I just finished reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by NK Jemisin.

I’ve read this book before. I remember scenes from it, small personalities, character bits that stuck in my memory. I must have read it a long time ago, though, because I don’t remember the plot. I reread it with a fresh eye, and discovered that it was a pretty good story, but that feeling of deja vu kept coming back to me, interrupting my flow. I don’t remember ever reading this book, but I do remember how it goes. Sort of.

I don’t think I’ve read more of the Inheritance Trilogy after this, but that’s mostly because this feels like an utterly complete story in itself. I’ve seen many, many books end in similar places, leaving me no choice but to never return to that particular universe, and I’m very interested to see where this story goes from here.

Anyway! Good book. I enjoyed the Broken Earth better, but that might be more because it matched my tastes rather than because of any inherent quality of the literature. This one has a lot of vague god-powers and emotions that I’ve never experienced being articulated in ways that I couldn’t quite relate to, but all of that nonsense is wrapped around a rock-solid family drama and political intrigue with a very interesting mythology, so I’m absolutely fine with that.