The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – N. K. Jemisin

Read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

Yeine’s mother had fled her life as the heir to the King of Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and gone north, where she had married Yeine’s father, ruler of the kingdom of Darr.    Yeine had known little of her mother’s life, but when her mother mysteriously dies, Yeine is summoned to the capital city of Sky, and made heir to her grandfather.

What Yeine doesn’t know is that the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms comes with the stewardship of the losers in the God’s war.     The Sunlord Itempas killed his sister, Enefa, and imprisoned their brother Nahadoth, the Nightlord, along with all of Enefa and Nahadoth’s children.     These gods and godlings roam the halls of Sky, waiting for the day they can revenge Enefa, and end their slavery.

This is a really amazing story.    It’s told in a slightly confused voice that occasionally skips around time, with the reason for that being made very clear by the end of the story.    I’ll confess, I didn’t catch on to the major twist in the book until it was pretty much about to happen.    As it was, I was reading this book as fast as I possibly could, so I could find out what was going to happen next.

I’m really happy because I already have the next book in the series (snagged them both at the Borders liquidation), and I can’t wait to see where the author goes with this world next.