The Broken Kingdoms

Set some ten years after The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms begins in Shadow, the city where godlings and humans live side-by-side while the humans try to figure out the new order of the world. Oree, a blind artist who sees magic, gets caught up in some...theological debates, as it were.

I am not the biggest fan of epic fantasy, but Jemisin's books draw me right in. The worldbuilding is wonderfully solid, as are the characters, and her plots just keep moving along. Love this series. ( )

I've been looking forward to this book for what feels like ages! Not really, I suppose, since I read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in July, but it felt like ages, and I was so excited to get this book. I preordered it, and nearly skipped a class to make sure I could get the parcel when it arrived! And I was so annoyed when I just could not find time, between university and travelling and writing, to read it properly. The fact that I took so long to read it, compared to normal, is nothing to do with its quality -- except in that I refused to read it when I was tired, because I knew it wouldn't be as good that way, and it deserved to have my whole attention -- but just to do with how busy I was. I really, really enjoyed reading it: whenever I did sit down to read it, fifty pages would be gone just like that.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms has a very satisfying end on its own, and I'm glad this doesn't follow on from it immediately, or with the same characters. Oree is an interesting character on her own account, and I was especially pleased with the fact that she has a disability: she is blind. Granted, she is able to see magic, and the gods and their children, but for the most part, for everyday, ordinary things, she's unable to see. And the story becomes just as epic as the first, and follows on from it in many ways, without being a direct continuation: we see some of the other side of the story which was the background to the first book.

One thing I really love is about how the world Jemisin's built is just so... inclusive. There are polyamorous relationships and same-sex relationships without any judgement or fanfare. They're just there, a fact of life. The whole background of the story, everything that happens, arguably comes out of the jealous love between Itempas and Nahadoth, two male gods, and that isn't judged, or made more important than anything else, in the sense that for the people of this world, for the gods, it's just a fact. Just as much as for us, say, the marriage and divorce of Prince Charles and Diana is a fact.

The Broken Kingdoms makes me care very much about what is happening, too. Oree's feelings are believable, and I share her sympathies, despite what happened in the first book. Having a character called Shiny was a bit incongruous and off-putting, even if it was just a nickname, but I got used to that, too.

I loved it. It's definitely worth getting. It doesn't suffer from being a sequel, and it's not just The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms all over again: it is a story of its own, too. It might even be possible to read the two out of order without losing much, I think -- obviously you'd have a whole different perspective on the first book, but I think the two complement each other rather than depend on each other. ( )

I can't remember exactly when I reread this -- July, I think. Not sure why I didn't review it again at the time. Anyway, I think for the sheer absorbingness of Jemisin's writing this would get five stars every time from me, even if reading it again I decided that I preferred the first book. The fact that she has a disabled main character, and takes a lot of care to make that realistic, really endeared this book to me the first time. I think there are a few cracks where it's not quite believable that she could really be blind and yet accept magical sight so easily, but for the most part, it worked for me.

The story itself... I agree with a review I read recently that mentioned that the writer was disappointed that Oree actually turned out to be super special in herself, like Yeine, when to begin with they appear like 'ordinary people' (what's an ordinary person?) caught up in events too big for them. It builds on what happened in the first book, while being a separate story, so in that way it fits perfectly, but -- I do wish there were more 'ordinary' fantasy protagonists who don't turn out to have the souls of dead goddesses in them, or to be princes, or the one who will bring balance to the Force.

Anyway, this book confirmed my massive love for Jemisin all over again. And the ending stomped on my heart a little. I love her narrators, too, and the little twists of why they're telling their stories -- it's a detail people don't always think to put in: why are we being told this story? Who is the audience? And I love that in the third book of the trilogy, narrated by Sieh, he says that he's not going to use those narrative tricks. There's a lovely self-awareness about that aspect of Jemisin's writing. ( )

Sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I liked this one better, partly because there was less violence, or at least less violence of a sort that bothers me. Also, I really liked Oree and her voice. [Aug. 2011]

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The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (5/5)
I can't say much about it, since it's part two of the trilogy and I don't want to give spoilers, but wow... ( )