The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
2nd December 2020
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a superstate in a fantasy world, where the ruling family have done a deal with a god to keep themselves in power, enslaving other deities in order to subjugate the rest of the known world. Until of course the prodigal granddaughter appears, and things become more complicated than a simple succession.
This is the first of N K Jemsin’s books that I’ve read, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The classic outsider alignment works well to gradually introduce the reader to the world, and to explore and understand the other characters.
I’m not sure I really got it though. I struggled to find the characters particularly compelling before the initial set up, and it felt a bit like I was following a character with little or no agency. It was hard to like any of the secondary characters, and I didn’t particularly engage with the more fantastic elements of the deities.
Although this is the first book in a trilogy, I don’t find myself inspired to continue reading.
