Rhi. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rhivolution) wrote2010-06-05 12:07 am
rhivolution) wrote2010-06-05 12:07 am
On The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
So I sorta promised were_duck on Twitter that I would talk about N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which I plowed through at lightspeed the other day and really enjoyed.
I want to talk about it, badly...I just have no idea where to start. I suppose I could start with a couple of points and people can work outwards from there. Please try to keep comments at one journal (preferably Dreamwidth? idek) so that everyone can follow the discussion.
- Sieh reminds me a lot of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
unholynotions' GYO Hermes, to the point where I almost got them twisted in my head...and that did some shit to my brainspace, let me tell you, though it also meant I loved Sieh (despite my frustration with children overall). This probably will make no sense to anyone reading this. Sorry.
- I'd like to have seen some explanation of the incest taboo in the human Kingdoms, as it's just understood that Yeine is slightly thrown by it amongst the gods, but yet not to the point of finding it utterly disgusting like she finds much of Amn culture. Yes, I know it's almost a given in most cultures in our world...then again, maybe that would have been focusing on the wrong thing. Perhaps because of Enefa's soul?
- I appreciate the following: flawed but tough female narrator, realistic depiction of sexuality, enough twists that I had no idea what was going to happen or what had happened!, most excellent political struggles, worldbuilding, uncertainty of what is truth in the narrative.
- Really, I want to see more about the history of the Darre, as what's hinted at is very, very interesting. I'd like to think of it as natural consequences of a 70s-style feminist separatist utopia, but that might just be me being snarky towards said concept.
- The end seems a bit abrupt. I realise it's the end of the story, and I know we'll find out more secondhand in the later books, but I don't know. I feel like I wasn't given enough time to adjust to Yeine's transformation as her narrative style shifts, but that discomfiting is probably intentional.
- Did this almost read like SF to anyone else? I know it's fantasy, because it's magic and gods and whatever, but everything is so well-explained and...yeah. I can't really articulate why I got that feeling, but it's not a bad one.
were_duck on Twitter that I would talk about N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which I plowed through at lightspeed the other day and really enjoyed.I want to talk about it, badly...I just have no idea where to start. I suppose I could start with a couple of points and people can work outwards from there. Please try to keep comments at one journal (preferably Dreamwidth? idek) so that everyone can follow the discussion.
- Sieh reminds me a lot of
unholynotions' GYO Hermes, to the point where I almost got them twisted in my head...and that did some shit to my brainspace, let me tell you, though it also meant I loved Sieh (despite my frustration with children overall). This probably will make no sense to anyone reading this. Sorry.- I'd like to have seen some explanation of the incest taboo in the human Kingdoms, as it's just understood that Yeine is slightly thrown by it amongst the gods, but yet not to the point of finding it utterly disgusting like she finds much of Amn culture. Yes, I know it's almost a given in most cultures in our world...then again, maybe that would have been focusing on the wrong thing. Perhaps because of Enefa's soul?
- I appreciate the following: flawed but tough female narrator, realistic depiction of sexuality, enough twists that I had no idea what was going to happen or what had happened!, most excellent political struggles, worldbuilding, uncertainty of what is truth in the narrative.
- Really, I want to see more about the history of the Darre, as what's hinted at is very, very interesting. I'd like to think of it as natural consequences of a 70s-style feminist separatist utopia, but that might just be me being snarky towards said concept.
- The end seems a bit abrupt. I realise it's the end of the story, and I know we'll find out more secondhand in the later books, but I don't know. I feel like I wasn't given enough time to adjust to Yeine's transformation as her narrative style shifts, but that discomfiting is probably intentional.
- Did this almost read like SF to anyone else? I know it's fantasy, because it's magic and gods and whatever, but everything is so well-explained and...yeah. I can't really articulate why I got that feeling, but it's not a bad one.
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* the Thoughtcrime Experiments cover illustration
* Photo or video of Mary Anne Mohanraj; during WisCon, she did read "Jump Space" aloud during one of her GoH readings, so maybe someone took photos of that?
* Photo of Mary Anne & me from the previous WisCon by E. J. Fischer (I can get you a larger, higher-quality version)
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