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A review by mwaltos
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Before reading the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, I already held an immense respect and fondness for Jemisin’s writing because of my experience with her thrice Hugo award-winning Broken Earth trilogy. However, since I consider the Broken Earth trilogy my favorite fantasy series, I tried to tamper my expectations for Jemisin’s debut series because she had raised the bar so high for the genre and I didn’t want to be unrealistic. I can’t speak for the series as a whole, but I can wholeheartedly say that The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms shares many of the elements of Jemisin's writing and thematic choices that I found so compelling in the BE trilogy.
In both the aforementioned series, Jemisin experiments with obscuring or complicating the identity of the narrator, which in the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms manifests as a second POV that sometimes interrupts the main narration to reflect and expand on the story being told from a first-person perspective by the protagonist. The mystery of this second voice adds an addicting element of mystery to this novel, aids in world building, and culminates in what I consider a very satisfying conclusion. In terms of the plot, mystery is also an essential component of the narrative.
Our protagonist, Yeine, is the daughter of the disgraced heir of the leader of this world's domineering and exploitative empire, and the novel starts with her summoning to the empire capital for a meeting with her domineering grandfather, the reigning ruler of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Once at the capital, Yeine meets the weapons that make the empire undefeatable: a handful of gods that have been trapped in mortal forms and enslaved by the god of order, who is revered by the empire. The gods and their language is the source of magic for this world, and the enslaved gods are incredibly powerful, even in their limited state. Capturing the perspective of an immortal being that embodies a certain force of nature serves as a formidable writing challenge, but Jemisin crushes it. She has such a knack for depicting the metaphysical and magical and making it feel concrete. Just the presence of these gods befuddle and stimulate Yeine’s senses, which gives such an embodied feel to the impact of their magic and helps establish them as cosmic forces.
Additionally, Jemisin pays special attention to the facial expressions and body language of the characters she writes, so everyone's interaction jumps off the page while conveying so much unspoken information, which is essential in a political intrigue narrative. This is a stunning—and often sexy—debut from an author who has become a modern literary giant, serving as one of the many works that have contributed to her well-earned acclaim.
In both the aforementioned series, Jemisin experiments with obscuring or complicating the identity of the narrator, which in the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms manifests as a second POV that sometimes interrupts the main narration to reflect and expand on the story being told from a first-person perspective by the protagonist. The mystery of this second voice adds an addicting element of mystery to this novel, aids in world building, and culminates in what I consider a very satisfying conclusion. In terms of the plot, mystery is also an essential component of the narrative.
Our protagonist, Yeine, is the daughter of the disgraced heir of the leader of this world's domineering and exploitative empire, and the novel starts with her summoning to the empire capital for a meeting with her domineering grandfather, the reigning ruler of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Once at the capital, Yeine meets the weapons that make the empire undefeatable: a handful of gods that have been trapped in mortal forms and enslaved by the god of order, who is revered by the empire. The gods and their language is the source of magic for this world, and the enslaved gods are incredibly powerful, even in their limited state. Capturing the perspective of an immortal being that embodies a certain force of nature serves as a formidable writing challenge, but Jemisin crushes it. She has such a knack for depicting the metaphysical and magical and making it feel concrete. Just the presence of these gods befuddle and stimulate Yeine’s senses, which gives such an embodied feel to the impact of their magic and helps establish them as cosmic forces.
Additionally, Jemisin pays special attention to the facial expressions and body language of the characters she writes, so everyone's interaction jumps off the page while conveying so much unspoken information, which is essential in a political intrigue narrative. This is a stunning—and often sexy—debut from an author who has become a modern literary giant, serving as one of the many works that have contributed to her well-earned acclaim.