A review by kriswasp
The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
4.0
This is my second foray into N. K. Jemisin’s literature, my first being her Broken Earth trilogy, which I gave 5 stars across the board. This duology being earlier, felt earlier.
I loved the setting, and this idea of benevolent dream vampires acting as a sort of end of life career. No sooner than you have that idea implanted than Jemisin runs right through it with all the ways it can be corrupted. Broken Earth was brutal, this is no different.
She certainly likes her tropes, powers needing mastery, master and apprentice, journeys that test a person as they uncover the depths of their power. No bad thing, she knows what she likes and she explores these relationships in many different ways.
Ultimately though, I felt like this was a standalone novel, not part of a bigger story, and the pacing just felt a little off at times, or maybe I wasn’t as drawn into some of the aspects as I should have been.
Still, her imagination is terrific, and the way she describes now the dream magic works and how it is used is sublime, making it feel simple and straightforward and as if any one could do it, just how I felt about her descriptions of Orogeny.
I loved the setting, and this idea of benevolent dream vampires acting as a sort of end of life career. No sooner than you have that idea implanted than Jemisin runs right through it with all the ways it can be corrupted. Broken Earth was brutal, this is no different.
She certainly likes her tropes, powers needing mastery, master and apprentice, journeys that test a person as they uncover the depths of their power. No bad thing, she knows what she likes and she explores these relationships in many different ways.
Ultimately though, I felt like this was a standalone novel, not part of a bigger story, and the pacing just felt a little off at times, or maybe I wasn’t as drawn into some of the aspects as I should have been.
Still, her imagination is terrific, and the way she describes now the dream magic works and how it is used is sublime, making it feel simple and straightforward and as if any one could do it, just how I felt about her descriptions of Orogeny.