The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
(INHERITANCE TRIOLOGY #1)
by N.K.Jemisin
Published Year: 2010
Page Count: 329 pages
Medium Used: Kindle PW
Genre: High Fantasy, Gods, Adventure, Drama, 2024-read.
Rating : 4/5 š š š š„°
I absolutely loved this. The writing is clear. I am drawn into her story like a moth to a flame. I start reading and find myself unable to stop. I think it will be easy to put it down but it won't. Jemisin writes like magic! And there is so much embedded within the lines .. a hallmark of her writing style i feel .. that I would read for a while and back it all up in memory before moving further. In my first reading, I didn't understand certain aspects of the story. I had many questions and I felt it is riddled with many holes. I thought the answers might be there in a Wikipedia summary section .. but I was only let down there. I spent much time in introspection and rehashing the different tidbits from memory. At last, most is clear to me .. almost 95 percent of the plot..
There used to be three gods - Bright Lord Itempas(peace and order, bright day), Nahadoth (chaos, darkness and Night) and their sister/lover Enefa (Twilight/dawn, calm before the storm,balance). They raged continuous wars amongst themselves and eventually, Nahadoth is chained as a servant to human kings - the Arameri family, Enefa is dead and her location unknown, Itempas becomes the sole God/Lord and guides the Arameri family in continuing as the lords of the world. The patriarch of the Arameri family is Deskarta and he is too old to continue. He invites his 19 year old grand daughter, Yeine Darr, from a financially impoverished kingdom of Darr to come take place as his heir. Only problem, she has to contend for the position with two of her cousins - Scimina and Relad. Who ever wins the vote becomes the victor to the throne. So she has to fight the skirmishes and fights with the two competitors and also unravel the reason why her mother got murdered four months ago. Her mother was the sole heir to the throne but she abdicated it when she married a nobody, her father from Darr.
Since it is mentioned that there are multiple competitors, I thought there will be games which each of the contenders have to participate in. Something like a regular Sarah J Maas or a Suzanne Collins novel. But it is different. Yeine has Gods on her side .. but they are enslaved and weakened through centuries of abuse and torture. Its only her endorsement that would have made either Relad or Scimina the heir but obviously even that can't go the normal way. Does she become the heir then? No! So who is the next ruler? Does Naha and his children earn their freedom from Irempass or no?
The rest of the story gives us a high octane mix of drama and fantasy. Is Itempas an ideal God? Hasn't he become dictatorial and too complacent with his sole God position? Who is Yeine ? Gods as slaves! Gods as evil, wicked and benevolent. Gods playing games against other gods. This is an eye opening read.
Do check it out. Though it is incomparable to her much later works which turned into masterpieces, this is a worthy read. I am right away picking the sequel!! Yes!
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