Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

Title: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

Author: N.K. Jemisin

Information on series: First in The Inheritance Trilogy

Audience: Adult, though with appeal for some older teens

Rating (scale of 1-5, with 5 being highest): 3.5

TL;DR: A dark love story set against a complicated backdrop of political intrigue where the stakes are life or death.

Longer review: N.K. Jemisin's debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, introduces a complex world of political intrigue where it is deadly dangerous to be among the elite or too far outside the norm. Unfortunately Yeine, our protagonist, is a descendant of both the ruling Arameri and the "barbaric" Darre. Centuries past, the Arameri conquered the world with the aid of the god of light, Itempas, and suppressed all other religions- and gods. Yeine's mother gave up a position of power as the Arameri heir to marry a Darre man, and lived out her life in exile for her choice. But shortly after her mother is murdered, Yeine is called to the capital by her grandfather to join the competition to become his new heir.

This is not an easy read. It is dark and sometimes confusing. I almost abandoned The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms before I finished it, but I stuck with it from a combination of sheer stubbornness and the appeal of the twisted romantic subplot. I am a sucker for any variation on the story of Psyche and Cupid, though this is more of a hint than anything close to a retelling. Fair warning, this book does contain a sex scene and there are no warm fuzzies. Everyone has hidden motivations; if morality is a spectrum, most characters lean away from the good end of the scale.

While The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms stands well on its own, readers will probably appreciate seeing how the story of these characters and their world plays out over the next two books in The Inheritance Trilogy. There is a diversity of cultures to this world that we are first led to believe is a mono-culture under the strict control of the Arameri. That Yeine's Darre people secretly hold some of their ancient beliefs and practices along with their darker complexions is easily assumed to be an exception. Jemisin created a very detailed world for this series, and it was difficult to appreciate or (for me, at times) to even grasp all of the meaning in a single reading. By looking at the same world, and some of the same events, from different perspectives in the second and third books, I gained a much clearer picture of the larger story.

That said, the murkiness of this book, where I was never quite sure of the motivations behind various characters actions or what their goals were, fit the themes of balance between light and dark or order and chaos rather well. That Yeine is trying to navigate this precarious, ill-defined space in her identity as outsider and elite, serves to emphasize the theme. This is one of several themes that Jemisin continues to examine and expand on throughout the series. I may've picked up The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms for a romantic fantasy, but I love The Inheritance Trilogy for a complexity that continues to make me think.

~Sarah, Carnegie-Stout Public Library

Read alikes:

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: The first book in her third series, which was just published in August, The Fifth Season also features unique worldbuilding (the main magical power is literally worldbuilding or at least a power over mountains, earthquakes, etc.), and a main character whose powers make her an outsider.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik: For readers who are looking for a more typical (thought not entirely predictable) romantic subplot, this might be a good fit. I also might just really like this book (see previous review here).

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson: A novella length story featuring an unusual female protagonist trapped by the ruling elite. A faster-paced story with more of an emphasis on action, but still featuring well developed, complex characters that touches on some interesting questions of identity.

Genre Study Review: A Study in Silks

Title: A Study in Silks
Author: Emma Jane Holloway
Series: The Baskerville Affair
Audience: Teen / New Adult
Rating: 5
TL;DR: Evelina Cooper, Sherlock Holmes’ niece, must discover a murderer while concealing her magical talents from London’s ruthless Steam Barons.

Longer review:
Imagine yourself a young Victorian woman who has been raised in a traveling circus, taken in by an estranged grandmother when your parents died, and discovered that you have magical talents in a society that still burns witches at the stake.
Evelina Cooper has many secrets which would get her ostracized from “proper” London society, should they become known. Fortunately, she has an understanding best friend in society darling Imogen Roth, daughter of Lord Bancroft.
It becomes very hard for Evelina to keep her secrets, however, when a servant is viciously murdered at Lord Bancroft’s estate. When Evelina finds the body, she discovers that the murdered woman was carrying an envelope with traces of magic on it. Determined to protect Imogen and her family, Evelina conceals the evidence, and plots to find the murderer.
Things get much more complicated when Nick, a close friend from Evelina’s circus days comes back into her life, and Tobias Roth, Imogen’s older brother, realizes that Evelina might be more than just his little sister’s best friend.
Evalina’s investigation leads her into a world of murderous marionettes, a manipulative evil sorcerer, and the cut-throat politics of the Steam Barons of London. Even with the help and protection of the renowned Sherlock Holmes, Evelina may be out of her depth.

Author’s Website: http://www.emmajaneholloway.com
Read alikes:
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason


Reviewed By: Teresa Dahlgren, Waterloo Public Library

Review: Catteni Series by Anne McCaffrey

Title: Catteni Series (or Freedom Series)

Freedom’s Landing

Freedom’s Choice

Freedom’s Challenge

Freedom’s Ransom

Author:  Anne McCaffrey

Information on Series: Four books, I’m reviewing them as a whole. 

Audience: Adult with YA appeal

Rating: (scale 1-5 with 5 being the highest): 4

TL;DR:  Fast-paced series about a strong female protagonist abducted by aliens, dropped on a planet with other captives, and their fight to survive.  Uncomplicated world building, surprisingly upbeat and at times romantic.  A good introduction to the writings of Anne McCaffrey with nary a dragon in sight.  

Longer Review: Kristin Bjornsen was kidnapped by the alien Catteni and forced into slavery on the planet Barevi.  Kris did not meekly accept her fate, she stole her master’s flitter and escaped into the forest.  After months of living, and surviving on her own, she sees what looks like another Catteni hunting party in flitters flying towards her location. When she looks closer, she realizes on of the flitters is being pursued by the others.  Kris saves the Catteni in the pursued flitter, knocks him unconscious, and then tries to return him to the main city on Barevi. They are both captured by the Catteni, put to sleep by some drug, loaded into spaceships and then dropped, along with hundreds of others, on yet another planet.  This, my friends, is when the story really begins. 

Initially the other dropped people (some human, some not) want to kill the Catteni, Zanial. Kris and a handful of other drops see the wisdom of keeping a Catteni alive for the time being.  Zanial can provide insight as to what their purpose is on this new planet.  Plus, Kris feels somewhat responsible for his situation even though his race is completely responsible for her situation. Kris is a good person despite what has happened to her. The Catteni deposit slaves on a planet and if they survive then the planet is safe to inhabit and colonize.  If they don’t survive, the Catteni move on and drop slaves on another planet.  The Catteni civilization operates as a caste system, and Zanial is of the highest caste.  A Catteni has never been dropped before, let alone one of his ranking.  Zanial, being pragmatic, says “I dropped, I stay”.  He accepts his fate and helps the rest of the drops survive. 

The new planet they land on isn’t quite as uninhabited as the Catteni think.  Yet another alien race, one nobody has heard of, uses the planet as a giant farm. There are cow-like creatures, terrifying native birds, and something that sucks all the garbage into the ground at night keeping the planet clean.  The garbage cleaner doesn't exactly differentiate between "garbage" and anything else on the ground.  When Kris and the others were first dropped, many were sucked into the ground by the garbage cleaner before they woke up from their drugged state.  The first three books chronicle the survival and colonization of this new planet, dubbed Botany, and Zanial’s desire to spark a rebellion amongst his own people against the alien race that controls the Catteni.  Yes, the Catteni are acting under orders from a superior race, the Eosi, and Zanial isn’t too happy about being under their thumb. The problem is, Zanial is stuck on Botany with no way to communicate with his fellow Catteni dissenters.  Or is he?

This was my first foray into the writing of Anne McCaffrey.  The Catteni series provides some interesting world building without being totally overwhelming.  There is a huge cast of characters and with each book that cast just gets bigger and bigger.  I found that if I just focused on Kris, Zainal, and a few other main characters, I didn’t get too lost or bogged down by who was who.  The books were written in the late to mid-1990s (with the exception of book 4) so I enjoyed the pop culture references.  These books are tame enough for the YA crowd, but they may or may not get some of these references.  

The fourth book, Freedom’s Ransom, was written about 4 years after the third. It provided a nice wrap up to the story while still leaving some questions open to the imagination.  There wasn’t much action and a whole lot of talking.  The story could have easily ended after book 3, but there wasn’t any harm in finishing off the series.  If you are curious about how Earth survived the Catteni invasion, then book 4 is a must read. 

The Catteni series is about life on other planets and the will to survive. The drops are of different races, but they quickly learn that by working together they will have a better chance of survival. Zanial, as the lone Catteni, manages to make the best of his terrible situation.  Imagine being the only member of the race that forced everyone else on Botany into slavery.  By accepting his fate, and following another leader instead of lording over the others, he is accepted as one of the group.  I love that Kris is a strong, capable, well respected female character. She stands on her own two feet and her strengths are applauded and recognized by her fellow drops.  

I read all four books in about a week making them feel like one long novel which is why I chose to review them as a whole.  After Freedom's Landing, each subsequent book contains a preface that summarizes the events from previous books. That would come in handy if you read the series over a long period of time and can't quite remember what happened in a previous book.  

Read Alikes:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

While on a mission to the planet Gethen, earthling Genly Ai is sent by leaders of the nation of Orgoreyn to a concentration camp from which exiled prime minister of the nation of Karhide tries to rescue him.   

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

An expert at simulated war games, Andrew "Ender" Wiggins believes that he is engaged in one more computer war game when, in truth, he is commanding the last Earth fleet against an alien race seeking Earth's complete destruction. 

The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro

Kamoj Argali is the young ruler of an impoverished province on a backward planet. To keep her people from starving, she has agreed to marry Jax Ironbridge, the boorish and brutal ruler of a prosperous province. But before Argali and Ironbridge are wed, a mysterious stranger from a distant planet sweeps in and forces Kamoj into marriage, throwing her world into utter chaos.

Amy Muchmore, Carnegie-Stout Public Library