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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

The Inheritance Trilogy, Book 1

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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Casaundra Freeman
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Summary

The debut novel from the triple Hugo Award-winning N. K. Jemisin, author of The Fifth Season.

Winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel.

Winner of the RT Reviewer's Choice Award.

Shortlisted for the Tiptree, the Crawford, the Nebula, the Hugo, the World Fantasy, the David Gemmell and the Goodreads Readers' Choice Awards.

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 - a palace above the clouds where gods' and mortals' lives are intertwined. 

There, to her shock, Yeine is named one of the potential heirs 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 a pair of 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. 

But it's not just mortals who have secrets worth hiding and Yeine will learn how perilous the world can be when love and hate - and gods and mortals - are bound inseparably.

The Inheritance Trilogy begins with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, continues in The Broken Kingdoms and concludes in The Kingdom of Gods.

©2010 N. K. Jemisin (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Magic Royalty
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I enjoyed the story and ideas. The narrator has a tendency to randomly give lots of characters accents from the south of the US though

Enjoyable story and concepts

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I'm a huge fan of the Broken Earth trilogy and hoped for something similar with this series. The writing is good, the world building is interesting and the characters and gods well rounded and engaging, there is just something missing. I think its maybe the pacing of the book, with a mind on writing a trilogy this just feels a bit padded out and with nowhere really to go until the finale, which is mentioned from near the beginning, the story just starts to repeat itself.

Disappointing

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I really wanted to like this book. The core theme of the book is one that sounded very interesting (I.e the power structures of old gods). Unfortunately, I found this thematically rich concept was particularly well explored. It felt like I was just being shown over and over again how unjust the system was with little thematic dialectic. That, in of itself, wouldn’t be a problem if it was stylistically explored. However much of the book is the rather bland main character being told things over and over again by more interesting characters. There’s so so much telling in this book it becomes exhausting.

The one thing that saves the audiobook is that the narrator is outstanding and is clearly having a whale of a time reading this to us. I kept up with it for so on the strength of the narrator alone.

Great Narrator

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Such a beautiful story I can't wait to read the next book. Reader is also fantastic and great story telling

mesmerising

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This is like a revision of religion and history and human behaviour and a resetting of the balance. It’s so good to hear a story that turns tables in many ways, and is still a fulfilling fantasy novel. The narrator’s voice is perfect for the job and shapes and colours the story as it deserves. It’s delicate enough to be YA yet delivers a stronger hit overall.

Great story and narrator

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