Monday 16 July 2012

Review: A Conspiracy of Kings

Book Four of the Queen's Thief series (therefore contains spoilers for the previous books)


Sophos, under the guidance of yet another tutor, practices his swordplay and strategizes escape scenarios should his father's villa come under attack. How would he save his mother? His sisters? Himself? Could he reach the horses in time? Where would he go? But nothing prepares him for the day armed men, silent as thieves, swarm the villa courtyard ready to kill, to capture, to kidnap. Sophos, the heir to the throne of Sounis, disappears without a trace. 
In Attolia, Eugenides, the new and unlikely king, has never stopped wondering what happened to Sophos. Nor has the Queen of Eddis. They send spies. They pay informants. They appeal to the gods. But as time goes by, it becomes less and less certain that they will ever see their friend alive again. 
Across the small peninsula battles are fought, bribes are offered, and conspiracies are set in motion. Darkening the horizon, the Mede Empire threatens, always, from across the sea. And Sophos, anonymous and alone, bides his time. Sophos, drawing on his memories of Gen, Pol, the Magus and Eddis, sets out on an adventure that will change all of their lives forever.

After finishing The King of Attolia I was desperate to see if Gen would take power in the court of Attolia and I had wanted to see how the people reacted to him going from the spineless cripple to the great king he is. When I got to this book, I realised that this was written from the view of Sophos and my heart died a little, believing that I wouldn't see Gen much but as a side character.

Whereas The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia were all a teeny bit boring at the beginning and then escalated to so much more, this book was the opposite. I loved the prologue and then from chapter one I was engrossed in the story of Sophos, watching him live as the useless heir of Sounis. I had loved Sophos in The Thief and seeing him go through his journey made me love him even more. 

A Conspiracy of Kings truly makes you think, from the beginning to the end I tried to analyse every baron and noble that Sophos met to see who would support him and who would see him as a puppet. We do get to see some of Gen, Attolia and Eddis, there presence makes the whole story even more intriguing. Like always Gen has a plan, and like always the plan is not revealed but Turner gives you bits of clues scattered around for you to find. I thoroughly loved how Turner always times her revelations at the right time, just when you figure out nearly the whole truth with a single tiny hole, she reveals what Gen is up to and everything falls together like pieces in a jigsaw.

Once again I have to praise Turner for her great mystery writing, her ability to create wonderful suspense and anticipation and well as a exhilarating adventure. Although there is always a down point in her story were everything seems to get a bit boring, it isn't too long and unlike some stories that go down and stay down, Turner always manages to bring back the excitement and riddles.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

2 comments:

  1. sounds like a great read and that you really enjoyed it.
    new follower!

    http://thecrossbreeds.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello! I did enjoy it very much :) thank you for the follow, I've followed you back at your blog.

    ReplyDelete