More kingdoms and gods
Feb. 4th, 2019 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkAfter I recently read N.K.Jemisin's "The Kingdom of Gods," I decided to reread the first two books of the Inheritance Trilogy and then also the novella and short stories.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
I forgot about Viraine being Itempas! Aaaah! Now I want to reread all his scenes. So he's been in the palace as Viraine, masquerading as a servant (very high-ranking but still) for about two decades? All to be close to Nahadoth, spy on him, influence him? Creeepy. Did Nahadoth only figure it out when he killed Yeine, or has he known for longer? Oh man Itempas is so fucked up.
I like Yeine, but I also feel like I don't know her very well because we only see her in a time of crisis, which is a shame. I forgot how large of a role Kinneth played – so much fucked up family drama for humans, too.
The Broken Kingdoms
I liked Oree, and Madding and their relationship, and I was surprised how much I liked Shiny. The development of the worldbuildling worked well for me, and especially the further insights into the gods and the background of the war was great. Not an easy feat to make Itempas even vaguely sympathetic after what he did to the other gods and their children, but this book managed. (I'm now kinda curious about but mostly horrified by High Priestess Shahar Arameri.)
The first time I read this I didn't like it much, I don't remember why. This time I enjoyed reading it a lot, but it doesn't spark my imagination the way the other two books have.
The Awakened Kingdom (Book 3.5)
Shill was a lot of fun, and I liked Ia too, and Eino. The ending was a bit abrupt, I really wanted to know more about what Eino is planning to do next. The new Trickster, hm? Less childish than Sieh, but a fan of rule-breaking and tricking people, not a bad starting place. He wanted social change in Darre, but now as a godling it'll be difficult to balance that with his new position and nature. Who will be his enulai? It needs to be someone from Darre, since he wants to stay there (for now). He seemed to come to an implicit agreement of sorts with Mikna, but there's also still Lumyn. Though since Mikna is more influential maybe he figures she can be more help.
The other question is who will be Shill's, now that it can't be Eino, but at least she's less location-bound, and for now she needs to look after the godlings she just made.
The idea of the Compact is intriguing, that godlings have to be under the supervision of a demon to be allowed to stay on Earth. It does kinda make sense, and because the godlings are so powerful and also older it would be difficult to abuse the system. (Not impossible though. Thinking of people like High Priestess Shahar Arameri…)
There are so many implications of what Shill can do! She can turn mortals who fight to take back power that belongs to them (fun to judge) into gods - that's gonna be fun when that becomes common knowledge. I get the feeling there'll be a lot more revolutions in the future… Also, whoaaa about her idea to turn all mortals into godlings when this universe ends. That'll be crowded.
Shades in Shadow
Three short stories, one about Nahadoth after being imprisoned, one about Ahad, one about Glee. I liked them, they were nice supplementary material to the books – no big revelations, but a nice expansion of what we already knew or at least could make pretty good guesses about. I wasn't sure at first about getting a story from Naha's PoV – he is, after all, one of the Three – but it worked surprisingly well. (Maybe also because he's been forced into mortal form and still traumatized but still.)
I finally ordered the pretty paperback version of The Kingdom of Gods and then I'll reread that, and in the meantime maybe 100K Kingdoms again. (I want to read more books but I don't want to leave this world yet, it's a problem.)
(Latest story idea: Shahar Arameri accidentally travelling back in time and meeting High Priestess Shahar Arameri, while Itempas is staying with her and Shahar1 is raising their demon child, and Shahar2 knows what will soon happen and tries to prevent it. She'll probably call on Sieh, and… okay Sieh will probably just arrange for Shahar1 to have a deadly "accident", that would solve so many problems.)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
I forgot about Viraine being Itempas! Aaaah! Now I want to reread all his scenes. So he's been in the palace as Viraine, masquerading as a servant (very high-ranking but still) for about two decades? All to be close to Nahadoth, spy on him, influence him? Creeepy. Did Nahadoth only figure it out when he killed Yeine, or has he known for longer? Oh man Itempas is so fucked up.
I like Yeine, but I also feel like I don't know her very well because we only see her in a time of crisis, which is a shame. I forgot how large of a role Kinneth played – so much fucked up family drama for humans, too.
The Broken Kingdoms
I liked Oree, and Madding and their relationship, and I was surprised how much I liked Shiny. The development of the worldbuildling worked well for me, and especially the further insights into the gods and the background of the war was great. Not an easy feat to make Itempas even vaguely sympathetic after what he did to the other gods and their children, but this book managed. (I'm now kinda curious about but mostly horrified by High Priestess Shahar Arameri.)
The first time I read this I didn't like it much, I don't remember why. This time I enjoyed reading it a lot, but it doesn't spark my imagination the way the other two books have.
The Awakened Kingdom (Book 3.5)
Shill was a lot of fun, and I liked Ia too, and Eino. The ending was a bit abrupt, I really wanted to know more about what Eino is planning to do next. The new Trickster, hm? Less childish than Sieh, but a fan of rule-breaking and tricking people, not a bad starting place. He wanted social change in Darre, but now as a godling it'll be difficult to balance that with his new position and nature. Who will be his enulai? It needs to be someone from Darre, since he wants to stay there (for now). He seemed to come to an implicit agreement of sorts with Mikna, but there's also still Lumyn. Though since Mikna is more influential maybe he figures she can be more help.
The other question is who will be Shill's, now that it can't be Eino, but at least she's less location-bound, and for now she needs to look after the godlings she just made.
The idea of the Compact is intriguing, that godlings have to be under the supervision of a demon to be allowed to stay on Earth. It does kinda make sense, and because the godlings are so powerful and also older it would be difficult to abuse the system. (Not impossible though. Thinking of people like High Priestess Shahar Arameri…)
There are so many implications of what Shill can do! She can turn mortals who fight to take back power that belongs to them (fun to judge) into gods - that's gonna be fun when that becomes common knowledge. I get the feeling there'll be a lot more revolutions in the future… Also, whoaaa about her idea to turn all mortals into godlings when this universe ends. That'll be crowded.
Shades in Shadow
Three short stories, one about Nahadoth after being imprisoned, one about Ahad, one about Glee. I liked them, they were nice supplementary material to the books – no big revelations, but a nice expansion of what we already knew or at least could make pretty good guesses about. I wasn't sure at first about getting a story from Naha's PoV – he is, after all, one of the Three – but it worked surprisingly well. (Maybe also because he's been forced into mortal form and still traumatized but still.)
I finally ordered the pretty paperback version of The Kingdom of Gods and then I'll reread that, and in the meantime maybe 100K Kingdoms again. (I want to read more books but I don't want to leave this world yet, it's a problem.)
(Latest story idea: Shahar Arameri accidentally travelling back in time and meeting High Priestess Shahar Arameri, while Itempas is staying with her and Shahar1 is raising their demon child, and Shahar2 knows what will soon happen and tries to prevent it. She'll probably call on Sieh, and… okay Sieh will probably just arrange for Shahar1 to have a deadly "accident", that would solve so many problems.)
