N.K. (Nora) Jemisin burst onto the genre publishing scene in 2010 with her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. In the years since, she’s concluded the trilogy that novel launched, The Inheritance Trilogy, and published another duology, The Dreamblood. When I initially read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms I was very impressed with everything Jemisin was able pull off – the broad strokes of the familiar genre elements which paralleled the vibrancy of her own unique voice. Here was an extremely powerful storyteller whose skills and imagination came together in great harmony. Turns out lots of other folks felt the same way since the novel was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards.
Gods in thrall to mortals, a savage brought to court, and a contest of royal succession. These are just three flavors in N.K. Jeminsin’s evocative, impressive debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Yeine, a distant relative of the Arameri ruler, is called from her home of Darre to play a part in her grandfather Dekarta’s game to determine who will be his heir. The two potential successors against whom Yeine is pitted are her cousins, brother and sister Scimina and Relad. While she is beset by the plotting of her relatives, she has more interest in finding out who murdered her mother a month before she was called to Armeri. In essence, she is our viewpoint character into a grand world of royalty, deceit and living gods.
Jemisin’s novel is told in Yeine’s voice – she tells us what it is like to be looked down upon by the elite of Arameri and conversely, revered by the gods. Her two closest confidants are T’Vril, a royal servant and Nahadoth – the Darklord and god of the night and Sieh – the eldest and trickster god. Her encounters with Nahadoth often straddle a tenuous line between life and death.
Sensual could easily describe Jemisin’s writing and because Yeine tells us her story. Though the novel deals with high-minded themes like succession, gods, and creation myths, Jemisin inhabits a wholly intimate feel throughout the novel and in the character of Yeine. The structure of the novel helps to punctuate the emotion and suggestiveness. Yeine will tell a captivating and intense sequence only to break away like a strongly inhaled breath to remind both herself and the reader of something about the gods or herself, before launching into the narrative once again. I found this to be an extremely compelling and effective way to convey the dichotomy of Yeine who was the young girl experiencing the story and Yeine the older woman who is reflecting on her own story.
The backstory of the gods resonates with mythic power, both recognizable and fresh. At the time I read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a then-recent novel I was reminded of, in terms of gods amongst humans in a opulent city, is Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker.
Jemisin crafted a beguiling novel both personal and epic, raw with emotion and refined with power. A wondrous debut, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms ends with satisfying closure and a tantalizing hint of a continuing story.
(A truncated version of this review originally appeared in the San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review in 2010.)
© 2013 Rob H. Bedford
Book 1 of The Inheritance Cycle
http://nkjemisin.com/
Sample Chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3
Orbit Books, 2010
432 Pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN 978-0-316-04391-5
www.orbitbooks.net
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
