The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

“Basileus,” some­one hid­den in the steam whis­pered. Oth­ers echoed the praise. “Basileus.” Only Teleus shook his head. Costis watched him, not sur­prised. “The Basileus was a prince of his peo­ple, what we call king now,” Teleus explained. “That one”—he nod­ded toward the closed door—“will rule more than just Atto­lia before he is done. He is an Annux, a king of kings.”

I love sto­ries that are unpre­dictable and suspenseful. I love sto­ries that are well plot­ted and well writ­ten. I love sto­ries that have com­plex­ity of thought and char­ac­ter growth. I love sto­ries that offer sur­prises. I loved The King of Atto­lia by Megan Whalen Turner for all the rea­sons I stated above. And I hated that it all came to an end.

The events of the story take place shortly after Eugenides has become King. The story unfolds through the eyes of Costis.  A Guard who loses his tem­per and has struck the King in the face. Rather than have him hang for trea­son, Eugenides pro­motes him to lieu­tenant in name only. In order to change the mind of many, you need to change the mind of the one next to you or so says Eugenides.  Costis is relieved for the reprieve of his life but his opin­ion of the king is like many in Atto­lia: they all hate him. They feel as though the Thief of Eddis stole the throne of Atto­lia and that the mar­riage is a sham. 

There are other sub­plots that were inter­est­ing like the rela­tion­ship between the King and Queen; then there is the threat to the throne by a pow­er­ful baron. Lastly, there is  the Mede Empire to worry as well as Sou­nis. However, that is all of the plot that I wish to elab­o­rate. The story goes on to have many twists and turns. There is still more polit­i­cal intrigue and sab­o­tage. Plenty of sur­prises and revelations.  There were sev­eral scenes that I’ve book­marked and have went back to read over and over again. I loved this book. At the first, I didn’t know what was going on but from expe­ri­ence I should have known what was up. Eugenides is clever and pow­er­ful and every­body has often mis­took him for a fool. All except The Queen of Eddis, his father, the ambas­sador of Eddis and his wife, The Queen of Attolia.

In clos­ing my thoughts, I am rather depressed to see this story end. I sin­cerely hope that Ms. Turner is writ­ing another story about Eugenides. I’m pretty sure she prob­a­bly is because there is much to be told about Eugenides and his life. I’ve now read all three of the sto­ries and have enjoyed them all. Do I have a favorite? Not really.  I’ve enjoyed all three books and have graded them all A reads. These are YA nov­els but don’t let the label stop you from read­ing them. Where else can you find romance, sword fights, political intrigue laced with sus­pense? Look no fur­ther than The King of Atto­lia. My grade, A. Check out the series start­ing with the first book, The Thief.