In this brilliantly original debut fantasy, a young woman becomes entangled in a power struggle of mythic proportions. 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, … 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 Inheritance Trilogy The Hundred Thousand KingdomsThe Broken KingdomsThe Kingdom of Gods
The Inheritance Trilogy (omnibus edition) Shades in Shadow: An Inheritance Triptych (e-only short fiction) The Awakened Kingdom (e-only novella)
For more from N. K. Jemisin, check out:
Dreamblood DuologyThe Killing MoonThe Shadowed Sun
The Broken Earth The Fifth SeasonThe Obelisk GateThe Stone Sky
more
Fantasy, complex world building, and equally complex characters. Stock your reading space with all the comforts, because you aren’t going to want to leave until you finish this trilogy.
“The tales of the Arameri’s weapons are full of them slaughtering whole armies. There are no stories of crazed barbarian girls fighting back.”
There are now, and her name is Yeine.
How do I begin to review this marvel? I scrapped my original review because it was far too long, and you don’t want to read through my rambling for that long (hence why I’m wasting time now, obviously), but this isn’t easy to review! I’ll try to keep it short.
At first I didn’t get on with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, for a number of reasons. The writing style is very different to anything I’ve read before (more on that in a moment) and it confused me a little at first, but then I got used to it and loved it. There was a lot of information given on the first hundred pages or so, and I felt a wee bit overwhelmed with all this history. And there was no map. Jemisin has created a rather large world, many of the countries are mentioned several times, and the lack of a map meant that I couldn’t orientate myself properly.
Despite all that, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is now one of my favourite reads this year/ever.
Yeine has been elected one of three heirs to the Arameri throne, and she couldn’t want it less. Everyone is watching to see how she’ll embarrass herself and her heritage next, her cousin is trying to kill her (or at the very least emotionally blackmail her), and the Gods ask her to die so they might escape enslavement. Yeine is not impressed.
In Jemisin’s world, the Gods aren’t beings who live in heaven. They are slaves to the Arameri, their weapons, and they need Yeine to help them get revenge. She isn’t impressed by that, either.
Despite what she wants, she stays, and soon her struggle to survive in this power-hungry world becomes personal.
Yeine’s voice is a very honest, sarcastic one, and she interrupts the flow of the story to ramble a little, tell a related story to offer background info, or generally to make her dislike for her situation known. While her interruptions confused me at first I grew to love them pretty quickly.
The characters are excellent. There’s a family of gods, a power-mad cousin, and the truth behind Yeine’s mother’s murder. And – best of all – it had an antagonist I loved to hate! I’m beyond happy that she’ll get what she deserves.
The writing is fantastic. I made so many notes of phrases and paragraphs that stood out to me, and it made me want to write. Next time I’m in need of an inspiration surge I’ll be leafing through it.
Yes, I struggled in the beginning, and I wasn’t convinced that I’d enjoy it, but it has more than earned its place on my Forever Shelf!
Magnificent world-building in this fantasy novel, and really fell in love with the main character. She was strong and had a unique voice, which I really grew attached to. Once I started reading, was really hard to put it down.
Fascinating world building and a hate to love romance with a dark god!
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a fascinating take on the gods/humans conflict. Great twist at the end.
Brutal & beautiful & stunningly original. Enslaved gods, unsolved murders, a doomed narrator with a shocking secret — a great example of how talented authors are opening up the SF/F genre to do amazing things.
I absolutely fell in love with this book. The world-building was amazing and, despite the fact that the odds were entirely stacked against Yeine, the book never felt bleak or hopeless. I kept turning the page, spending several nights up WAY too late, and was delighted by both the ending and the journey there.