This was a breath of fresh air, a solid fantasy novel that refrains from being too epic. That is perfect for a fantasy junkie like me who often gets lost in grand tales from today's best epic authors.I enjoyed this book in audio format, so at first the way the story unfolded seemed a bit disjointed. However, I quickly lost myself in the characters and world created by Jemisin. Oddly, I didn't think much of Yeine other than a solid character about which the plot and other characters pivoted. The remaining characters are rich in their complexity. Of course, the enslaved gods comprise some of the most interesting characters. Sieh is so childlike and vulnerable, yet so wise, whereas Nahadoth is simple beautiful in all of his wonderful and terrible glory. The human characters are also interesting, with each of them having their own combination of sorrow, hope, and cruelty.It is the nature of the world building that makes the characters so complex. Here is a world where the gods who once ruled are now enslaved by one of their own. It is a mad and jealous god that rules who has no love for humanity and thus makes all suffer, often at the hands of one another. This is a world ripe for change, and therein lies the story.This book has long been on my TBR shelf for a book club. I am glad that I finally got past the cover to give it a shot. It was definitely worthwhile. So amazing! So good! So creative! Seriously, this book blew me away. I now want to read ALL books by N.K. Jemisin. She has an amazing ability to create such complex, beautiful, enchanting, stories and worlds. Her characters have such depth to them and they inter-relate in such unique ways. It's great reading something so singular and different like this. OH I LOVE IT! Yeine is just such an admirable character. She's strong, flawed, hopeful, kind, and hard when the need arises. I think she's fantastic. And how she connects to the gods of her world is really cool. She recognizes her humanity, her mortality, but that doesn't stop her from love, kindness, or hope. Things are not easy for her, in fact they are incredibly difficult, but she struggles forward despite those challenges and the temptations to simply give up. I love her.Nahadoth - he is also an incredible character. The god of darkness, he is cruel, brutal, dangerous. And yet he and Yeine somehow connect. She matches him. She doesn't cower before him or try to use him, but acknowledges his potential to hurt as much as his potential to create.Oh I just love it. And I've got books 2 & 3 in the series on deck and ready to go so I'll be wrapping this series up shortly.
Do You like book Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The (2010)?
Like a lot of others, I felt I was marketed a book that didn't exist.Going into this novel, the beginning made me think I would read about a young girl forced to embrace a certain amount of political savvy and cunning in order to survive in a world she wasn't born in, but has blood rights to. But that all devolved as soon as the gods were introduced, leading me to believe that N.K. Jemisin is one of those seat-of-the-pants writers who doesn't outline in advance and instead lets the story take her where it wants to go, which may be fun for writers but is often disappointing for readers.I don't think this is a *bad* book, and I'm not sure if I should review something negatively for not being what the blurb imagined, but on the other hand - the first quarter of a novel should give you some idea of the genre/plot for the whole thing. And this didn't happen here for me.Why even bother with the politics, is my question? There was no need for them because they didn't matter at all.
—Gaurav
Like a lot of others, I felt I was marketed a book that didn't exist.Going into this novel, the beginning made me think I would read about a young girl forced to embrace a certain amount of political savvy and cunning in order to survive in a world she wasn't born in, but has blood rights to. But that all devolved as soon as the gods were introduced, leading me to believe that N.K. Jemisin is one of those seat-of-the-pants writers who doesn't outline in advance and instead lets the story take her where it wants to go, which may be fun for writers but is often disappointing for readers.I don't think this is a *bad* book, and I'm not sure if I should review something negatively for not being what the blurb imagined, but on the other hand - the first quarter of a novel should give you some idea of the genre/plot for the whole thing. And this didn't happen here for me.Why even bother with the politics, is my question? There was no need for them because they didn't matter at all.
—bible81
I have no words to describe how much I like this book.
—Sonjockley
