2011.01.31
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – NK Jemisin
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – NK JemisinI’ve just finished1 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, first book in The Inheritance Trilogy, by NK Jemisin. I hope she doesn’t mind me avoiding the dots in the initials of her name.
I loved the book, though at times I found myself wandering through some of the imagery of how the gods perceive the universe, or how mortals attempt to describe them. Not that they were bad descriptions; I just prefer more “earthly” things.2 I had a few issues with the plot, too. Not in the sense that I didn’t understand where things were going, but what motivated certain characters at specific points. Jemisin makes it clear that the characters understand these changes, but I didn’t get it at times. Despite these, because they minor in the context of the book and didn’t detract from my reading enough to make me want to stop, I loved the story and I’m looking forward to more of the series, to see how things turn out.
Our story follows Yeine, a young woman who is related (grand-daughter) to the world-ruling Arameri clan. They rule because during the god war Itempas, god of light, order and law, made that clan his representatives in the world. He has given them his imprisoned brother Nahadoth, god of dark, chaos and change, as a weapon. Itempas has killed their sister to do this. Yeine is out to understand and avenge her mother’s murder and becomes embroiled in the politics of inheritance. In the process, and despite the dire circumstances, she discovers how to free the world of Itempas’ iron rule. I don’t really want to give anything else about the story because I don’t want to give anything away.
I need to implement some sort of ratings system, but I think that will come with the new website (which I’m 90% sure of doing now, eventually). For now I’ll just say, four stars out of five.
1: Some people think I read pretty fast, and I guess I do compared to many. The bar will always be that of my Mom, though, who could read three books a day and remember details from the books.
2: I hated Dune for this reason, and the fact that Frank Herbert pounded the reader over the head with religious iconography and description. If I wanted all that I would read real-world religious texts, which tend to do a better job of it.
Comments Off Categorized: books
You can follow responses with a RSS 2.0 feed or via email using the checkbox below. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
