The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms: 02/05/17

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin is the first (and probably last) of the Inheritance series that I'll be reading. Yeine Darr is royalty from the barbarian branch of the family. Her mother left the capital to marry for love. Now suddenly, Yeine finds herself summoned to the palace and embroiled in a fight for ascension.

So within the confines of Yeine's family, we have the battle for the throne that's winding down in Neil Gaiman's Stardust. But there's also a supernatural aspect to Yeine's backstory, making her mother an approximation of Una and Rose Quartz (of Steven Universe).

Yeine turns out to be more like Steven than Tristan, in that she is the corporeal embodiment of something otherworldly. But that's really more a thing of last act of the book.

The book is 427 pages (or roughly 900 pages as an ebook), most of which is Yeine walking around the Tower of Babylon styled palace, either marveling at its architecture, reminiscing about her childhood, or having theological monologs with herself. Nothing is ever simply described. Nothing can just be the color ________. It was to be the color adjective adjective ___________ qualifier, some sort of metaphor tied in with a parable.

Here's the thing, she's a stranger in a strange land. How the expletive of your choice does she know any of this? She doesn't. She can't. She's making up stuff just to fill pages and sound self important.

Two stars

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