The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Book 1 (The Inheritance Trilogy): N.K. Jemisin: Amazon.com: Books

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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Book 1 (The Inheritance Trilogy) Paperback – Bargain Price, February 25, 2010

by N.K. Jemisin (Author)

3,038 ratings

Book 1 of 3: The Inheritance Trilogy

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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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.

Book 1 of 3

The Inheritance Trilogy
Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Orbit
Publication date

February 25, 2010
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
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Popular Highlights in this book

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We can never be gods, after all—but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.
Highlighted by 1,010 Kindle readers
They would keep what they had stolen, because making them give it back was too messy.
Highlighted by 303 Kindle readers
It is not safe to hate the Arameri. Instead we hate their weapons, because weapons do not care.
Highlighted by 303 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Convoluted without being dense, Jemisin's engaging debut grabs readers right from the start. Yeine desires nothing more than a normal life in her barbarian homeland of Darr. But her mother was of the powerful Arameri family, and when Yeine is summoned to the capital city of Sky a month after her mother's murder, she cannot refuse. Dakarta, her grandfather and the Arameri patriarch, pits her against her two cousins as a potential heir to the throne. In an increasingly deep Zelaznyesque series of political maneuverings, Yeine, nearly powerless but fiercely determined, finds potential allies among her relatives and the gods who are forced to live in Sky as servants after losing an ancient war. Multifaceted characters struggle with their individual burdens and desires, creating a complex, edge-of-your-seat story with plenty of funny, scary, and bittersweet twists. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Yeine Darr, mourning the murder of her mother, is summoned to the magnificent and beautiful city of Sky by the king, her grandfather. He names her his heir but has already assigned that role to both his niece and his nephew, so what he’s now done is set up a competitive and thorny three-way power struggle. Yeine, looking more like her Darre father than her Arameri mother, may be a baroness in the Arameri world, but in the matriarchal North she is a chieftain of her people. She is also terrified and fascinated by the gods who roam Sky, including the nocturnally monstrous Nahadoth and the childlike Sieh. In just a few days, Yeine discovers that every action has consequences when she inadvertently sets up Darre to be attacked and realizes that her role in the succession to the throne may be that of a human sacrifice. This complex tale of politics, assassination, racism, and gods too intimately involved in the lives of humans is a challenging read and a notable authorial debut. --Diana Tixier Herald

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007K4G2UQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orbit; Original edition (February 25, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches

Customer Reviews:
3,038 ratings

About the author

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N. K. Jemisin

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N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author who won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. She previously won the Locus Award for her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and her short fiction and novels have been nominated multiple times for Hugo, World Fantasy, and Nebula awards, and shortlisted for the Crawford and the James Tiptree, Jr. awards. She is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for the New York Times, and you can find her online at nkjemisin.com.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

3,038 global ratings

5 star		58%
4 star		28%
3 star		11%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Incredibly creative.

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2023

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Jemisin credits Octavia Butler as an influence and inspiration. I own several of the latter but need to dive in and read them. Jemisin's world building and illumination of cultural practices are stunningly original. I loved the characters, but had difficulty remembering how they were all related. ..and they are ALL related to each other!!

Not an easy book to digest, it may require a second reading.

Anthony E. Cardenas

The Twilight of the Gods

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2014

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It amuses me whenever I watch a sports event like basketball or football, and right before the game I see that each team huddles in the locker room and prays to God. Pray for what, I wonder? For God to somehow favor their team to win the game? Is that really what they are praying for? And what about the other team? They're in their lockers praying to God, too, probably for the same thing--victory over their opponents. And so at the end of the game, when one of the team's inevitably wins...does that means God favored them over the others? When we say "God bless America"...are we in essence implying that God should bless us but curse everybody else?

I mention these minor points of deity worship protocol as a way to frame my observations about N. K. Jemison's novel The One Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

TOHTK (as I will refer to it from here on out) takes a really big What If and plays with the idea in an imaginative and inventive way. So going back to the beginning of the review...let's say the President of the United States prayed to God to help America win the war on terrorism. And what if God answered him and said, "Okay, i'll help you." and then went about destroying radical islamic nations with His Godlike powers. Afterwards, what if the President asked God to make China and Russia surrender their nuclear arms and subject themselves to American rule. And God said yes and made it happen.

Now that's with a Monotheistic culture. Imagine taking this idea to the Polytheistic level of Ancient Greece, where someone like Agamemnon managed to get Zeus to kill Hera, and then trick the other gods of the Pantheon to be enslaved to House Atreus, who could then use Ares and Poseidon to rule the world, rely on Athena for wise council, and make Demeter bless their crops, etc. etc.

That is the basic premise of TOHTK, which deals with the political machinations of the Arameri family, who rule the world from their city in the clouds (known as Sky) with their arsenal of enslaved gods, called the Enefadeh. There is Nahadoth (the god of darkness), Sieh (the childlike trickster god), and Kurue, the goddess of wisdom. This power structure has been in place for thousands of years and the enslaved gods have been waiting for the chance to slip their bonds and be free again.

Their chance comes in the form of Yeine Arameri, a half breed descendant of the current emperor, Dekarta, who has been summoned to Sky and named one of three potential heirs to the throne. She is expected to fight for the right to ascend by somehow defeating the other two candidates, Dekarta's twin daughter and son, Scimina and Relad, who have lived in Sky all their lives and are expert in working the vast political machine of the Arameri dominion, and how to utilize the enslaved Enefadeh. In contrast, Yeine is little more than a barbarian in their eyes, and thus is considered the vast under dog in this contest.

And yet, Yeine immediately acquires allies from the Enefadeh themselves, especially the trickster god, Seine, who has a strange obsession with her.

The book is told, sort of, from the POV of Yeine, I say sort of, because the beginning passages are a bit odd and intriguing, a kind of unreliable narrative style that implies answers to mysteries which we don't even know exist yet. The world building is really good, mainly because most of it is kept vague and mysterious. There are just enough details to make you realize you are in another world, but not so much as to feel like you're reading a damn encyclopedia, which some authors unfortunately do. The characters are nicely drawn, though the "gods" can feel a bit one dimensional and iconic at times, though that may be expected as their physical presence are humanoid artifices, hiding their true bizarre nature.

Yeine's character, though being told from first person, can be a bit of a cipher sometimes, her motivations not entirely clear (or perhaps I should say, entirely truthful). But that should probably be expected given her circumstances, and her trying to stay alive in a place that is ostensibly out to kill her.

All in all, TOHTK was a fascinating and engrossing story with an intriguing and tantalizingly great idea at its core.

7 people found this helpful

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Overshadowed by Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, but a masterpiece in it's own right.

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2022

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This book (and the rest of the trilogy) don't get enough attention since the Broken Earth trilogy won so many awards. But it deserves more. It's a masterpiece of world building, character building, and story telling. Like any fantasy, it requires the 'willing suspension of disbelief,' but once you accept the premise these stories are compelling. Imagine a world where the Gods aren't just provably real, but where they might live next door, or where you might wake up and find one in your garden.

Each of the three is told in the first person, which is perhaps the most difficult technique to master, and each of the three is from the viewpoint of a different person (or godling). And each is a compelling story in it's own right. Jemisin was a master even in the beginning.

2 people found this helpful

Highly Original Theology and Dynamic and Engaging Plot

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2018

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Yeine is summoned to the majestic palace of Sky by her ailing grandfather, Lord Dekarta, as one of the potential heirs to the throne of the world's mightiest family, the Arameri. However, with an outcast mother, a barbarian father and her half-caste lineage frowned upon in the court, Yeine suspects this only to be a pretext for a much more sinister agenda.

She is soon proven right: the Arameri plan to only use her as cannon-fodder in the succession ceremony, a sacrifice she is prepared to make if it will mean the survival or her simple, yet immensely brave people, the matriarchal Darre. As she starts a precarious relationship with unpredictable captive god Nahadoth, sentenced to serve the Arameri after losing a war against his brother, Itempas, and as she gradually learns her way around the Machiavellian politics of the palace, Yeine may, after all, turn out to have a couple of tricks up her sleeve as well as a fleeting chance to survive the dynastic struggle.

Being Nora Jemisin's debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms does have some teething trouble, yet also shows more than just an inkling of her immense potential. The biggest strengths of the novel are its tightly-woven, involving plot and an immensely original theology and cosmology.

The origin of the world and the depiction of its deities are a good enough reason to read the book alone. Gone is the clichéd Abrahamic dualism of good and evil, of God and Satan. The opposition here is between light and darkness: Itempas is the god of day and order, Nahadoth of night and chaos. Neither of them is immanently good or evil (both of them demonstrate to be quite capable of both throughout the novel actually), they are quite simply different. The third major deity, Enefa, is, in turn, a goddess of all transitional states between the two, i.e. dawn and twilight, creation and destruction, life, but also death. Also of note is that the first god to come to being was Nahadoth, i.e. night and chaos predate day and order (which is also very logical when you think of it).

The world-building and writing are several notches down from the standards set by The Broken Earth, but are still extraordinarily good for a debut novel. The style is straightforward and unadorned, while the plot is a breathless roller coaster of twists and turns, with strong sexual undertones and cut-throat politics that can make House of Cards pale in comparison. The characters and, in particular, Yeine are extremely full-blooded and engaging, and the deities themselves are immensely interesting, even if not necessarily likeable. There are plenty of sexual allusions and scenes throughout the book, which are all rather explicit, but this ties in very well with the characters and the idiosyncratic theology. I am convinced the book would have suffered in their absence.

Finally a word about the other two instalments: Even if The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is part of a trilogy, all three instalments are rather self-contained, have different main characters, lack immediate connection and common conclusion and can be read more or less on their own. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the ‘gem’ in the trilogy, the sequels are readable, but hardly as involving or interesting.

38 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

James Tivendale

Written in an eloquent manner and is engaging in the way that it focuses on Yeine's relationships

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2020

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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms follows Yeine, a nineteen-year-old who, at the novel's beginning, is invited to visit her family seat by her grandfather Dekarta Arameri. The family seat is the city of Sky which is the heart of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and includes a beautiful and impressive floating palace. The reason for Yeine's invitation is soon revealed and is a surprise to all in attendance. Dekarta names Yeine as his heir which I imagine would have been an excellent revelation if two of her cousins weren't already assigned as heirs. To explain his thinking, Dekarta states the below, which sets up the story nicely as Yeine moves to Sky with her relatives, with its political disharmony, and with its Gods that walk the palace corridors.

“It is very simple. I have named three heirs. One of you will actually manage to succeed me. The other two will doubtless kill each other or be killed by the victor. As for which lives, and which die—” He shrugged. “That is for you to decide.”

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is presented in the first-person perspective and follows events over a couple of weeks after Yeine arrives in Sky. As a new addition, she has to figure out how things work in Sky, try to make friends and allies, whilst also trying to uncover how and why her mother was murdered which happened prior to her arrival. In addition, she has started having frequent strange dreams and visions.

My favourite aspect of this story was the Gods and the way they mingle with and converse with the inhabitants of Sky. There are four of these Gods and they are essentially prisoners of a great God War. They could be considered slaves or weapons and have to abide by the demands and requests of the ruling family. Yeine included. The way these Gods are presented is similar to the Gods in Malazan Book of the Fallen. I adore it in stories when the Gods have human qualities and characteristics all whilst being much more powerful, intimidating, mysterious and even mischievous. It's interesting here that the Gods, although still formidable beings, are restrained by mortals. My favourite scenes involved Nahadoth (the Nightlord) and his son Seih. The lore and history surrounding the Gods was a joy to read. This is presented to readers through Yeine discussing what she learnt in history books or from the mouths of the Gods themselves in conversations with her.

“We can never be gods, after all--but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an enchanting and majestic fantasy read. The novel is written in an eloquent manner and is engaging in the way that it focuses on Yeine's relationships with her family, the people of Sky, and the Gods. Her cousins make fine characters although I didn't see as much of her drunken cousin Relad as I'd have hoped, but I do have a soft spot for drunks in fiction. With a title as grandiose as The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, it was surprising that the majority of the events take place in Sky alone and we are witness to little that happens elsewhere. As Sky is the centre and controlling nation of these Kingdoms though, the title does make sense yet I do hope that in the following books of the series we do visit other cities and sections of Jemisin's crafted world. Overall, I had an extremely positive experience with this book, my first time reading Jemisin. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was an addictive tale that I devoured within four days and I am definitely planning to continue this series and to check out more of the author's back catalogue.

“In a child's eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.”

8 people found this helpful

Paul T.

Truly hard to put down!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2020

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A lot of books say that they're hard to put down. I don't always believe that claim, but it was certainly true in this case: I read most of it in one day. Well, to be pedantic, I did finish after midnight, and I took breaks for meals, but much of the time I was completely absorbed in this story.

The basics are fairly standard: young women from a barbaric kingdom is unexpectedly summoned to the capital of the Empire where she finds herself one of the potential heirs to supreme power and must quickly find her way through the complex and vicious palace politics if she is to survive.

But this scenario is played out in an original and vividly realised world where captive gods are the weapons by which the ruling family control the world. Yet the power games played by the mortals are just a veneer over the much deeper and darker machinations of those gods, involved in a struggle that goes back to the beginning of creation.

Jemisin's writing holds this all together brilliantly well, with a perfectly paced flow of words. She demonstrates clearly that there are no rules in writing, only guidelines, and if you're good enough and know what you're doing you can ignore them. Thus the the narrative includes unexpected and apparently random inserts of a different POV, occasional info dumps and sudden backtracks that in many books would totally ruin the flow and confuse the reader. Literary disasters, but Jemisin makes these just another part of the plot, another element of mystery, and far from being put off by them I found they added new depths to the writing.

So 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms' is a remarkably skilful piece of literary workmanship - and a wonderful story. I certainly want to read more from this writer.

7 people found this helpful

Eve

Well worth reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2022

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I came late to N.K. Jemisin, so I had already read the broken earth trilogy before this. That made me feel it was worth reading the rest of her works. This is not quite in the same league, but I think if this had been the first one I read I would still have wanted to read more, I do like the central character and I like the way that the other characters are flawed but, for the most part, not really horrendous. This gives a richness to the writing that is probably the reason I wanted to go on and read the second book in the trilogy.
One point to note is that although it is the first volume in a trilogy it does also stand alone with a clear resolution at the end, so if you are not sure where to start with Jemisin, this is probably a good one to go for. (bearing in mind that there are better books to come)

Georgiana89

Okay fantasy but nowhere near as good as the Fifth Season

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2020

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Having been blown away by the Fifth Season and its sequels, I decided to try this earlier fantasy novel from its author. Sadly, I ended up quite disappointed.

Despite some interesting ideas, this felt like a much more standard fantasy plot and the structure was far more straightforward. The main character was likable but a bit bland, and the villains were pretty one-dimensional. There were some really dark aspects, with references to paedophilia, cannibalism, and seriously grim torture, alongside a general backdrop of cruelty, oppression, and a touch of racism. I guess all that’s true in Jemisin’s better known work, but it felt more jarring here, perhaps because it didn’t particularly serve to illustrate any particular point.

The best aspect were the gods who had been trapped in human bodies, which was dealt with in an interesting and thoughtful way. Romance and sex played a big part in the story, with the focus on the main character and the god of night, who’s a bit of a devil figure. There’s basically nothing I love more than a good villain romance, and I loved the idea of finding one in a proper adult fantasy (as opposed to YA fantasy or adult fantasy romance). While there were some good moments, the romance didn’t quite capture my heart or my imagination.

Reading this book, I could see flashes of the imagination and writing style that came to the fore in future works, but this didn’t quite work for me. I’ll definitely by picking up Jemisin’s future works, but I probably won’t be bothering with the sequel to this.

Book Lover

Worth a read if you like epic fantasy and political intrigue

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2021

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This is the first in the Inheritance Trilogy, and I admit to being on the fence about picking up the next. I enjoyed the book; it’s a very good story of politics, centred around Yeine, stranger and “barbarian” to a new city, who is just trying to survive the power struggle between both herself and her cousins, and between the enslaved Gods and their human masters. Her plunge into the new world keeps pulling along right to the end, and I enjoyed reading – I suppose my reservations about picking up the next are more to do that I don’t feel I need to find out what happens next! It’s almost standalone enough, and the story and characters are richly drawn and compelling. Worth a read if you like epic fantasy and political intrigue.

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