The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I put off writing this review, because I was pretty sure if I’d done it right away, it’d have been filled with all kinds of hyperbole. With a few days’ worth of distance, I can honestly say most of it would’ve been deserved. I’m going to keep this short and vague, because that’s the only way I think I can keep myself from gushing and rehashing this book in detail.
The story, while solid, feels like something I’ve read more than once (tho’ I honestly can’t say where, it just feels that way). A lot of the characters aren’t that novel, maybe even a bit stock-ish. But not all of them. There are four or five characters for whom the term “multi-faceted” doesn’t seem adequate, so that more than makes up for it.
But what truly, truly makes this book great is the way the story’s told–both the structure and the voice. As much as I wanted to find out what happened to Yeine and the rest, I didn’t want to walk away from the Jesmin’s voice and style.
Great debut novel. Sooooo looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.
I’m going to try really hard not to over-hype this book, so I have to be brief here. Read this novel.
This is pretty much all we’ve seen over the last week of Frodo. It’s mostly encouraging, but a little strange at the same time.
Thankfully, the Queen is the head of a covert operations team (or the fairy tale equivalent thereof) made up of princesses who rarely qualify as damsels in distress.
– I’ve read all but one or two of Buckley’s novels, and it’s fair to say he’s my favorite satirist. In 
– The latest (last?) installment in the Leo Waterman series, is definitely the darkest. About half-way through this novel Leo stops going about this the way he normally does and instead assembles a team of criminals to start a major sting/blackmail operation. It bugged me while reading it, and by the time it was over, it bugged me a lot. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it didn’t feel like Leo, more like one of Spenser’s weaker escapades. The romantic subplot really worked for me, as did the b-plot with the runaway, but the A-plot…eh. I really hope that Ford gets back to this series so I can see how he’s going to take things with Leo’s love life–part of me is glad to see him risking the status quo; but the other part of me really likes Rebecca as a character, and I’d rather see more of her than less. But mostly I want to see if Ford continues to take this series in the darker direction this novel heads down (and his newer series seems to take), or if he lets Leo return to being Leo. Personally, I hope he takes the latter route–I miss the fun Elvis Cole (not that I totally mind the darker Elvis), don’t want to lose the fun Leo, too.
– I really wanted to like this book–DeLillo’s one of my favorites. But this thing? Blah. This is DeLillo’s take on 9/11 and the aftermath. The scenes about the protagonist leaving the scene of the WTC attacks, and those showing how his son and his friends are reatcing to the attacks–those are really well done. And there were sentences, or paragraphs, that were great to read. But on the whole, this was a dreary novel, about dreary people reacting to horror in a dreary way. Worst thing I’ve read by him–which is strange, as many critics hail it as one of his best–who knows, maybe bluewoad’s rubbing off on me.
– Tropper delivers yet another fun novel about a young man dealing with death (and how often can you say that?). This time, Tropper’s protag married an older woman with a teenage son. A plane crash cuts short their life together and now the widower has to put his life without her together. Of course, the teenage son is a complication that he’s not ready for. Tropper’s characters frequently have a strong woman character as friend/love interest (no matter how taboo). This time a twin sister takes care of the friend part of the equation–and is one of the more interesting characters he’s created. The quirky disfunctional family is along for the ride–the father, of course, being the most screwed up (not that mom is that together). Tropper doesn’t miss a beat, hit a wrong note, or flub the rhythm once in this book. Charming, funny, bleak, and hopeful. Probably his best work to date.
– Wilson proves that you don’t have to be named J. K. Rowling to write children’s fiction that’s worth reading if you’re over 13. Good, imaginative, adventure story. Wilson’s got a natural (genetic?) way with words, that he’s honed well–would likely be a pleasure to read even if the plot and characters were weak.
– This one’s a “Young Adult” novel, which again, puts me out of the target audience. Ooops. Actually, I think the target is teenage girls, so I’m really out of the target. Really don’t care. Meyer can tell a story. Even if the story is an implausible love story about a loner teen girl and a vampire whose Byronic personality is on loan from a Bronte novel. Probably one of the better vampire novels I’ve read (and I seem to be reading a lot of them lately for no apparent reason).
Cracked this open for the first time last night, shortly after my shift started. At 6:25, when I had to take care of some end-of-shift chores, I had 100 pages left.
