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

What: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy #1) by N.K. Jemisin

Who: Orbit

When: February 25th 2010

How: Purchased.

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother’s death and her family’s bloody history.

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate – and gods and mortals – are bound inseparably together.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms follows Yeine’s journey from ‘barbarian’ of Darr to heir of the hundred thousand kingdoms, and a member of the Amameri family. Imprisoned in Sky, a palace above the Earth, Yeine is thrust into a world of magic, gods, assassination, evil, power, and secrets. As the choosing of the next heir looms closer, Yeine must endeavour to find out why she was summoned to Sky, and what this means for her, and for the rest of the world.

Okay, my synopsis is vague, but so is the one on the back of the book, and I do not want to give away too much of this fantastic story.

I am so confused as to whether or not to rate this 5 or 4 stars, and whether to put it in my favourites list. I think I will mull it over for a few days more.

I found The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in a second-hand bookshop. I didn’t have my glasses with me, and so I just decided to buy it because the cover was intriguing, as were the few words of the blurb that I could read. I picked this book up to read two days ago, and at first it was confusing. The narration is in a style all of its own (which I later loved dearly) and the fantasy terms were a little hard to follow. Ashamed to admit, I almost put it down.

And then, out of nowhere, I was absorbed into the story, the characters, the world, everything. I couldn’t put this book down. I loved that Yeine was nineteen; it is so hard to find books about girls my age, and I was supremely happy that Yeine was. I loved that she was strong, and knew what she wanted. I loved Sieh, and his childlike manner. I loved Nahadoth, in all his faces.

I must admit, there were some unnerving moments in this book, as it is set in a world far different from our own. But that was one of the reasons I loved this book as much as I did.

As I was reading, I was reminded of several books at once, and they are Giants of the Frost by Kim Wilkins, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, and The Study trilogy by Maria V Snyder. I love all these books dearly, and themes from all of them occur in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

I was disappointed to find out that The Broken Kingdoms; the next book in The Inheritance Trilogy would not be following Yeine’s story, but I am eager to read it anyway.

© 2013, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.