Title: The Kingdom of Gods Series: Inheritance Trilogy #3
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Published: October 11, 2011
Genre(s): Fantasy
Page Count: 613
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:For two thousand years the Arameri family has ruled the world by enslaving the very gods that created mortalkind. Now the gods are free, and the Arameri’s ruthless grip is slipping. Yet they are all that stands between peace and world-spanning, unending war.
Shahar, last scion of the family, must choose her loyalties. She yearns to trust Sieh, the godling she loves. Yet her duty as Arameri heir is to uphold the family’s interests, even if that means using and destroying everyone she cares for.
As long-suppressed rage and terrible new magics consume the world, the Maelstrom — which even gods fear — is summoned forth. Shahar and Sieh: mortal and god, lovers and enemies. Can they stand together against the chaos that threatens the Kingdom of the Gods?
This final installment in N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy is, like its predecessors, well-worth reading. The author’s world-building is inventive, her storytelling is always engaging, and her writing is fast-paced and easy to become immersed in. Overall, The Kingdom of the Gods was a highly satisfying fantasy novel.
Though this book is quite a bit longer than the other two books in the trilogy, I didn’t feel that it was needlessly lengthy. The plot wasn’t as tightly-packed and precise as it could have been, but neither did Jemisin seem to waste pages with unnecessary meanderings. I think that, overall, this was a book whose length was very much warranted, which is always nice. I do love very long books, but not when they don’t need to be that long.
The main character and narrator in The Kingdom of Gods is Sieh, a trickster godling who unexpectedly finds himself growing mortal. The book is basically about Sieh learning about why he’s become mortal and attempting to reverse the change, but there’s much more going on. The book’s plot is complicated enough that it can’t be explained in a single sentence, which is a good thing.
One thing that has always stood out about Jemisin’s books is the conversational style of narration they contain. I don’t really enjoy breaking the fourth wall, and at times I think an epic fantasy novel presented as an easygoing dialogue isn’t the best plan. However, the author is a talented author, so even though I’m not a huge fan of her approach to narration, neither can I find significant fault with it.
As far as characters go, I think I would have liked to see more from Sieh and his new mortal friends, Shahar and Deka. Their personalities made sense, but the dynamics between the three of them were very complex, and I felt sometimes that the text didn’t explore those dynamics as well as it could have. I really enjoyed the way the main characters in The Kingdom of Gods were interacting, but I would have liked more depth and perspective on it. Jemisin really does authentic relationships, but they seem to be too understated, for the most part.
I’m very satisfied and impressed with this series closer. The Kingdom of the Gods is well-written, imaginative fantasy, and N.K. Jemisin does an excellent job in crafting her story and setting. She clearly knows what she’s doing.
