The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

I feel... guilty for liking this book so much.

On the surface, I really shouldn't like this book. It is a Chosen One story, and really I'm bored to tears of those. It also involves a romance between a millenia old god and a 20 year old woman. I mean... am I allowed to like that given how much I've made fun of vampires? I'm not sure that I am.

I can't deny it though. I devoured this book and am eager for more. Jemisin takes tropes like those stated above and plays them with a unique edge and serious craft that make this Story with a capital S. For starters, Yeine is certainly a Chosen One (and that's clear from her first encounter with Nahadoth), but she is very different from the typical archetype being a dark-skinned barbarian woman trained to think of men as fragile creatures in need of protection (If you've read Digger, Yeine is a Hyena and I love that). Yeine walks through the tropes (I have come to avenge my mother's death!) and grows out of them (Actually... maybe I have no idea who my mother is and should take a bit of stock in the situation before I start pointing fingers). Yeine is a woman struggling for control of her situation and making the choices allowed to her, learning that there are more choices than at first appear. Her dialogue with her Enefa soul serves to elevate the story to a more cerebral, philosophical level. Yeine is young without being stupid, and she spends the story learning.

I also enjoyed the theology behind this story. Maybe it's due to having just finished The Curse of Chalion, but I really enjoy when the magic of a fantasy story is directly linked to a god. The gods here are a far more overt presence than in Chalion, but they are interesting adaptations of familiar concepts. The love triangle between Itempas, Nahadoth, and Enefa pulls from so many mythologies to become a thing all its own.

Nahadoth is a problem for me. Basically he's an impossibly gorgeous, tragically-flawed fixer-upper with a heart of gold. These people do not actually exist. That said, I kinda wouldn't have him any other way. The romantic scenes in the book are well-done, sexy, and not so numerous as to push the book into the Paranormal Romance genre. Nahadoth is an awesome, divine, and extremely fictional love-interest. That's how I'm going to justify loving his scenes. Sue me, I'm only human.

The ending is maybe a bit too perfect for my tastes, and again I have a little trouble with Yeine's messiah status, but I'll forgive it because the writing is so driven and solid.

Loved the book. Will definitely finish out the trilogy. Highly recommended to fans of Ellen Kushnr and anyone who likes well-written fantasy with a modern (and sexy) edge.