Jemisin, N.K.: The Broken Kingdoms
The Broken Kingdoms (2010)
Written by: N.K. Jemisin
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 411 (Trade Paperback)
Series: Book Two of Three
Why I Read It: Jemisin's debut, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, was quite engaging, and I was pretty enamored of its creation story and religious pantheon that I had no trouble seeking out this sequel as soon as I was able to get my grubby hands on it. I meant to read it sooner than I did, but life (and other books) gets in the way. However, because Erika at Jawas Read, Too! has selected The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms as the January title for her Women of Fantasy book club, I thought it'd be a good idea to read the sequel instead. Because I wasn't going to re-read a book I read in November for the challenge, and reading the sequel allowed me (in my own mind) to participate in spirit. :)
The premise: ganked from BN.com: A decade after the events The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, artist Oree, blind to reality but able to see magic, sells trinkets to tourists in Sky, a city filled with supernatural entities and happenings in a world slowly emerging from doctrinaire authoritarianism. After she discovers the corpse of a murdered godling, Oree is pursued both by fanatic religious officials looking for scapegoats and by the ruthless conspirators behind the murder. Hesitant, impoverished Oree is very different from Jemisin's previous heroine, politician princess Yeine, and she proves just as compelling as she investigates the murder and her own mysterious heritage.
Review style: If you haven't heard about the new and improved rating system, then check it out here. In short, you get two categories: what I liked and what I didn't. Spoilers? Yes, so feel free to skip to "My Rating" if you want to remain spoiler-free (or if you're in a hurry). I do want to point out that I do NOT recommend reading this review if you haven't yet read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, as I do spoil some major events of that particular title in this review.
What I Liked: As with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, I was quickly immersed in the world and the pages flew by rather quickly. Oree's narrative was easy to relate to, and she made for a fascinating heroine: I don't think I've encountered blind POVs before, and I liked the twist that she could only see with magic. I also found her ability to create/paint quite fascinating, and I wish we had seen more of it, though it does play a decent-sized role in the plot.
At any rate, Oree is a quite likable and sympathetic character. She's quite different from Yeine (book one) with quite different motivations. Even her relationships with the gods and godlings is different, and the romance that takes place in this book is no rehashing of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I like how Oree and Madding have to work out the fact of her mortality, and how once they work it out and decide it shouldn't matter, Oree loses him wholly and irrevocably. And then there's Shiny, who clearly is falling in love with her over the course of the book. I rather liked how this particular relationship played out, because Oree was never in love with him: in fact, he rather infuriated her, and they have to learn to deal with each other as well as learn to understand each other and rely on each other for the whole book. When they do hook up at the end, it's rather sweet, which makes the ending itself a little harder to deal with, even though I understand why it's happening. Itempas can't find solace so soon after his banishment, not after what he did and why.
Yet, we get a new side of what he did and why, and I found him to be a sympathetic character in spite of his arrogance. The fact his mortal lover killed his son was horrifying.
Also horrifying was the golem-like creature Dateh had become by eating so many hearts of the godlings. Especially chilling was when Dateh faced Oree with Madding's eyes.
Speaking of the gods, I rather liked learning about all of these godlings. Lil was especially delightful in a frightening way. And I did really like having a different character in which to experience Sieh, Nahadoth, and Yeine. It was good to see them from the outside in, from a character who had no allegiances to them.
I also liked learning Hado's backstory, in that he was the human version of Naha from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It's clever too that he's taken a part of his Nightlord's name (NaHADOth), but he's carving out his own identity. It makes me wonder: when Itempas returns to his full power, will he be able to leave the human shell of Shiny behind to return to Oree and her child (yes, I saw that coming)?
Speaking of that child, I like how both books have heroines who are telling their stories to someone else. In The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, it was Yeine detailing her life while dying and arguing with the soul stuck in her body. Here, it was Oree telling her story to her unborn child. The narrative was far less fragmented here, and while I didn't mind the fragmentation of the first book, the second book made for a slightly smoother and easier read.
Oh, and I liked seeing how T'vril in his role as the head of the family. I loved seeing him in power, and he made for a compelling character, even though we didn't see him that often.
What I Didn't Like: I actually wish Jemisin had taken Oree's blindness a little further. Maybe it's my fault that I don't read backcover copy (why would I when the book is something I know I want to read based on past experience with author's work?), but I didn't realize she was blind until the scene in the first chapter where the customer realizes Oree is blind. I then had to go back to the prologue and put the clues together, and frankly, I think those clues were a little too subtle. Yes, even Oree stressing in italics I could see was not a big enough clue, because I didn't know she was blind to begin with, so stupid me was like, why wouldn't you be able to see? Can you see a greater distance now or something?. Furthermore, as the book progresses, it's quite easy to forget that Oree is blind. Yes, there are some lovely moments that involve the other senses, but I wish that Jemisin had taken that further, so that anything that breaks through her inner darkness is startling in its own way, which we don't see unless the magic is particularly powerful. I know, I know: she's in Shadow, which is a city of magic, which allows her to see as a sighted person might, but it's almost too easy. :)
I also had trouble associating Oree's smell with the distinction of color. I mean, it's not like she could smell coal and knew the color was black (though I would've liked to have seen a flashback where she teaches herself colors). It was more like she'd pick up something, like a candle, and immediately know its color. Forgive me, as I may be misremembering those moments (because I do think there's one point where she does rightly know the color based on the object itself), but it came off as rather odd that she just knew. Yes, she's a demon and has a special brand of magic, but I wish that those moments that marked her as different had been treated with slightly more care so that the reader could truly treasure how special those moments were.
I did not care for the nickname Shiny. Too juvenile, even if that's how Oree saw him.
I've also discovered a pattern between these two books, and that pattern is that the climaxes both involve hearts and a lot of magical hand-waving that leaves me grasping for some kind of causal action to link to the effect. Because I'm really not sure how Oree's magic (she had her hands on Itempas's heart) jumpstarted his full magical power. We're led to believe that its Oree's belief in Itempas and his power than enables him to reach his full power at that time, but how can that be enough? If one person's belief was enough, then this curse wouldn't be possible, would it? Or was it the fact that by choosing not to eat Itempas's heart, Oree was condemning herself and therefore putting herself in mortal danger? Itempas then, due to the nature of his curse, had to save her, and her belief in him made him more powerful?
Probably. But I was still rather confuzzled by the way the climax played out, just as I was in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
My Rating
Like, Not Love: fans of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms will thoroughly enjoy this book. Like its predecessor, The Broken Kingdoms isn't without some hiccups, but it's an enjoyable read, and I give Jemisin a lot of credit for not writing this book as an immediate sequel, but rather its own story that takes place ten years after the events of the first book and that utilizes a different heroine. All that being said, while one could potentially read this as a stand-alone, I think such a reader will be more confused than necessary if they try, so my recommendation is to start with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and read the books in order.
The Broken Kingdoms is a stronger book. It holds together a little bit tighter because from the start, we have a rather clear mystery and we know what's at stake. Jemisin also does a great job of showing us the good and the bad that came out of the events in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and the title is apt in its own way, even though for an epic fantasy, this book is very focused in its setting and characters. But it's a solid fantasy that embraces a romantic subplot without making the romantic subplot the point of the whole book. There's a lot to enjoy here, and Oree is a wonderfully sympathetic character who's heroic as well. I'll be happy to read the final installment of this trilogy (titled The Kingdom of Gods: when's the release date, and more important, where's the cover art?), because I'm quite excited to see how this conflict between the major three deities is going to come to a resolution, especially since we see that in this book, the Nightlord is not so forgiving.
Cover Commentary: This one is so striking. I love the colors of blues and greens, and the city of Sky within the tree is quite eye-catching. I'm glad to see consistency too, with the face of a God in the background, but I do wonder which god or godling its supposed to be. Logic says Itempas, but the coloring the face makes me think of Madding. Whatever the case, the cover is lovely. :)
Next up: An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire