** spoiler alert ** This author kind of knocks my socks off. She's incredibly skillful, and I couldn't stop reading and I think part of the reason I was initially furious about Eugenides falling for Attolia is that I want to marry Eugenides. (And I wouldn't cut off his hand.)

That said, my reading of this book was slow for some reason. Not in terms of how long it took me to finish it in days - since I didn't often put it down, this was fairly short. In hours, though, it seemed to take a long time. I blame this in part on the fact that the book contains not only lots of detail, but a whole lot of geography. I kind of wish there'd been a map at the front of the book. I'm not good with geography or spatial relations. For one battle scene, I couldn't figure out until it was over which country they were in. Kind of important.

The author masterfully handles her cast of thousands, though I rather wish she'd have limited her points of view to five or fewer. As it was, we basically had third person omniscient, which can be pretty annoying when it's also obviously withholding information from you constantly.

Makes use of what I think of as the Robin Hood trope: the idea that the best person at a given skill in the country/world/story is automatically infallible at that skill. Eugenides is legendary, a folk hero in his own time, but there are acts of thievery that may just plain not be possible. Like stealing three knives from under Attolia's dress while she's walking several steps ahead of him, actively concerned about and keeping tabs on her knives, and with her knowing where he is and not noticing that he even comes any closer. (That's not even getting into the whole one-handed business.) Yet, because this is stealing and Eugenides Can Steal Anything, we don't question.

This actually doesn't bother me much - I kind of like this trope - but it did give my suspension of disbelief a little poke. I thought about this stuff when I watched the winter Olympics awhile ago. Those figure skaters? They are, in theory, the best figure skaters in the world, and almost every one of them FELL at least once. FELL. That's a pretty unequivocal error. From the best in the world. Who sometimes still overreach or just mess up.

(Also, I am kind of in love with Eugenides. It does drive me crazy, though, how incredibly hard to predict he is. So frequently when I'm sympathizing with him and just thinking how very human and wounded he is and how I want to give him a hug, it turns out it was a cover for him to go jaunting off doing impossibly brave and difficult things.)

I'm fascinated by the way this book - like The Thief - goes to the opposite extreme of most fantasy in keeping track of characters' injuries. People actually suffer not just from the big-deal, plot-important stuff, but from the injuries that I feel like a lot of authors would have practically forgotten. (Gen's dog bites get infected! While he's still suffering from major concussion and oh yeah also amputation!) The concussion thing, in particular, I appreciated. It's so common in fiction for blows to the head to knock people unconscious as neatly as a well-trained anesthesiologist, and be recovered from about as quickly. This is much more realistic - though I admit, sometimes the lasting quality of Gen's injuries seemed almost to be going overboard. Still, I suspect it's much closer to realism than not.

I'm impressed with the portrayal of Gen's reaction to losing his hand, and all the issues he has to deal with. It's especially interesting because this is, in various cultures real and fantastical, a common thieves' punishment, but you don't generally see people dealing with the aftermath.

Speaking of cultures real and imagined, I have to say that I was disappointed by the brief, random mention of Euclid's Geometry and later reference to Helen of Troy. This isn't supposed to be Earth - the author, if I understand her notes at the end of this book and The Thief correctly, says as much. Were these just mistakes?

I liked The Thief better, but this was still excellent. I'll definitely have to read the others, but I'll take a little break first, because this was intense.

***

EDIT: I figured out how to put something that bothered me about this book. The Thief, with its tight, consistent first-person POV, gives one the impression that Gen is playing his cards very close to the chest. This is fine; most of the characters are as surprised by the revelation of Gen's secrets as the reader is. Gen is just keeping the reader on a need-to-know basis, as he does the other characters. In this book, though, with its jumping points of view, it feels like the book is withholding information from the reader, which seems much more purposeful and artificial. We skip merrily across the viewpoints of several characters - some secretive people, some not particularly - who are all aware of something the reader isn't, and are then surprised by that thing.

(The point that comes to mind is the fact that Gen's plan re: Attolia is so different from what is implied. Even little details - like the wooden cannons - well, it's masterfully done, but the secrecy does feel slightly contrived to me when it's not just Gen hiding things from the reader.)