The Queen's Thief: Difference between revisions

[[File:The_Queen_of_Attolia.jpg|frame]]

 

 

 

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 [[Word of God|fifth book and sixth book]] have been confirmed but not yet given a title.

 

* [[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 {{spoiler|her husband is bleeding}}? Cue [[Fainting]].

* [[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.

* [[Arranged Marriage]]: Attolia's first marriage was arranged to a [[Jerkass|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 {{spoiler|and executing Attolia's loyal nobles behind her back}} and all.

* [[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.)

"I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT!" }}

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: The Magus of Sounis was a soldier before becoming a scholar and is still very good at it. Eugenides can apply, too.

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Eugenides is broken ''viciously''. Sophos doesn't get it exactly easy, either.

* [[Broken Bird]]: Irene.

* [[Bullying a Dragon]]: Let's play a lot of childish pranks on {{spoiler|Eugenides, King of Attolia}}. [[Sarcasm Mode|What could possibly go wrong?]]

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: The king of {{spoiler|Attolia}} 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. [[Authority Equals Asskicking|Don't let that fool you]].

** 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 [[Oh My Gods|curses]] as, "Gods damn, ''gods'' damn!"

* [[First Episode Spoiler]]: The end of ''The Thief'' reveals that {{spoiler|Eugenides is the Thief of Eddis, in service to the Queen of Eddis, and part of the Eddisian royal family}} and has been {{spoiler|screwing with EVERYONE (and does it on a regular basis)}}. 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 {{spoiler|Euginides becomes king of Attolia}} (which can be guessed by the [[Genre Savvy]] reader), but it also mentions that {{spoiler|he is in love with the queen, who had absolutely zero redeeming qualities in the first book.}}

* [[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."

** Probably most notably, Gen's entire conversation with the Magus before he steals [[Stealth Pun|peace]].

* [[Four-Star Badass]]: Eddis's Minister of War.

* [[Four-Temperament Ensemble]]: Gen (choleric), Eddis (sanguine), Attolia (melancholic), Sophos (phlegmatic)

* [[Gallows Humor]]: Eugenides and {{spoiler|Attolia}}'s banter sometimes takes this form.

'''{{spoiler|Attolia}}:''' 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

** [[Batman Gambit]] - The main plot in ''The King of Attolia''.

* [[Gentleman Thief]]: Eugenides, to some extent. He's petulant and whiny, but he's also very {{spoiler|regal}}.

* [[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.

** Also, Attolia and the Magus. Eddis, Gen's father, and even Sophos have their moments.

* [[Gunboat Diplomacy]]: {{spoiler|The fabulous unified rout of the Medes by the combined Attolian and Eddisian forces}} at the end of ''The Queen of Attolia''.

* [[Happily Married]]: There are some rough spots, but ''The King of Attolia'' is one long exercise in [[Squee]].

* [[Heel Realization]]:

* [[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. {{spoiler|Since it's later revealed that he's not actually lower class, it's not quite a subversion of the trope.}}

* [[Heroic BSOD]] / [[Heroic RROD]]: After suffering [[Incredibly Lame Pun|firsthand]] the cruelty of the woman he's in love with, Gen is very thoroughly broken.

* [[Heroic Fantasy]]

* [[Love At First Sight]]: Eugenides, towards {{spoiler|the Queen of Attolia}}.

** Viciously deconstructed, as well. Gen may have been entranced {{spoiler|with Attolia}} when he first met/saw her, but he didn't really love her until he got to know '''her''' {{spoiler|(and not "Attolia") whether it's through information obtained from the magus or just out-and-out spying on her}}.

* [[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. {{spoiler|And the highly active pantheon.}}

* [[MacGuffin]] - Hamiathes's Gift in the first book. {{spoiler|Only then it saved Gen's life, so...}}

* [[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'' [[Justified Trope|justifies]] the use of the trope by adding in characterization of the main narrator:

* [[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 {{spoiler|royal}} petulance only for so long before threatening to sit on him.

* [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught]] - Gen ''lives'' off of 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:

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... }}

* [[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.

* [[Sacred Hospitality]]

* [[Screw This Index, I Have Tropes|Screw The Rules, I'm Eugenides!]]

(Another character discusses the above statement) "And a certain accompanying responsibility." And he can't, in fact. }}

* [[Second Hand Storytelling]] - The bulk of ''A Conspiracy of Kings'' is Sophos narrating the events to {{spoiler|the queen of Eddis}}.

* [[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.

** In the fourth book, {{spoiler|Sophos}} 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]]: {{spoiler|Eugenides}} serves this role for Costis in the third book.

* [[Underestimating Badassery]]: All of Attolia, including the people ''who should know better'' (I'm looking at you, Teleus), underestimate Gen. {{spoiler|He shows them.}}

** See [[Stupid Evil]].

[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]

[[Category:Young Adult Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]