The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

by N. K. Jemisin

Published Aug. 7, 2010 by Orbit.

ISBN:: 978-1-84149-817-1

(165 reviews)

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history.With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate - and gods and mortals - are bound inseparably together.

9 editions

Pentapod reviewed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Torn between 3 and 4 stars for this one. I think I was given this as a gift, it's been on my shelf for about a year and I finally picked it up and read it within 2 days. It's a fantasy book set in a fairly generic set of fantasy kingdoms that could be in pretty much any fantasy world from Midkemia to Al-Rassan. Plucky protagonist Yeine is summoned back to her grandfather's kingdom (from which her parents were outcast) to be named one of his three heirs, who will be forced to fight over the final successor (the unsuccessful two presumably not expected to survive the fight). This starts off pretty much as expected as Yeine faces an attack almost as soon as she's named heir.

However, there are also a few more original twists that tempt me to give it higher than a 3 star. The way the author deals with the gods is fairly unique; after an early battle between the four main deities, one god was killed, two enslaved, and one came out on top and is now the main god of all the kingdoms. The two who were enslaved are trapped in human form and forced to be slaves in the ruling kingdom of the land. Part of Yeine's challenge is trying to understand their situation and how to manage enslaved gods, who obviously have an agenda of their own too. And, the ending also had a bit of a surprise twist, rather than being entirely predictable, and I do like endings that I can't see coming a mile away.

So, not completely captivated by the author yet, but enjoyed the light read. Probably won't go out of my way to hunt down the sequel but if i spot it on sale I may pick it up.

Jim Rion reviewed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A lovely, exciting and immensely human story. The world building is secondary to the passionate reality of the heroine, and though there is magic, and action, it is all lesser to the story than the woman at its center.

The writing was lovely, unpretentious yet sophisticated enough to rise above the average fantasy. It never descends into cliche, and only occasionally flirts with melodrama.

A great start to a series!

Strakul reviewed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book and a fresh take on a traditional fantasy story. We're all familiar with the story of a young man (or woman; though it tends to be a man) that is thrust into power as he/she inherits it or discovers he/she is a lost prince/princess, etc, etc. We're also familiar with the stories of all-powerful gods intervening in mortal affairs. Jemisin manages to take both aspects and merges them together in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. While there are more books to this series (a trilogy), the first feels very independent as the other two deal with different characters and plots. If you're interested in the history and development of the world, you can continue reading them, otherwise you end at the first and get a complete story.

A full review can be found in my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2013/12/book-review-hundred-thousand-kingdoms.html

Angrboda reviewed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

Review of 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

This is me giving up. I just can't seem to get into this story at all. To quote the wonderful Red Dwarf, the story is not gripping me. I'm in a state of non-grippedness. I'm completely smegging un-gripped!

It's not very often that I put a book away before finishing it, and if this had not been the first book of the series, I'd most likely have forced myself through it. As it IS the first of the series, however, I see no reason to pressure myself further when there are other books that I would much rather be reading.

I'm giving it a single star because I couldn't finish it, reserving the one star ratings for books I can't finish. In the future I might give it another go and start over, but not for a while I don't think.

arr reviewed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This is a good book. It's also not necessarily a book to my tastes!

It's generally quite well-written (with a singular notable exception a ways in that made me momentarily very confused about what the hell I was reading; sorry there are just some paragraphs you can't write about phalluses and not sound utterly ridiculous) and I think that most of the stylistic choices add to rather than take away from the narrative.

That said, a lot of this book is concerned with the Sexy! Danger! type relationship between the main protagonist Yeine and her primary love interest, and I just don't care about Sexy! Danger!

It bores me. Consequently, that entire plot, which is pretty central to the book, also bored me. It took a turn for actually engaging me towards the very end when its paradigm shifted substantially, but I probably wouldn't have made it that far at all if the book hadn't come with such high recommendations from various people.

If you're into the unpredictable, supremely powerful, dangerous and frightening yet intensely beautiful and sexy and compelling in spite of/due to his danger~ romantic hero thing, you'll probably be into this. And, as a bonus, unlike most narratives featuring that trope, the heroine is fully realized as a character and actually has agency.

But if you're like me and not into that whole scene at all, depending on your level of aversion it may or may not be worth it.

betty reviewed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Erk, I had a whole review typed up for this, and then my browser ate it. Let's see what I can do with a second chance.

I loved this book both for the voice of the narrator, and for the world building, which was complex enough that it is difficult to summarize the plot of the book without resorting to shorthands which would badly mislead. Let's see what I can do with the narrator, then.

Yeine is a girl, a woman by the laws of her people, who is competent and clever enough to know she is trapped, and utterly out of her depth. She is caught between two sides of a war between gods, between civilizations, and between generations, and the weapons are secrets she does not share, and a mad, enslaved god who may kill her. The stakes are her life, and the future of her people.

If …

unicorndeburgh reviewed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is quite wonderful, but I'm not sure quite why I found it so, or how to describe it. There are some very standard tropes -- for example, the young person arrives at the city as an innocent yokel, but turns out to be destined for greatness. In this case it's a she instead of the usual he.

I'm usually very impatient with powerful characters that can subvert reality, but in this case I quite happily tolerated gods. The protagonist, Yeine, is simultaneously smart, and tough, and needy. I found it suspenseful, and the language and imagery beautiful. The world is somewhat of the standard-issue feudal fantasy, but not quite.