blade Block: Gen can do this, though it's a lot easier with wooden swords.
 * Battle in the Rain: In The Queen of Attolia.
 * Bawdy Song: Does a song called "The King's Wedding Night" need any more elaboration?
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: You did want fame and glory, Gen...
 * Also, the gods tend to actually answer his prayers, often in disturbing ways.
 * Berserk Button: Eugenides pressed Costis's.
 * Big Brother Is Watching: In Attolia especially, but also in Sounis and to a lesser degree in Eddis. Attolia has spies who spy on her spies who spy on her spies who spy on her spymaster.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Inverted when the Medes rush to the rescue of Attolia.
 * Black and Grey Morality - The Mede Empire are decidedly the Bad Guys.
 * Blue Blood
 * Break the Cutie: Eugenides is broken viciously. Sophos doesn't get it exactly easy, either.
 * Broken Bird: Irene.
 * Brought Down to Normal: Subverted. After early in the second book, Eugenides sinks into a deep depression, believing he's now useless ? He's not.
 * Bullying a Dragon: Let's play a lot of childish pranks on . What could possibly go wrong?
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: The king of is petulant, whiny, slumps in his throne like a printer's apprentice, dresses in colors that would suit a canary, and generally behaves without an ounce of royal dignity. Don't let that fool you.
 * Call Back: So much in the fourth book.
 * In the third book, Eugenides uses
 * Ceiling Cling: "The Conspiracy Room"
 * Changing of the Guard: While Eugenides is a highly prominent character in each book and his character has by no means completed its development, the spotlight shifts to the queen of Attolia in the second book, Costis Ormentiedes of Attolian Queen's Guard in the third book, and Sophos, the heir of Sounis, in the fourth.
 * Chekhov's Gun: These turn up everywhere.
 * The Chessmaster: Eugenides most notably, though the Queen of Attolia, the Queen of Eddis, the Magus of Sounis (the king's advisor) and the Mede ambassador Nahuseresh all have shades of this. Some are more successful than others.
 * The Chew Toy: Costis, thy pain and humiliation are an unceasing source of amusement to thy fans.
 * Comes Great Responsibility
 * Consummate Liar: Eugenides
 * Continuity Nod: Lots, especially in A Conspiracy of Kings where Sophos is (in the early part) regularly thinking back to Eugendides's actions in the very first book and trying to imitate them.
 * Cosmic Plaything: Eugenides gets jerked around by the gods quite a bit, doesn't he?
 * Crazy Prepared: Good god, Eugenides.
 * Cuffs Off, Rub Wrists: Averted with Gen at the very beginning of the series. Several months of jailtime does not do your wrists any favors.
 * The condition of his wrists is made rather worse that at the beginning of his sentence, he would regularly slip the cuffs off and have to jam them back on every time a guard came by.
 * On their first stop, Pol, the guy who basically amounts to Gen's parole officer has a look at his wrists. One of them just needs time and maybe a little salve to heal; the other has little pockets of infection deep enough that Pol needs to lance them with his knife.
 * Dance of Romance: A truly awesome scene in The King of Attolia.
 * Darker and Edgier: One of the few complains about the second book is that it's much, much darker in ways that are not necessarily healthy or child-friendly.
 * Deadpan Snarker: The queen of Attolia.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: A big part of the main plot of The Queen of Attolia, and shows up quite a bit in King, too.
 * Diplomatic Impunity: Let a Mede ambassador into your country at your own risk. He'll try to bribe your nobles, sneak soldiers into your country, and make you his puppet, all while being very polite to your face. And you can't do anything because making a bad move against an ambassador is an act of war.
 * Subverted in
 * The Disease That Shall Not Be Named - The suffers from something called "tethys lesions." Fans speculate it's a fictional name for syphilis. Or it could be leprosy.
 * The Dog Bites Back: Gen's revival in The Queen of Attolia is this through and through.
 * Dressing as the Enemy
 * Dumb Is Good: Most of the characters, good and bad, are very, very smart. However, there is one notable exception. In the fourth book, Sophos is saved by.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: In The Queen of Attolia and A Conspiracy of Kings
 * The Empire: The Medes
 * Establishing Character Moment: In-story example with Attolia. We already know the queen, but for her barons, her claiming the throne definitely led them to figure out this was no puppet queen they were dealing with.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Several examples. Eugenides is the name of the god of thieves, and . Thus it's both a name and a title. In addition, all of the royalty in the three countries take state names derived from the name of their countries (Eddis Helen, Attolia Irene, Attolis ... Sounis's real name is never mentioned, but in the next book it's like to be Sounis . If Sounis ever got his way and married Eddis, she would be Sounia.)
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: Gen's hair is long enough to braid in The Thief, but gets cut early in The Queen of Attolia and remains short thereafter.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Fantastic Drug: Quinalums, used by priests and priestesses to induce trances and visions.
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The three main kingdoms are some sort of alternate Mediterranean-Byzantium.
 * Fantasy Gun Control: Averted; there are primitive flintlock weapons.
 * Guns are extremely important to the endgame in A Conspiracy of Kings.
 * Fantasy Pantheon: And a very active one, at that. Comes, of course, with such curses as, "Gods damn, gods damn!"
 * Finders, Rulers: The stone giving its possessor claim to the throne of Eddis.
 * First Episode Spoiler: The end of The Thief reveals that and has been . There are three books that follow. Try explaining to a friend why they should read this series without somehow spoiling them. You can't.
 * In addition, do not buy The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia at the same time; not only does the back cover spoil the fact that  (which can be guessed by the Genre Savvy reader), but it also mentions that
 * First-Person Smartass: As if The Thief could be described any other way, when it's narrated from Gen's point of view?
 * Foreshadowing: The books are full of it, as a reread after knowing the Twist Ending shows. For instance, in the first chapter we have "He wanted to know my name. I said, "Gen." He wasn't interested in the rest."

"Gen: The day you stop fussing, I'll know to start sleeping with two knives under my pillow.
 * Probably most notably, Gen's entire conversation with the Magus before he steals peace.
 * Four-Star Badass: Eddis's Minister of War.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: Gen (choleric), Eddis (sanguine), Attolia (melancholic), Sophos (phlegmatic)
 * Gallows Humor: Eugenides and 's banter sometimes takes this form.
 * Don't be ridiculous. (Implying that no amount of knives would save him)"


 * There are also several jokes throughout the books referring to Attolia's method of disposing of her first husband by poisoning his wine
 * Gambit Index:
 * Batman Gambit - The main plot in The King of Attolia.
 * Gambit Pileup since he's hardly the only one trying. The trope is so prevalent throughout the series, and the plans so complicated, that is possible to read the books multiple times and make new discoveries of mini "Gambits" acts that seemed innocuous every time you read.
 * Ganbut Roulette: There are many plans, many planners, and all of them complicated.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: They all change as neccesary.
 * Gentleman Thief: Eugenides, to some extent. He's petulant and whiny, but he's also very.
 * God Save Us From the Queen: Played with through the Queen of Attolia who despite a very unpleasant reputation is a competent ruler and she has a Freudian Excuse for some of her behavior. Not to mention that her barons wait like a pack of hounds for the day she slips up. So in fact she's doing whatever needs to be done for the good of her country, no easy task in a sexist government.
 * Government Procedural: Among the main characters, we have the sovereigns of three different nations, the brother to the heir of a fourth, and a number of advisers to said rulers.
 * Graceful Loser: Sejanus loses with style and honor.
 * Grey and Grey Morality: Hooooo boy.
 * Guile Hero: Eugenides. Basically everything he ever does shows how terrifyingly brilliant and cunning he is.
 * Also, Attolia and the Magus. Eddis, Gen's father, and even Sophos have their moments.
 * Gunboat Diplomacy: at the end of The Queen of Attolia.
 * Hairy Hammerspace: One of the reasons Gen likes his hair long.
 * Happily Married: There are some rough spots, but The King of Attolia is one long exercise in Squee.
 * Heel Realization:
 * Heel Realization:

""My sisters are even married, and honest housewives to boot!" At least they were mostly honest."
 * Heroic Bastard: Played with in the first book, Gen lampshades and disputes the trope, telling his noble companions that although they might assume otherwise, his parents were married, and his sisters have also made respectable marriages.


 * Heroic BSOD / Heroic RROD: After suffering firsthand the cruelty of the woman he's in love with, Gen is very thoroughly broken.
 * Heroic Fantasy
 * He's Back: And !
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Teleus and Relius.
 * Hidden Depths: Most notably, Attolia Irene.
 * The High Queen: Eddis.
 * YMMV on that one; she is universally well-loved and respected, but neither beautiful nor extremely distant.
 * Honor Before Reason: Costis Ormentiedes is the poster boy of this trope.
 * Hyper Awareness: Eugenides, of course.
 * I Did What I Had to Do: Attolia's cruelties were all to keep her country stable and in the hands of someone who wanted the country to prosper.
 * Impossible Thief: Among the things Eugenides steals: peace, a, and .
 * Impoverished Patrician: Ambiades
 * In Spite of a Nail: Despite the very different path of history, the books seem to be set around 1500, and a lot of technology from that period or even later are present: printed books, wristwatches, guns, stained glass windows, etc. There's also a mention of a plague a few centuries ago which would appear to be the Black Death.
 * Ironic Echo: "Diplomacy, in my emperor's name." Later followed by, "Diplomacy, in my own name."
 * I Should Write a Book About This: The Thief, at encouragement.
 * Also, later, Sophis narrating his adventures in A Conspiracy Of Kings.
 * The Ishmael: Costis in The King of Attolia. He's a good Ishmael, with an almost cute personality and character developement of his own, but Eugenides is unquestionably the hero of the story.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold:, of all people.
 * And Eugenides himself, for that matter. Famous in three countries for being a Consummate Liar, a chronic snarker who always has something acidic to say, and a constant complainer, but really a good guy underneath.
 * Jerkass Gods: "Stop whining?" Really?
 * Jumped At the Call: Gen. It's his dreams of greatness that set the whole first book rolling.
 * Karma Houdini: Nahuseresh stirs up an ugly three-way war, buys Attolia's barons against her, kills the barons he can't corrupt,, and does pretty much everything he can to take Attolia's country from her. And then gets away scot free in the end.
 * Kick the Dog: Attolia, although the ramifications the act has on her conscience deconstruct the trope and make her more sympathetic. Played completely straight with Nahuseresh, though, who is a giant bastard.
 * Kids Are Cruel: Gen's cousins held his head in a water cache and wouldn't let him out until he agreed to spit insults about his family.
 * The Kingdom: Three kingdoms: Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis.
 * Kissing Cousins: Subverted. Half the world thinks Gen and are lovers. They think it's funny.
 * Knight in Shining Armor: Costis.
 * Kuudere: Attolia.
 * Leap of Faith: Thieves traditionally fall to their deaths. Every time Eugenides jumps, no matter how small the distance, he puts himself in his god's hands.
 * Let's Get Dangerous - any time after The King of Attolia is bound to have these moments now that he's revealed himself.
 * Like Brother and Sister: Eugenides and Helen.
 * Little Miss Badass: Sophos' sister Ina.
 * Love At First Sight: Eugenides, towards.
 * Viciously deconstructed, as well. Gen may have been entranced when he first met/saw her, but he didn't really love her until he got to know her.

"I screamed at them every curse I ever practiced when I was alone, trying to imitate the Thief, but I doubt I sounded anything but hysterical."
 * Low Fantasy: Although it's in the Sci Fi Ghetto in terms of where it's shelved in libraries and bookstores, there's really no fantasy at all besides the fact it's set in a different universe.
 * MacGuffin - Hamiathes's Gift in the first book.
 * Made a Slave - in . Unusually, he describes himself as much happier in the simple life as a slave than he had been before.
 * Meaningful Name - Eugenides is the name of the Eddisian god of thieves.
 * Eugenides also means "well-born"
 * The Queen of Attolia
 * Modest Royalty
 * Mr. Exposition: A few of the characters take turns standing in for this role in The Thief when narrating the myths and legends of Eddis's old gods.
 * Mugging the Monster - Uh, Sejanus? You might want to quit while you still can.
 * My Country, Right or Wrong
 * My Master, Right or Wrong
 * Mythopoeia
 * Narrative Profanity Filter: Used in the books to filter out the harsher language (although some swearing is left uncensored). One line from a preview of the upcoming A Conspiracy of Kings justifies the use of the trope by adding in characterization of the main narrator:

"Costis: Oh, my god. Gen: O my god. You want to call on the god appropriate to the occasion. After all, your god would probably be Miras, light and arrows and all that sort of thing, whereas my god is a god of balance and, of course, preservation of Thieves..."
 * No Hero to His Valet - While no one who knows him doubts he's one of the most capable people in the universe, Eugenides's cousins, father, wife, gods, and even his Lawful Stupid bodyguard all put up with his petulance only for so long before threatening to sit on him.
 * Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught - Gen lives off of this.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Gen loves to live by this.
 * Odd Couple - Costis and Aristogiton
 * Oh My Gods - Characters frequently swear by an assortment of gods, with or without specific names. And then sometimes they just invoke their patron god, leading to conversations like this:

""I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT!" (Another character discusses the above statement) "And a certain accompanying responsibility." And he can't, in fact."
 * One Degree of Separation - Everyone in Eddis is apparently related to everybody else. It's so egregious that they have special priests whose job it is to track the genealogies and figure out who can marry whom. Truth in television for a small mountain country, of course.
 * Opinion Myopia - Some of the reactions of fans online to people who don't like the books in general or the main romance in particular.
 * Pals with Jesus - Eugenides is noted for not only talking to his gods, but for having them talk back.
 * Peace Conference
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse - Eugenides is fairly small and more than fairly deadly.
 * Playing Both Sides - The Mede Empire.
 * Please Spare Him, My Liege: Most memorably Teleus in The King of Attolia, but it shows up a few other times, just less directly.
 * Point of View - The first book is from Gen's first person perspective, the second is more third person omniscient while deliberately omitting certain key pieces of information that completely alter the interpretation of the text in hindsight, and the third is almost exclusively third person limited from Costis's POV. The fourth book alternates between Sophos telling the story in first person, and third person omniscient.
 * The Professor: The Magus of Sounis, who also doubles as an impossibly Cool Teacher for Sophos and Ambiades.
 * The Quest - Book one, to find Hamiathes's Gift.
 * Quip to Black - Not what you were expecting, Magus?
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech - Early in The King of Attolia.
 * Religion Is Magic: Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how you interpret Hamiathes's Gift. Its king-making power might be just as true as the rest of its legend, or the Gift might be just a symbol.
 * Reluctant Ruler - as king of.
 * Reluctant Warrior - Eugenides, who hates to kill people.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something - Every monarch in the books is completely competent at managing his or her kingdom, and much of the Eddisian royal family is engaged in government/military work in some way.
 * Ruling Couple: and Irene.
 * Sacred Hospitality
 * Screw The Rules, I'm Eugenides!

""Like many men, I have two grandfathers. One of them was Eddis.""
 * Second Hand Storytelling - The bulk of A Conspiracy of Kings is Sophos narrating the events to.
 * Sherlock Scan - Eugenides, Attolia
 * Shout-Out - To Rosemary Sutcliff and Diana Wynne Jones in the first book.
 * The Spymaster
 * Stalker with a Crush - . Attolia was understandably put out.
 * The Strategist - Attolia
 * Street Urchin: Gen in the first book.
 * Stupid Evil - Completely ignoring Attolia's competency on the grounds that she's a woman was an incredibly idiotic thing to do, Nahuseresh.
 * And then his Sounisian counterpart made the same mistake in A Conspiracy of Kings, regarding Eddis.
 * Succession Crisis - Attolia seems to go through one once every couple of generations.
 * One of the central conflicts of A Conspiracy of Kings.
 * Theme Naming - Amusingly subverted: the beautiful, ruthless queen of Attolia is named Irene (meaning peace), while the kind, ugly (or at least unattractive) queen of Eddis is named Helen (after "the woman who launched a thousand ships").
 * But Helen is as beloved by her people as any queen, no matter how beautiful can wish for. If Eddis had any ships they would gladly be launched for her.
 * Tomato Surprise - Once in The Thief, once in The Queen of Attolia, and if you hadn't read the other books before The King of Attolia, there's one then, too.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl - Eddis and Attolia, respectively.
 * Took a Level In Badass - comes back from his brutal torture and amputation colder, harder, more ruthless, and way more badass than before.
 * In the fourth book, doesn't take a level in badass, he takes several. Then he rips them to pieces with his bare hands, gnaws on them, and uses them as fuel with which to fire even more badass.
 * Tranquil Fury - The queen of Attolia
 * Trickster Mentor: serves this role for Costis in the third book.
 * Turn Out Like His Father


 * Underestimating Badassery: All of Attolia, including the people who should know better (I'm looking at you, Teleus), underestimate Gen.
 * See Stupid Evil.
 * Unexpected Successor - The princess was a minor member of the royal household until her brother unexpectedly died falling from his horse. A year later her father followed and she was crowned queen of.
 * Also, the princess . Having two older brothers and one younger one, she wasn't likely to inherit until all of three of them died of plague. When her father died months later, she became the crowned queen of.
 * Unreliable Narrator: Gen pretty much never says anything untrue in The Thief, but still manages to give other characters and the reader a completely false impression of himself. As a case in point, he defends the respectability of his family, noting that his father was a professional soldier and his sisters made good marriages . Just a small detail. Despite the later books being third-person, they're still unreliable.
 * The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Attolia.
 * The X of Y - All the titles after the first book. Well, and A X of Y.