#qtreread

[statistical-improbabilities]

This is already one of the best narrative devices, but it’s even better when you consider that Kamet is the one narrating all of this and writing it down and you just know that Costis and Gen are going to read this.

[spocksworld]

listen.

[thewingedwolf]

Rereading The Thief is fun for so many reasons (for me personally, it’s the BEST for rereading bc there’s so many layers you won’t get on initial read) but this time what’s funniest is how, like, Fantasy Agnostic Gen is. He does a lot of things out of habit or because it helps him get away with shit - clear example in him putting his cousin’s earrings on an altar, because then he doesn’t have to give them back but she can’t get them back EITHER - and he’s very protective of his people’s stories culturally but his thoughts on the gods can basically be summed up with a solid “meh” aksjdj

Which isn’t out of the ordinary for fantasy - I’d say it’s a pretty tried and true thing, for a character to start believing in Magic and Gods only after getting smacked in the face with their existence. Except Eugenides doesn’t have some great spiritual awakening because of a miracle, or because he did something heinous. Belief isn’t something done to him, or an idea that pulls him along for the ride, it’s a step forward that he takes with his eyes wide open. He makes the decision to help his Queen by taking the Gift, he makes the decision to true again and again until he finds it, he makes the decision to See the gods and Know it is them.

And it underscores the idea of choice in the series - Eugenides is a pawn of the gods not because he has no free will, but because he’s willing to alter his thinking when faced with new information and MAKE A CHOICE and live with the consequences. He refuses to be passive (just like Helen), so they choose him to do their bidding.

[eponymiad]

we talk a lot about the QoA/TaT romance parallels, but my g o d right from the off Kamet is supposed to go to the docks at night to board a ship and expects the foreigner (a Thief, no less) to slit his throat and throw him into the river instead? That’s...that’s just the climax of QoA.

Like!!! I just!!! Megan!!! HOW? WHY?

[fuckyeahqueensthief]

The most powerful advisor to the King of Sounis is the magus. He's not a wizard, he’s a scholar, an aging solider, not a thief. When he needs something stolen, he pulls a young thief from the King's prison to do the job for him.

Gen is a thief and proud of it. When his bragging lands him behind bars he has one chance to win his freedom, journey to a neighboring kingdom with the magus, find a legendary stone called Hamiathes’s Gift, and steal it.

The magus has plans for his King and his country. Gen has plans of his own.

Welcome to our Queen’s Thief Speed Re-Read as we gear up to the release of the final book!! This week we will be tackling the first book in the series, THE THIEF. The goal is to finish the book by September 6th, whether that means you read a few chapters a day or inhale the whole thing Saturday night.

As the week goes on, we can post our thoughts on the book! You can use the tag “qtreread” or the main tags for your posts!

Have fun rereading and getting excited for RETURN OF THE THIEF!

[statistical-improbabilities]

both attolias smiling at costis in one paragraph is my aesthetic

[statistical-improbabilities]

So we all know Gen has just about eight hundred thousand titles, right? Eugenides, Thief of Eddis, King of Attolia, all of that?

I just discovered the best one on my reread of King of Attolia.

His Royal Petulance, Annux of the Little Peninsula, everyone.

(And an obligatory moment of appreciation for Aulus and Boagus because I love them.)

[statistical-improbabilities]

I started my reread of the series later than intended, so I’m going pretty quickly and not scraping for details, but this one passage in QoA really stuck out to me this time around:

I’m sure this has been pointed out already, but Eugenides’s display of frustration seems quite similar indeed to someone else’s:

It says so much that even before they’ve “officially” fallen in love, they’ve experienced parallel feelings and reactions to them. Gen and Irene just get each other. And the narrative allows them to be hurt, and frustrated, and to react in this way without ever invalidating their reactions—and that’s so important, especially when the roles and titles they take on wouldn’t allow for anything less than composure in the public sphere.

Bet Gen was still surprised by Irene’s throwing arm on their wedding night, though.