The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
(book two of a series)
About ten years have passed, I think, since the first book. In the shadow of the city of Sky is another city, which people call Shadow. Here live thousands of merchants and artists and struggling poor and minor gods of this and that. And Oree, who's come from far away to live here. She's blind, though she can see magic, and she can see her own paintings.
I knew the texture of his soul. I knew the sound of him, like chimes. I knew that he owed Dateh and the New Lights a debt of pain and blood, and I wanted that debt repaid with all my heart.
She's a wonderful POV character, like Yeine in the first book. Oree is pretty much just trying to live day to day like most people around her--selling small things in the market, running into her ex-lover (a minor god of debt), staying out of the way of priests and the members of a thousand cults that have recently arisen. Naturally everything goes wrong.
There is a quiet yet giddy feel of discovery in the setting. Shadow is an interesting city, as Sky was. Oree encounters gods who can be sweet or grotesque (or sometimes both), each with their own personality. The Great Tree looms over it all.
It was easier, somehow, to give up my soul with him there beside me.
Emotions are the threads of this story. Love and longing, dislike and prejudice, the lust for power, the ache of loss, and an overwhelming thirst for vengeance. The kind of love that turns to hate can be rather devastating when it lasts a thousand years.
But I had spent too much time among godlings. I had seen that they lusted and raged like mortals, hurt like mortals, misunderstood and nursed petty grudges and killed each other over love like mortals.
I knew when Oree realized she was happy that things were about to go horribly wrong. Not that I can feel much sympathy for Shiny, but Oree had certainly earned some peace by that point. But the nature and reasons for Shiny's punishment left no room for such happiness. And I don't know how else the story could have ended. It made sense the way it was, though it was very sad.
Though I really enjoyed reading these two books, I'm a little hesitant about the third. I know who the POV character is for that one, and I'm not sure I'm in the mood to be in that person's head.
About ten years have passed, I think, since the first book. In the shadow of the city of Sky is another city, which people call Shadow. Here live thousands of merchants and artists and struggling poor and minor gods of this and that. And Oree, who's come from far away to live here. She's blind, though she can see magic, and she can see her own paintings.
I knew the texture of his soul. I knew the sound of him, like chimes. I knew that he owed Dateh and the New Lights a debt of pain and blood, and I wanted that debt repaid with all my heart.
She's a wonderful POV character, like Yeine in the first book. Oree is pretty much just trying to live day to day like most people around her--selling small things in the market, running into her ex-lover (a minor god of debt), staying out of the way of priests and the members of a thousand cults that have recently arisen. Naturally everything goes wrong.
There is a quiet yet giddy feel of discovery in the setting. Shadow is an interesting city, as Sky was. Oree encounters gods who can be sweet or grotesque (or sometimes both), each with their own personality. The Great Tree looms over it all.
It was easier, somehow, to give up my soul with him there beside me.
Emotions are the threads of this story. Love and longing, dislike and prejudice, the lust for power, the ache of loss, and an overwhelming thirst for vengeance. The kind of love that turns to hate can be rather devastating when it lasts a thousand years.
But I had spent too much time among godlings. I had seen that they lusted and raged like mortals, hurt like mortals, misunderstood and nursed petty grudges and killed each other over love like mortals.
I knew when Oree realized she was happy that things were about to go horribly wrong. Not that I can feel much sympathy for Shiny, but Oree had certainly earned some peace by that point. But the nature and reasons for Shiny's punishment left no room for such happiness. And I don't know how else the story could have ended. It made sense the way it was, though it was very sad.
Though I really enjoyed reading these two books, I'm a little hesitant about the third. I know who the POV character is for that one, and I'm not sure I'm in the mood to be in that person's head.