The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N. K. Jemisin
In N. K. Jemisin's premier novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the entire world is ruled by a single nation from the city of Sky. This nation is the chosen of the most powerful god of the world, who imprisoned his brother and three other younger gods and gave the ruler of the Arameri to use as tools and weapons. Enter Yeine Darr, a chieftan from the north and granddaughter to the king of the Arameri, who is summoned to Sky and unexpectedly made an heir. She must deal with unknown rules and relationships to meet her destiny.
Jemisin has been getting some good press for this book, and I can certainly understand why. She creates wonderfully believable characters, including gods, and almost everyone, even some of the real bastards, are wonderfully complex. While her writing style is not up there with the elites (I cannot think of a passage that was memorable), it is still very good.
Interestingly, as I was reading it, the thing that struck me was that this was the second book I've recently read that dealt with one god capturing and using the power of others; the other book was Scalzi's The God Engines. I wonder if Scalzi read this, much longer (412 pages vs. 136), book and was inspired.
There is one last thing about this book. It lists itself as "Book One of the Inheritance Trilogy." Which seems really odd, since the book comes to a definite end. I wonder what the rest of the trilogy is going to be about.
Jemisin has been getting some good press for this book, and I can certainly understand why. She creates wonderfully believable characters, including gods, and almost everyone, even some of the real bastards, are wonderfully complex. While her writing style is not up there with the elites (I cannot think of a passage that was memorable), it is still very good.
Interestingly, as I was reading it, the thing that struck me was that this was the second book I've recently read that dealt with one god capturing and using the power of others; the other book was Scalzi's The God Engines. I wonder if Scalzi read this, much longer (412 pages vs. 136), book and was inspired.
There is one last thing about this book. It lists itself as "Book One of the Inheritance Trilogy." Which seems really odd, since the book comes to a definite end. I wonder what the rest of the trilogy is going to be about.