Fandom Promo: The Queen's Thief

[duskpeterson]

Title: Thieves and Royalty and Gods and Diversity: A Queen's Thief Promo
Author: duskpeterson
Fandom: The Queen's Thief
Historical connection: A historical AU (with just a touch of fantasy) set in a secondary world resembling the Mediterranean region during the gunpowder era, with strong echoes of the classical era.
Content warning: This is a young adult series, so there isn't much that's graphic in the canon, but there is a shocking act of violence in one of the volumes, which probably carries over into some of the fanfic. I'm going to be talking here about the fanart, which (as far as I've seen) is PG-rated.

Canon recap: Let me start by saying: This is the most spoilerific series I've ever encountered. If I talk about the first volume, I'll spoiler the series. If I talk about the second volume, I'll spoiler the series. If I talk about the third volume . . . You get the idea.

Because of the spoilerish nature of the series, I'm going to urge you not to look at any of the text or tags or URL names accompanying the art I link to. This is the sort of fandom where even a character-name tag gives away too much.

I can say that the first novel won the Newbery Award (the top award in American children's literature), and that the basic premise is that a bunch of AU Mediterranean countries in Europe and the Near East are at each other's throats. Into this mess saunters the following character:

"Don't expect my help," I said.

"We don't ever expect you to be helpful, Gen."

Gen is the snarkiest character imaginable, and most the drama and heartbreak and sweetness of the series centers upon him.

Gen.

Also Gen.

Yet another portrait of Gen.

With major spoilers for volume two: My favorite pic of Gen.

Historical Connection: Even though this is an AU, many of the artists for this fandom have fallen in love with the historical aspects of this series.

Enter: the throne room.

"The deep dive into Byzantine-Ottoman-Turkish clothing and architecture has been real and consuming".

Eddis | Attolia - a view from two windows.

"Definitely tried to show the regional mix between the little countries and how fashion may have impacted each other as well".

Characters: Shh, spoilers. I can't introduce the characters without revealing their connection to Gen. However, I can say that, despite what the official covers would have you believe, this is an immensely multicultural series, as the fanartists won't let you forget.

Kamet in Miniature (specifically Levni) inspired style.

Irene in Ancient Greek style.

Helen.

The Knife Dance.

Other information: One of the nice things about this series is that it has something for everyone: family, friendship, het, and a male romantic friendship that is so easy to slash that, for heaven's sakes, the canon evokes a historical male couple who are often considered to be gay. (Of course, some of us just like to read about romantic friendship, period.)

F/M:

Orange trees and olive branches.

M/M:

"Dark MWT show me the 11 forbidden days".

Romantic friendship:

The Story of Immakuk and Ennikar and the Queen of Night.

Family:

You will get to ride ponies.

Another wonderful thing about this fandom is the variety of the appreciations by fans. There are cartoons, graphic stories, animation, songs (warning: major spoilers for volume two of the series), and for goodness' sake, illustrated books.

Where to find the canon: The original novels can be found at libraries and at bookstores in the form of print books, e-books (including an omnibus), and audio books. There've been five novels so far; the final novel is due out this August.

Ms. Turner's website has the current book covers on the home page. She has sense enough to put most of the blurbs under spoiler cuts. Be wary of reading any blurbs for the series at bookstores or Goodreads, because an older blurb of the first novel gives away the ending.

Once you've read the books, it's worth seeking out Ms. Turner's interviews, which sometimes discuss the historical aspects of this series. Here's my favorite quote from her:

"I have to say that I am amazed by the power of conventional thinking. Tell people you are writing a fantasy, put in references to windowpanes, printed books, compasses, pocket watches, and they will still be gobsmacked when guns show up. To most people, 'Fantasy' just means twelfth-century technology, only with surprisingly modern plumbing."

Meta: Witty, sad, nailbiting, romantic . . . The series covers all bases. Here is some art that covers various moods in the series:

Adventure. (This is conceptual art for a prospective film version of the series.)

Quietness.

Dancing.

Fandom Guide:

meganwhalenturner is the author's blog. She sometimes reposts fandom stuff, so spoilers may occur at her blog. She's very supportive of her fans but has a strict policy of not inserting herself into fandom commentary:

"One LiveJournal site caught my eye. It was called Sounis and was a bunch of really nice people in a community dedicated to talking about The Thief and The Queen of Attolia—which they called the The Queen's Thief books, a name that eventually stuck. I got to watch these smart, funny people pick through everything I'd written and every time someone would ask a question about something they didn't understand there was someone to answer it. I realized that they didn't need me. That every last little thing that I hoped they'd see, they were pointing out to one another. I thought I should probably just shut up and leave readers to figure things out for themselves. That's why when they got around to sending me a community fan letter, I'm afraid that my answer to most of their questions was 'I'm not telling.'

"That doesn't mean I don't talk about the books, about writing, about what's hard or easy or about where my inspiration comes from. I just try not to add information that's not already on the page or offer my opinion on what anything in particular means. Sometimes I blow it and I do talk too much, but I try not to because I think making up your own mind about what you are reading or sharing that process with others is part of the fun of it, and I don't want anything I say to get in the way of readers doing that."

--Megan Whalen Turner.

The fandom is modestly sized but very active. The fanartists are mainly to be found at Tumblr, though the fanart seems to be scattered all over the Net. I have many of the Queen's Thief Tumblrs covered in my DW feeds. This 22-page panorama at Tumblr gives a wonderful sampling of the art, but with major spoilers, so I'd recommend you look at it after you've read the books. Ditto the fanfic, which is plentiful at AO3 and FanFiction.net.

There is a readalong podcast (which I haven't listened to yet). The transcripts are online.

There's no Fanlore entry for the series yet. The Queen's Thief Wiki at Fandom is bare-bones and spoilerific.

There are three fan groups at Goodreads: Sounis, one with a spoiler name (honestly, folks, why?), and The Queen's Thief Fandom.

At LiveJournal, there is sounis - the comm that Ms. Turner mentioned above, which is still going, though its fic companion, queensthief_fic, is inactive. queensthief is sounis's DW mirror, but it hasn't been updated for a year. The mod says that's because people don't post there. Let's change that!

Comments

[chocolatepot]

Ooh, thanks for the links to the art! I love the Queen's Thief series.

[duskpeterson]

Yay!