This is actually the first Queen's Thief book I ever read. Can you imagine my utter confusion?

Reason #1 why I'm glad Thick as Thieves has "a Queen's Thief novel" on the cover, because when A Conspiracy of Kings came out, it had absolutely no reference to being part of a series besides something vague on the back inside flap.

The first part of this book is kind of slow. How can a bandit attack and abduction into slavery be slow? I'm honestly not sure. Once you get to the dinner party of long knives, though, it's all up from there. In my opinion, this book is a HUGE plot progression along the lines of Queen of Attolia, rather than the mostly-internal state issues and revelations of character of King of Attolia and Thick as Thieves. You start to actually see the annux that Teleus predicted at the end of King of Attolia, and the political stage is set for the Final Confrontation that we're still leading up to.

Notable Things:

• SOPHOS. I love him. His perspective is priceless.
• Aristogiton cameo
• Anytime they talk about their efforts to spy on the Mede and find out where they're amassing the army and navy I'm doing the eye emoji
• When he smiles and looks like his uncle
• There are a very shady amount of references to Gen being SICK which I had never paid much attention to, but in light of "the king's health was also poor" line from TaT, I am becoming... very suspicious.
• The sheer emotional catharsis when Sophos shoves Gen to the ground
• I love the dissonance between Sophos's self-image and the reality you can see in his actions
• The awkward silence when Attolia is like "your best strategy is to publicly torture and execute your enemies"
• WHEN HE DOES THE THING AT THE END. I'M SO PROUD OF SOPHOS.