The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. JemisinMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms came recommended to me by many different people. I'd heard so much about Jemisin's work, and had picked up her books to browse through them several times at the library. Honestly, I had my doubts when reading those first few pages, but I soldiered on and checked it out.
I should have listened to my gut on this one. The beginning of the novel had me intrigued - it's not an original set up (young person who is connected to the throne but unlikely to inherit suddenly is named the heir!), but the world is sufficiently complex on the surface that I wanted to find out more. Unfortunately, that complexity is almost deliberately induced confusion to make you think that there is more to the story.
Yeine, granddaughter of the king? emperor? dictator? unspecified ruler of the kingdom (is it one of the hundred thousand? I'm not sure, because while they connect the titular phrase to a historical event, it seems like the historical hundred thousand kingdoms would not be the same as the current ones), is summoned by her grandfather to court, where she is named one of his three heirs. Things escalate from there, with seemingly arbitrarily. For example, more than halfway through the book, we discover that one person (usually a low-ranking member of the family) is always sacrificed at the coronation ceremony - something no one has seen fit to tell one of the people (Yeine) attending the coronation, even though it would make a lot of sense since everyone wants her dead and actually expects her to be the sacrifice. We're also told, however, that the person who is sacrificed should be emotionally close to the one being crowned, which contradicts what was said earlier about the low-ranking family members (and Yeine isn't close, or low-ranking). So, not sure why that should make sense.
Yeine also makes friends with a lot of gods, whose hierarchy and systematic control are explained, but still fail to feel realistic. Her torrid affair with the god of chaos reads like something out of a horny teenager's journal, and it's especially weird because there are at least two moments where we're supposed to feel a lot of climactic tension because she's sleeping with him!! and if she sleeps with him she will probably die!! But... there are two of these moments, and she survives the first, so I'm not sure why the second is built up so much.
That problem is persistent throughout the book - the same beats are hit multiple times, the same important moments recurring in a barely different form or emotional arcs being reinscribed - and it's probably the book's fatal flaw. Otherwise, it's just a very typical coming-of-age fantasy novel from start to finish. With that flaw, though, it's a very boring coming-of-age fantasy novel that feels overdone both historically and even within the story itself.
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