The Ten Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

[avrelia]

I was happy to read this book. From the first page to the last page, even if there were happening horrible, scary things, even if occasionally I slowed down, something had kept me happy, something had made me run to the library to grab and devour the next book (just as happily), and now that something is making me jump in my chair waiting for the autumn release of the third book in the Inheritance trilogy. (The stories are self-contained, all right, they have different heroes and heroines, but they are all a part of the larger story). What was that something, then? The first heroine – Yeine, the short, dark-skinned warrior princess, the impossible odds she is playing, the emo gods she is dealing with (beside the humans with different degrees of meanness, ambitions and conceit. The wonderful world-building – the creation myth that feels both fresh and familiar, true. The language, not too fanciful and poetic, but rich and delicious just enough for my taste, the kind of language that does not obstruct the story, but makes it deeper. You just want more and more of it – and you get it, in the second book, The Broke Kingdoms: Another awesome heroine, Oree, a blind painter who can see magic, more emo gods, more horrors and heartbreaks and misery and beauty for everyone.