The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Might contain spoilers.
Just a fantastic book throughout. It’s a welcome, deliberate inversion and defiance of countless
unquestioned tropes, with a unique pantheon and equally unique cultures and history. The gods (and
therefore humans) of this world have a properly sordid and incestuous yet believable history. The
book expertly emphasizes how alien they are, of course.[1] Yeine is an enjoyable protagonist to
follow. Grow
is still one of my favourite moments in all of fiction.
There is much sorrow and torment in this story, but also much love and empathy. The Arameri are like an engineered family of sadistic, monstrous sociopaths. It’s crucial that Yeine doesn’t immediately regress to the same sort of behaviour after her resurrection, instead choosing to embrace godhood. Her relationship with Sieh is sweet. Her conversations with Enefa’s spirit inside her unfold splendidly. Really, the entire book teases and reveals information in a masterful fashion.
It’s a very nice touch to have Itempas be dark skinned with a tenor voice, again in defiance of convention.
- Yeine and T’vril being cousins, though… I don’t think I can ignore that.↩