Review: "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" by N. K. Jemisin

Quick Summary

Type: Novel, Book 1 in Inheritance Trilogy

Genre: Fiction, fantasy, romance

Blurb: "After her mother's mysterious death, a young woman is summoned to the floating city of Sky in order to claim a royal inheritance she never knew existed in the first book in this award-winning trilogy from the NYT bestselling author of The Fifth Season." Read Time: 2 days

Rating: 3.25 stars (round to 3)

Review

This book, as opposed to the first of the Dreamblood Duology, started off quite slow. At first, I was not at all intrigued by the premise: Yeine travels to the royal palace to duke it out with her cousins for the right to rule the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Even after she was introduced to the gods living in the palace, I wasn't particularly interested.

Things turned around for me when I learned two things: first, Yeine wasn't actually meant to inherit anything, she was a sacrifice; second, she was the host for the soul of Enefa (one of the Three). From that point, I was interested in seeing how the story would play out.

Some things were obvious. For example, Yeine's relationship with Nahadoth or T'vril's eventual (implied) ascension to the 'throne' of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Some things were still a surprise (for example, Viraine's true identity or Kurue's allegiance).

The ending of the story made sense, but it felt like something was lacking. I don't know what - for all intents and purposes, all the loose threads were nicely tied up - but something was lacking. The ending wasn't as satisfying as I would have hoped.

I don't think this was N. K. Jemisin's strongest story. I far preferred the Dreamblood Duology. That being said, it was still an enjoyable read, especially during the middle of the book.