*sticks head into this thread after getting threatened invited to post in here by Destined and LL*

Well, I guess I should start by answering Valia's questions:

1). How did you learn about the books? (If you're like the vast majority on NW and heard about it here, what finally was it that got you started reading them?)

From NW, of course! I can't remember who exactly got me to read them... I think it was Valia back on the old forum when she had the avvie "Edward < Gen" and I asked her who Gen was.

2). Who is your favourite character and why?

I'll take the easy way out and say Gen. I guess I like him since he's kind of an antihero, Han Solo type. Though,

3). Favourite book and why?

Umm.... Umm... I really can't answer this since I've only read the first two.

4). What are you most looking forward to about the fourth book?

See my answer to question 3.

-------------------------

*is in shock that Jo actually prefers Harry Potter over the Attolia books *

I must admit, after reading the first few chapters of the "the Thief", I was a little unsure if I was going to like the book. Fortunately, the characters turned out to be very likable and memorable which made the book a lot of fun. I still like "Useless the Elder" and "Useless the Younger".

One thing that still puzzles me/slightly creeps me out is the whole Greek god-esque thing running through the books. I'm interested to see where this goes, especially since

Well, I'll be lurking about. Oh yeah! LL, you'll be pleased to know Lady A will be bringing "King of Attolia" home from the library this afternoon.

*departs to the lurk-o-sphere*

Finished CoK. Not sure where I would place it on my list, though I do feel slightly disappointed with it.

Spoiler

And where was Costis?!?

On Sophos:

Spoiler

I liked the way Sophos has grown and changed from TT. The scene with the barons was probably one of my favorites in the entire book. He perfectly combined Gen's cunning with Attolia's ruthlessness. Very cool. I cannot think of him as Sounis though. It's like trying to call Gen Attolis. And I want to know more about Sophos' sisters. Seems like they'd make good Thieves of Eddis.

Eddis (the country):

Gen:

Spoiler

Honestly, I wanted to smack Gen for most of this book. He's so stubborn and it's not always a good thing. It was nice to see occasional flashes of Gen-ness, but the way this story is told, we mostly just see Attolis. I guess there really wasn't any way around that.

Attolia & Eddis:

Spoiler

How awesome was that part where Attolia held Eddis' hand when Sophos was leaving? I love that Attolia is thawing out a little and showing her humanity. Also enjoyed that bit about Gen keeping two knives under his pillow and she hinting that it wouldn't help him any. Those two have the weirdest marriage.

Anyone else think the Medes were inspired by the Calormenes?

Response to Mel:

Oh yeah! LL, you'll be pleased to know Lady A will be bringing "King of Attolia" home from the library this afternoon.

Awesome! Let us know how you feel about it!

Booky:

One more spoiler I've forgotten to post previously.

I'm gonna probably have to go back and reply to everything in detail later, but I just wanted to say a few things about CoK so far. I'm just onto the 13th or 14th chapter ^Okay, probably all of that didn't need to be in spoilers. So far, I'm alternating between confusion and laughter over the book. I'm sure some of my joy is sapped by distractions and the difficulty of reading a book while trying not to break the spine. A reread will hopefully solve one and sadly solve the other (my mom and sisters are clamoring for my book and one of them will break the spine I'm sure I'd forgotten how lovely a new book could be, especially a hardcover one. It even has a dust jacket! ), though.

The two knives bit:

Spoiler

I think what Sophos understood Attolia to be saying was that if she ever turned against Gen, no amount of weaponry could keep him alive. This is the women who poisoned her own wineglass to kill her first husband after all.

Well, I finished CoK. I liked it, but my thoughts overall are rather unsettled. They'll probably even out in the next couple of days, though. Pretty much every random thing dealing with the book that I can think of right now follows in the spoiler box.

I'll have to try to do some catch-up a bit later.

Edit: Suddenly,

Well, I promised that I'd post in here, so I suppose I should.

I read the books recently for the first time (two weeks ago, actually). I got the first three at the library and read them all in a period of three days (one book a day. It was a weekend, what can I say?). I then re-read them all over the next week (the re-read definitely helped sort a few things out. I noticed a lot of little things that I hadn't noticed the first time).

I can't say that I absolutely love the books. They're alright, and were (for the most part) an enjoyable read, but they just weren't my favorites. One of the things that bugged me the most was the language; I found it irritating and unnecessary.

How did I learn about the books? Like most people in this thread, I learned about them on here. I finally decided to read them when the library had all three at the same time.
Who is my favorite character and why? Gen is a favorite, for obvious reasons. I'm also a fan of Sophos (who I prefer to call 'Useless the Younger'. That's gotta be one of the best nicknames ever. ), and Costis (he's cool. ).
Favourite book and why? Probably KoA. The whole

I think that's all I have to add to the discussion at the moment. I have yet to read the fourth book, but I'll be sure to post if I do before the SF is over. *sits back and reads what others have to say*

--- flambeau

regarding LL's comments:

Spoiler

See, I offered you a practical demonstration of my cluelessness when it comes to age. I did think he was older, and I still think it was a semi-reasonable assumption to make. I'm going to go with the I have no clue how old the magus really is and defer to a majority vote. I think he's older than Pol, though, and my guess is that Pol was in his thirties for what that's worth...

Hehe. If there's enough interest in the results, I could try and convince my dad to read Conspiracy out of order. After all, Booky's already read KoA first, so we just need someone else to read QoA first.

I still haven't quite picked up on why Gen feels the need to 'steal' Sounis. Other than keeping his hand in the whole stealing game, of course, and the fact that politically the three countries need to be united. I think it's made clear that Gen goes out of his way to offer Sophos the other options available to him: going to the Medes or saying, "Really, who needs either of you? I'll do it myself!"

Oh, good, you found the answer to the strangling problem too, so I don't need to say anything.

regarding comments Booky and LL made:

One of the things that bugged me the most was the language

It's not exactly the same, but I just realised that

*stops by for a quick comment on KoA*

First off: I'm LOVING the book!!! Gen is just as great as he was before, but now he seems to have even more layers to the point where you don't know what he's really doing/thinking. Also, Costis is now my second favorite character.

O.K, now for the reason I'm posting so late at night:

Spoiler

Just read chapter 7 and the failed assassination attempt. While I knew that Gen was not going to die yet (there's still over half a book left!), it still kept me on the edge of my seat as I read it. This is actually rather rare as I'm usually not easily put "on the edge of my seat" by a book or movie.

The way the everything begins with the dog trouble and then Costis's realizing it might have been a decoy for an attack on the king.... Wow, great build-up. I was so relieved to read that Gen was O.K that it came as a real shock that he was wounded.

I also like the fact that Costis has found a kind of admiration or respect for Gen, though he still hates the Thief's guts. Reminds me of the first book and the relationship between Gen and the Magus.

One last thing, I thought it was great the way that Gen spies on Sejanus and his father. Uber cool...

Alright, those are my jumbled thoughts on the book/certain chapter so far. Sorry for the rambling nature of this post....

Alright, back to reading!

PrinceCor, the first part you mentioned (and what happens afterwards) is one of my favorite scenes in the whole series.

I finished CoK. I'm still working through it and processing it; not really sure where it stands yet. But it needs to be said: I LOVE SOPHOS.

I need to ramble so I'm going to put this all in a spoiler box.

I'm hoping to do a review and post it on my LJ sometime soon. I want it to be semi-structured/coherent, but it will probably be chock full of spoilers. Maybe after doing that I can do a somewhat reason filled unspoilery one... maybe.

EDIT: Of course I would obtain Junkie status in the Attolia thread. 500th post!

Nice graphics, Maddy. I'm snagging the middle one.

So when is Amy going to get in here and post her thoughts? I've been anxiously awaiting her post.

Conspiracy of Kings fanart:

It's a library, and there are no characters visible, so there aren't really any spoilers other than my choice of title.

I was so excited to see this thread when I checked in the other day!!!

I first heard about the books when Destined told me to read them. And then I promptly forgot about them. So she gave me The Thief for Christmas, a year ago. So I read it (finished on 1-7-09 ), and liked it, but it was just another book, and I didn't fall in love with it, until later that spring when I read The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. Then I was hooked. I reread The Thief this January (as well as the next two), and loved and enjoyed and understood it so much more than the first go-through. I had forgotten almost all of the intrigues of the plot, and only remembered the personalities and landscapes, which was lovely. To be able to know the characters and remember what everything looks like and be surprised!

I am in a homeschool speech league, and I wanted to do an interpretive dramatic speech. I couldn't think of anything, but then I remembered The Thief, and knew it would be perfect. I do the first half of the book, cut down to 10 minutes.

I'm not sure that I have a favorite character. I can't really say that I like one of them above all of the rest. I love the relationships between everyone, though, and also how very real and alive the characters are. I can't think of a huge bunch of other books where I can honestly say that.

The same with the books. I can't truthfully say I have a favorite. I think I like The Thief and The King of Attolia better than the other two, but then I begin thinking about all of the things I love about those books.

Which leads me to say that I preordered A Conspiracy of Kings from Amazon: the first time I've ever done that. It's so nice to be able to buy books I haven't read before, because I know I will love it enough to own it. I devoured it the same day it arrived, (finished at 1:30 am. . . but since I didn't go to sleep in between, it still counts. )and really, really liked it! After it came, I had to go to a violin lesson, and after I started reading it, I had to take breaks to interact with my family and eat, and I kept smiling to myself, and then making squealing noises and jumping up and down on my ways to and fro my room, which is something I've always thought was not a part of my character.

In spots,

Spoiler

Sophos seemed too much like Gen, (action scenes, like the fights before being crowned, the way he whipped out a gun and surprised you. Gen does it all of the time, but Sophos wouldn't do it as a surprise like that;) and I had a hard time reconciling him as I imagined him in The Thief to who he was here (which is the fault of my imagination and the speed in which I was reading, not the books themselves;) but other than that I can't think of anything that didn't suit me exactly. (See the rest of this post, where I talk about things that weren't perfect. But really, they did suit me, and I wouldn't want it changed! )

It surprised me that there was yet more politics (which I really like but can't seem to fully understand ). Now I begin to wonder what could possibly happen in the (very much hoped for) next books?!

Lady Liln: [spoiler=]The part at the end of Sophos's first first person chunk confused me, too. I reread that sentence like eight times and still didn't get it. Then I finished the chapter, and turned the page, read the first line, and became suddenly very, very jubilant!!!

I love Eddis, too. She's such a nice, un-extreme character.

Actually, I think I agree with everything from your long spoiler on page two, but couldn't have said it as well.