Title: The Killing Moon Series: Dreamblood #1
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Published: May 1, 2012
Genre(s): Fantasy
Page Count: 418
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and among the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers - the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe...and kill those judged corrupt.
But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh's great temple, the Gatherer Ehiru must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering innocent dreamers in the goddess's name, and Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill—or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.
N.K. Jemisin is an extremely impressive author through sheer scale of her world-building. She has so clearly put in the time and effort, covered all her bases—it shows in every facet of her books. The world-building in The Killing Moon is even better than in her Inheritance Trilogy, with its roots in Ancient Egyptian mythology and Freud’s dream theory. Though this book was not a huge success for me, I absolutely do not fault the author’s ability to create a setting and mythology that are plausible and authentic and, in spite of their real-world inspirations, ring with originality.
This is a sweeping, multi-perspective story with a grand focus: stopping an insane ruler bent on immortality. I don’t, personally, like the multi-perspective approach, but I do think that it was both necessary for The Killing Moon’s story, and also integral in setting up plot tension in the second half. I did, however, feel that though Jemisin does an excellent job with all of her characters and developing their motivations, I would have liked a bit more emotion from them. I think this is a problem I’ve had before with her Inheritance books—I see the outward results of internal conflict and thought, but I don’t follow the processes or subtle nuances of these people’s actions or viewpoints. It seemed to me like there was much going on beneath the surface of the characters that could—and should have been made clear, rather than leaving up to reader inference.
Aside from these issues, I think The Killing Moon was extremely good. Jemisin introduces readers to this entirely foreign world with ease but without boring exposition, and the plot is fast-paced without being rushed. The world itself is, obviously, extremely detailed and well thought out, all of which goes toward a highly satisfying read that, I think, stands out from most contemporary fantasy novels by comparison. N.K. Jemisin is absolutely one of the best fantasy authors I’ve encountered.
