This book was actually pretty great, but I knocked off a star because it didn’t have a full plot. I really think that even books that are part of a series should have some form of resolution to them so what you just finished reading feels satisfying. The Fifth Season just felt like it stopped on a random chapter. Not cool. I would recommend people wait for the next book to come out before reading this one. The premise of The Fifth Season is great. […]
The weakest book in the series, but still pretty great.
Here are two seemingly contradictory statements regarding this book: 1) This book is the weakest in the series; and 2) It’s a good ending for the series. I don’t think these two statements actually contradict one another, but they’ll give you a good idea of my mental state during and after reading this book. I think this book had two things working against it that weren’t quite overcome in the execution. First, it’s the only one of the trilogy whose main character is not mortal*. The […]
My favorite book in an awesome series.
I really, really liked the first book in this series, but I loved this second book. It just got to me, man. The plot, the characters, the setting . . . hit me right in, like, three of my sweet spots. Spoilers for book one follow in this review. (You can actually read all three of these books separately, but you’ll definitely get the most out of all of them if you read all three.) The Broken Kingdoms takes place ten years after The Hundred […]
I don’t even know how to describe this in one sentence!
You can always tell when you come across something and know you’ve never quite read anything like it before, because afterwards, your brain won’t know quite how to file it away. It has to create new paradigms to fit stuff into. I was in that stage for quite a while after reading this weird, sensual, dark, joyful book. Our main character Yeine lives in a world where belief in the gods is not an option. The gods walk among them. It’s a world where one […]
Yet another final book in a trilogy that can’t stand up to the greatness of the first two books
I wish the love affair could have lasted, but the final book in N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance series was such a disappointment for me. There was a good book hidden in those 600+ pages, but The Kingdom of Gods needed a few more drafts and some massive editing to get there. I can’t figure out what happened with this one. The first two books of the series were so tightly plotted with clear character arcs. This one just meandered forever with the main character resisting […]
The kingdoms may be broken, but this series is still perfection
This series keeps surprising me. Jemisin certainly has a knack for taking stories in unexpected directions. It’s hard to say if I liked this one better than the first book. I think it may be a tie. They’re both great reads in different ways. The Broken Kingdoms is more melancholy, but not in a depressing way. The plot is still compelling and the new characters are just as interesting as the first batch. The Broken Kingdoms jumps ten years forward into the aftermath of the […]