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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Jemisin)
So before reading this I read a bunch of reviews that really really liked this, and (I am a creature of contrariness) I think I would have liked it better had some of them panned it. It's all about the expectations. I try, actually, whenever I see a movie or read a book, to expect it'll be bad, because if it turns out not to be bad I'm really pleasantly surprised. (For example, the Abraham Long Price quartet got quite mixed reviews, and I very much liked it, though it did have its flaws and thus I can tell I might have thought worse of it had it had only positive reviews.) Anyhow, here's my take, and maybe someone else will like it more because of this review?
Okay, so, there were a lot of things it did right. Some fairly neat worldbuilding; the story of the gods was pretty interesting; yes, fine, it is the antithesis of racefail. The writing is fine, though the narrative is interspersed with Portentous Comments that I found offputting at first, but gradually we come to see the reason for them, which is pretty cool actually.
But, you know... I am kind of a sucker for characters I care about, or, failing that, characters that are at least just a little tiny bit sympathetic. In particular, I very much like to have evil characters who have understandable motivations. (Saruman and Denethor are, let's face it, way more interesting than Sauron.) Well, in this book, there's the protagonist, whom I could never quite get myself to care that much about, but who is at least more-or-less sympathetic, and everyone else. One minor character who is sympathetic but gets a fairly small amount of screen time. Gods who get a lot of screen time but who are, well, gods, and therefore by definition hard to sympathize with. And a whole passel of Eeeeevil characters who apparently have nothing better to do than sit around being evil and oppress people (meanwhile, lying, enslaving, murdering, torturing, and every other bad thing you can think of; I suspect the only reason there were no puppies in blenders around is that I don't think there are puppies or blenders in this world), for no good reason I can see except that they are Evilly Psychotic, which I don't really find a good reason. This goes on to the point where we eventually learn that the Eeeeevil characters' idea of a fun party is, literally, torturing someone -- it kind of made me roll my eyes, which I think was not the author's intention.
Now, I must admit the climax was cataclysmically (literally!) awesome and almost worth the price of admission. However, I probably won't be picking up the sequel unless someone can assure me there's at least one character I will care about. I may go read another Octavia Butler instead (I'm carefully rationing the ones left unread since there will be no more); if you want to read something that's actually interesting and nuanced and thoughtful regarding race and dominion vs. slavery, and violence as an offshoot of these things, that is what I would recommend.
Okay, so, there were a lot of things it did right. Some fairly neat worldbuilding; the story of the gods was pretty interesting; yes, fine, it is the antithesis of racefail. The writing is fine, though the narrative is interspersed with Portentous Comments that I found offputting at first, but gradually we come to see the reason for them, which is pretty cool actually.
But, you know... I am kind of a sucker for characters I care about, or, failing that, characters that are at least just a little tiny bit sympathetic. In particular, I very much like to have evil characters who have understandable motivations. (Saruman and Denethor are, let's face it, way more interesting than Sauron.) Well, in this book, there's the protagonist, whom I could never quite get myself to care that much about, but who is at least more-or-less sympathetic, and everyone else. One minor character who is sympathetic but gets a fairly small amount of screen time. Gods who get a lot of screen time but who are, well, gods, and therefore by definition hard to sympathize with. And a whole passel of Eeeeevil characters who apparently have nothing better to do than sit around being evil and oppress people (meanwhile, lying, enslaving, murdering, torturing, and every other bad thing you can think of; I suspect the only reason there were no puppies in blenders around is that I don't think there are puppies or blenders in this world), for no good reason I can see except that they are Evilly Psychotic, which I don't really find a good reason. This goes on to the point where we eventually learn that the Eeeeevil characters' idea of a fun party is, literally, torturing someone -- it kind of made me roll my eyes, which I think was not the author's intention.
Now, I must admit the climax was cataclysmically (literally!) awesome and almost worth the price of admission. However, I probably won't be picking up the sequel unless someone can assure me there's at least one character I will care about. I may go read another Octavia Butler instead (I'm carefully rationing the ones left unread since there will be no more); if you want to read something that's actually interesting and nuanced and thoughtful regarding race and dominion vs. slavery, and violence as an offshoot of these things, that is what I would recommend.