REVIEW: THE KINGDOM OF GODS

Cover art: Cliff Nielsen

Cover design: Lauren Panepinto

THE KINGDOM OF GODS

BOOK THREE OF THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY

BY

N. K. JEMISIN

ISBN: 978-0-316-04393-9

Pages: 575 +extras (includes short story)

Publisher: Orbit

First published: 6 October 2011

This edition published: 27 October 2011

On the cover:

For two thousand years the Arameri family has ruled the world by enslaving the very gods that created mortalkind. Now the gods are free, and the Arameri's ruthless grip is slipping. But they are all that stands between peace and world-spanning, unending war.

Shahar, last scion of the family, must choose her loyalties. She yearns to trust Sieh, the godling she loves. Yet her duty as Arameri heir is to uphold the family's interests, even if that means using and destroying everyone she cares for.

   The concluding volume in The Inheritance Trilogy, just as book two, doesn't follow straight on from the previous book, but it does advance the story of the gods in the world Jemisin has created. This time we are following Sieh, a god we first met in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

   Sieh really shines as a main character. His story here is really one of personal growth in many ways. Despite starting out the novel as a god, the strength of Sieh here is how human he is a character. What we see Sieh go through is a journey of discovery that will be very familiar.
   Sieh is of course not the only character, there are plenty of others. And although most of them are actually gods, they are relatable. Jemisin is good at getting you to care for the characters she has created, and that makes it easy to get drawn into what is happening to them.

   There's several layers to this story. Like I mentioned above there is a clear element of growth, and change here, but there is a significant element of mystery here too. Jemisin does create a lot of suspense in the mystery part of the story, she really writes in a way that creates a lot of suspense. There is much that is hidden as the story progresses, but it never feels like it should have been told. That which isn't disclosed does have a reason for being secret behind it.

   The pacing of the story is really an interesting one. The speed at which things progress can best be described as measured, but with some sudden spikes of speed. This works very well in this story, you do get a sense of it going along at its natural pace all the time. When things do speed up from time to time it is because events demand it, and that is especially true of the ending.
   If you want endings that take your breath away, then this really will be perfect for you. There is a lot happening, and it's hard to have any idea of how things are going to end up. Some of what happened took me completely by surprise, but I never felt Jemisin "cheated" to do that. This just isn't your average ending to a Fantasy trilogy, and it is all the better for it.

   All in all I found this a really satisfying conclusion to the Inheritance Trilogy. What begun in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms comes to a conclusion here. Even though we have followed different characters, on a path that has never been completely straight, this trilogy does really come together.
   This really is a great ending to a debut trilogy, and one that shows anyone who has had any doubts that Jemisin is an author to be reckoned with. It's a powerful ending to a great story, and I highly recommend these books to any Fantasy fan.

REVIEWS: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms  The Broken Kingdoms

LINKS: N.K. Jemisin  Orbit

REVIEW: THE BROKEN KINGDOMS

Cover art: Cliff Nielsen

Cover design: Lauren Panepinto

THE BROKEN KINGDOMS

BOOK TWO OF THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY

BY

N. K. JEMISIN

ISBN: 978-0-316-043396-0

Pages: 384 (+appendix and extras)

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 3 November 2010

On the cover:

In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a strange homeless man on an impulse. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. And Oree's guest is at the heart of it...

   This is the second book in The Inheritance Trilogy.  Set ten years after the events at the end of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms this novel gives us a very different picture of the world this series is set in. In the previous volume we saw the world through royalty, and were mostly confined to one location, here our horizon is greatly expanded. Location wise we are still not travelling much, but we are in a much more diverse location - the city of Shadow, located underneath the palace of Sky from The Hundred Thousand kingdoms.
   Along with the change of location we also get a different perspective on the world. This time our point of view is through Oree Shoth who apart from being blind lives a completely ordinary existence in Shadow. I am not exactly giving away something when I tell you that the story of Oree here is far from ordinary though.

   Jemisin gives us a story that structurally is a pretty mundane tale, but the depth of the story combined with the worldbuilding transcend any such simplification when describing the novel.
   Gods are an integral part of the story in this volume also. But this time we are introduced to a lot more of them, and we get to learn much more of their history and daily life. It's really fascinating to learn more about the pantheon of gods, and the history behind them is definitely contributing to the depth of this story.
   There's also quite a bit about what those gods mean to the humans they live along, and how they have affected the daily life of humans. This element is very well done, and feels very realistic. Jemisin doesn't just throw the gods into the story, in many ways they are the story.

   We get lots of action in this novel, and it is quite fast paced. But there is also a lot of quieter periods in this book, and I felt that some of them were a bit too slow. Fortunately this was not a huge problem and it is really a very minor niggle. To be honest I don't think it would even be noticeable if not for the contrast to the very fast paced action and revelation sequences.
   Jemisin is great when making revelations that drive the story. There is several "wow moments" that to me came as a surprise, and it's very hard to begin to even guess where the story is going. We get some twists that are really surprising when it seems that the story is on a familiar track.

   The second book in a trilogy can often be somewhat on a let down, but that is not the case here. Jemisin follows up her debut with a novel that in my opinion is even better than the first, and once again shows she is a great writer.
   I'd really recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, but I'd advice against starting here. Reading this without having read the first volume will make you loose a lot of the depth of the story. But this is a Fantasy trilogy you really shouldn't miss, so I will highly recommend you get the books if you haven't already.

REVIEW: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

LINKS: N. K. Jemisin  Orbit

REVIEW: THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS

Cover art: Cliff Nielsen

Cover design: Lauren Panepinto

THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS

BOOK ONE OF THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY

BY

N. K. JEMISIN

ISBN: 978-1-84149-817-1

Pages: 398 (+ appendix and extras)

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 4 February 2010

On the cover:

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 - a palace above the clouds where the lives of gods and mortals intertwine.


There, to her shock, Yeine is named one of the potential heirs 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 a pair of 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. 

   This novel starts  out looking like standard Epic Fantasy, but it doesn't take long before we are introduced to the gods who make this a departure from the standard Epic Palace Intrigue Fantasy.
   The intrigue of royalty is the starting point of the novel, and through the heroine, Yeine, we are introduced into it. That she is both the narrator and an outsider at the palace is a good choice by Jemisin. We get to learn as Yeine does, and this is handled very well. There is never a feeling of Yeine being clueless just to get information across to the reader, and we in some way grow with Yeine as the story progresses.

   The royals are very much linked to the gods, and they are an integral part of the story. Jemisin handles the gods very well, they come off as very realistic.
   Gods aren't really all that uncommon in Fantasy, and you sometime get the feeling that they are carbon copies of the Greek/Roman/Norse pantheon, that is not the case here. Jemisin's use of gods in the story feels very fresh, and they are a very important part of the story - they are in fact central to it. Since they are gods they are of course powerful, but Jemisin has created a nice twist that limits them and at the same time elevates them to more than "just" gods.
   This is probably the best use of gods I have ever seen in Fantasy, and for those that are interested in gods they alone make the book worth getting.

   The story of this novel is a great journey. As mentioned above it starts out pretty traditionally, but soon takes another turn. There's so many twists and surprising events here, that at times it is almost hard to keep up. This is Jemisin's debut, but she comes off as a so well accomplished storyteller it never really comes across as a first book.
   While the story is, mostly, set in just one location it is an epic one in scope. It never feels constrained by the limited setting, and it doesn't suffer from being deprived of the large sprawling world that we get in most Fantasy. Jemisin instead manages to make this a strength, and although we do get quite a bit of history, this is very much focused on the characters.

   Yeine and the gods are very interesting characters, and the focus on such a small cast of characters makes this feel very intimate. The first person narrative brings us into the head of Yeine, and as we follow her journey we become a part of it. The gods are also well developed, and they are great characters in their own right.

   All in all this is a really great debut. It has a different feel than all the Grimdark, and is a very good antidote for those that feel Fantasy is all about the "gritty". For any fan of Fantasy, and (non-monotheistic) gods in general, this is a must buy. As Fantasy debuts go, this is one of the best.

LINKS: N. K. Jemisin  Orbit

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP

   I like seeing cover reveals, it's always interesting to get an early look at a coming book. Sometimes I want to blog about them, but I don't want to fill my blog with posts about new covers, so I thought I'd start doing a round-up of cover reveals on a semi-regular basis. These are some of the covers I have noticed lately, with a brief comment of what I think of them.

WARDS OF FAERIE BY TERRY BROOKS

   This is the cover for the first volume in the The Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy, published by Del Rey.

   I'm really not sure what to think of it. It's pretty minimalistic for a Fantasy cover, and I have no idea from the cover what the novel is about. I assume the covers for the nest two books will be in a similar style, and I think it may look better when seen together with those. But I also think it will to some degree stand out in the Fantasy section as it is. 

THE FORGE OF DARKNESS BY STEVEN ERIKSON

   The first book in a new trilogy form Steven Erikson, and Tor Books, set in the world of The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

   This is pretty much a generic Fantasy cover, and I am a bit disappointed by it. It does look good, but I feel that this is very much a cover that could have grazed any Fantasy book ever published. My first thought was that it was a cover for a new edition of The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. I am of course excited by a new Malazan book by Erikson, but I wish the cover was more special.

THE DIRTY STREETS OF HEAVEN BY TAD WILLIAMS

   Another first book of a new trilogy from an established Fantasy author (, looks like the trend this year.) This from Tad Williams and published by Daw Books (US) and Hodder & Stoughton (UK).

   I actually liked this cover. It's not very original, but it seems to be a very good representation of what the book is about from what I have read. This is a book I am very excited about, Williams is a great author.

INEXPLICABLES BY CHERIE PRIEST

Cover art: Cliff Nielsen

   The cover for a new installment in Cherie Priest's The Clockwork Century series. Published by Tor Books.

   I love this series, and I have really liked the covers for the previous books. This cover fits in nicely with the earlier ones, and I think it looks great. I can't wait to find out what the character on the cover is staring at.

BLOOD AND FEATHERS BY LOU MORGAN

 

Cover art: Simon Parr

   This is the cover for the debut novel coming from author Lou Morgan, to be published by Solaris Books.

   This is an excellent cover, it really comes out at you. The red figure on the black background is a nice contrast. Even though I know Lou online and have been excited to read her book since I first heard about it, this cover managed to get me even more excited. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this one.

BLACKWOOD BY GWENDA BOND

Cover art: Steven Wood

   This is not only the cover for the first novel by Gwenda Bond, it is also the first cover we've seen from new publishing imprint Strange Chemistry.

   This is not a final cover, and there will obviously be some text added to this before it is in the shops. It really is a lovely cover, and I was already looking forward to the book, this has made me want it more. The colours, the woman, and that snake...it's really brilliant, I want it as a poster.  And I can't wait to see what covers Strange Chemistry comes up with after this one.

   I hoped you liked my first cover reveal post. I will be keeping an eye on the internet for more cover reveals in the future, and there will be more of these posts on the blog from time to time.

   What did you think of these covers? The comments are open.