Queen Hephestia
is Athena, Hera, more.
The Mede prays to whom?
The sequel to The Thief & part of the "Queen's Thief" series. I ran right on into it after finishing the first one, & honestly I would read the third one (whose name I won't write here on account of it being a bit of a spoiler-- as is this cover, actually) if I wasn't planning on reading
kingtycoon's Solemnwell book next. I quite liked this book-- I think Miz Whalen Turner's trick is that she lets you be clever. You the reader know what earrings she put on! & their significance. So she might not say outright-- she'll say "no, I won't wear those earrings..." at the end of a chapter, but the significant earrings won't be spelled out till after the action has passed. The reader "figures it out," as the mystery is meant to be, which means that you are in on the denouement. Anyhow, I still don't get why everyone is crazy about Eugenides. He's fine? I wonder who might favorite is, actually. Both of the queens, I suppose. I also am sort of fond of the magus-- I like that people are able to understand his behavior in light of his loyalties. There are some very clever bits here; things foreshadowed, or mentioned in Act I & then used to an entirely different purpose in Act III. I was impressed with the mention of the dam in particular, & how that played out. The politics too are better than plausible-- they are believable. Yeah, colour me a fan. Though this novel, I will say, was also backloaded! Or well, midloaded? There is a big sargasso of mope in Act II, is what I'm saying. 