The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by NK Jemisin

[sophia_sol]

I picked this book back up because I want to read the sequels but I felt that would go better if I reminded myself what happened in the first one.

So this was my second time reading this book, and both times I found myself stopping halfway through the book for a very long break (like, multi-month), long enough to mostly forget what happened in the first half, before finally finishing the book. Usually I only do this kind of thing if I'm finding a book unusually stressful (eg The Tenant of Wildfell Hall or The Reverse of the Medal), but I don't find The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms to be that stressful, so there's clearly something else going on...? I said the first time I read this book that I loved it, and I think that's true, but it seems that there's something about it that doesn't work for me, even if I'm not sure how to articulate what.

I'll be interested to find out what I think about the sequels.

Comments

[ellen_fremedon]

I had a similar response, and for me I think it's that, while the worldbuilding is very rich, our view of it is compressed through Yeine's eyes, and she is laser-focused on her own concerns. It works from a characterization standpoint, but it left me very dissatisfied whenever I had questions about anything outside Yeine's focus.

I feel like it would actually have benefited from some big encyclopedia-type infodumps.

[sophia_sol]

Interesting! I'm glad I'm not alone in my response! I've been thinking about your reason why to see if it can help me diagnose my issue and I think you and I must have different reasons for our reactions, because much though I agree I'd be interested in knowing more, a laser-focused viewpoint is not actually a problem for me, I think. I appreciate the additional data point in my attempt to understand myself!

[skygiants]

This is probably my least favorite Jemisin that I've read -- obviously it's still good and interesting enough that I went on to read her other stuff, but the whole Nahadoth romance angle is sideways enough to my id that I've never felt a particular urge to reread it.

[sophia_sol]

Hmm, yeah, I feel like the romance might have had more of a chance of working for me because I do enjoy the general Nahadoth character type to a degree (dangerous but non-evil agent of chaos who cares about people nonetheless) but the book never actually succeeded in making me feel into the romance. Or into Nahadoth for that matter, now I think on it. Possibly it's that he's just so SERIOUS all the time, no sense of humour evident.

But honestly I took the romance as being a fairly background plot point and irrelevant to the main story, which.............now that I think about it is clearly my aro-ace goggles at work because in retrospect it's pretty important to the whole business of what's going on? Oops. Maybe my lack of being into the romance is a bigger part of why the book didn't hold my attention than I thought.

[skygiants]

I think that's the thing for me with Nahadoth too -- I'm fully ready to love a good charming chaos avatar but Nahadoth is too busy feeling sorry for himself to be charming! Make 'em laugh, Nahadoth, that's the ticket.

[sophia_sol]

Now I'm imagining a version of Nahadoth as played by Donald O'Connor and it's kind of an amazing thought

[melannen]

I read it once shortly after it came out and think I had to pause in the middle, too. Although in my vague memory I think it just came out as that weird combination of both very intense and yet sort of detached, and I just needed a rest? IDK - it was one of those books that I enjoyed reading a lot but not in a way where I wanted to read more of it, which is why I haven't looked up the sequels.

[sophia_sol]

OH, "very intense and yet sort of detached", that was exactly my experience, yes!!

[melannen]

There's a certain style of fiction like that which is always really well written, but leaves me feeling not so much stressed or exhausted as, idk, butter-over-too-much-bread? :D And Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was one of those.

[sophia_sol]

Hmm, interesting! I definitely see what you mean. Though the comparison that more came to my mind is to Robin McKinley, which isn't the same butter-over-too-much-bread thing but instead manages to feel detached despite seeming like it ought to be immersive.