Title: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Series: The Inheritance Trilogy Book 1
Author(s): N.K. Jemisin
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher/Year: Orbit Books/2010
-Webpage/blog: Epiphany 2.0
-Challenges Fulfilled: 2010 Fantasy Reading Challenge
Synopsis: Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history.
With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate - and gods and mortals - are bound inseparably together.
Review: Its a very strange thing to read a book as if its another's disjointed memories clashing with one and other to be told first. At first I wasn't sure what I was reading--there would be strange asides that would break pieces of the tale, that would draw me either forward or back to an even farther back time, but always the asides made sense. The story is told from first person perspective (Yeine's) and the asides gave me the impression that she was having an argument with herself as she told the tale.
And the tale begins impressively with Yeine telling us her mother fought to keep her within her womb. From there it only became more urgent and dire. Yeine told the tale with a certain amount of detachment, which makes sense as the story progresses. Often when she found herself stumbling to remember something, some small thing perhaps that meant importance, I could recall times I had that problem. Sometimes the tale gets ahead of the teller, my grandmother used to tell me. Always Yeine caught herself and would bring the direction of the narrative back again.
I found myself sympathizing with Yeine often, but I felt worse for Sieh and Nahadoth, even Naha (though his casual cruelty chilled me). The two Gods trapped in mortal shells were at once powerful, but enslaved. Only able to act out when a member of the Arameri carelessly spoke or ordered them to. Their story, of how they became mortals and of the truth behind Yeine, is as twisted as any god's origins. This isn't to say it was confusing, but when a tale is several hundreds of thousands of years old who really cares to remember the truth of it? Really the details remained fixed in their minds, the circumstances really mattered very little to them.
Yeine's struggle--first to figure out why she was summoned so abruptly to her Grandfather's side after two decades of indifference, then to the truth behind everything (her mother's death, her own birth, the truth behind the religion...)--is hard and cruel. She's thrown into the viper's den without so much as a by-your-leave, with no idea who to trust and the vaguest notions of how to get on. Her so-called 'family' is actively plotting to have her removed, her homeland eradicated and all trace of her gone. Her only friend is another half-breed, who pretty much tells her hope is lost and she best figure out a way to save herself if she can. Trust is a dangerous, expensive and ultimately foolish pursuit for Yeine--anyone who can help her, won't, anybody who does isn't really helping her and anyone who truly means to help, even their intentions are stained with selfish desires.
I'll go on record saying this--the last two chapters pack a wallop and poetic justice does not do what happens well enough. Its not quite the ending I expected for anyone involved to be honest. I think though you'd be hard-pressed to find a more perfect one for any involved.
The ARC edition I have had 3 Appendixes (covering the terminology, further explanations for the terminology, and a short account of history as the Arameri saw it), an interview with the author (she wants to write for Square-Enix and Atlus--that alone makes her awesome in my book) and a short teaser for the forthcoming second book. I admit I am a sucker for Appendixes in books, I love that sort of stuff (in fact half the words in this review wouldn't have been spelled correctly except for Appendix one) and the explanations? Even better.
I strongly, strongly suggest that you go buy the book. I can't recommend it enough. I read it in four hours the same day that the book arrived on my doorstep--isn't that proof enough right there?
