A Conspiracy of Kings

This is probably my least favourite book of the series.

Firstly, it's a bit boring, nothing really seems to be happening and even when it does, I'm not terribly interested in it. The political machinations and twists that I usually enjoy in this series were really minimal in this book and I honestly felt cheated.

But perhaps more distressing than the books mundanity was how uncomfortable some of the messaging was. As other reviews have mentioned, the final point of this book seemed to be that it was good to enforce things by violence if you were sure you were right. While I think that this could be an important critique of war in general, and how it can warp people's mindsets and decisions, the book didn't seem critical of its own message.

Another thing that truly bothered me was that by the end of the book Eugenides was considered sovereign of both Attolia and Eddis, countries that were ruled by women. The book is still unapologetically feminist in other ways but I couldn't help being irritated by the fact that the women in this book had yielded a bit of their sovereignty to a younger, arguably more inexperienced ruler (however much I and they may personally love him). I know I'm nitpicking and probably overreaching here but I wished Eddis did not have to swear fealty to Eugenides.