2016 books: 17-21

[the_siobhan]

First of all, I want to publicly thank every single person who recommended NK Jemisin to me. Holy crap did I ever love her series. I absolutely devoured them and I intend to buy every single thing she ever publishes for the rest of my life. (For the record, the only other writer I've ever felt this way about was Barbara Kingsolver.)


         
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, and Kingdom of Gods by NK Jemisin
The setting is a world where Gods and magic exist. The Gods are as flawed as they are powerful; capable of love, hate, jealousy and pettiness. So are the mortals.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Broken Kingdoms are both told from the perspective of mortals who are interacting with Gods that have been imprisoned in mortal flesh. Kingdom of Gods is told from the perspective of a Godling (a Godling is the immortal offspring of two Gods) who is himself gradually becoming mortal. I wouldn't have thought I could get engaged in the fate of immortal, all-powerful beings, but I was completely sucked in. The writing is gorgeous, the plot is multi-layered, the characters are complex. I loved this series so much. And it definitely made me want to give up writing forever.

    

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor It's the near future. Climate change has submerged half of Manhattan. A mega-corp that specializes in biotech has multiple laboratories in cities across the world; each tower focusing on a specialty such as cloning, cybernetic body parts, and life extension. The tower in Manattan works on weaponized biotech and the story is told from the perspective of one of their experiments, a young woman who was designed to be a living, sentient bomb. It's quickly revealed that the experimental subjects are slaves; some grown in the labs, some imprisoned by the powerful corporation after it's discovered their victims have useful abilities. She escapes, but the company is relentless in its pursuit of it's former possessions. I wasn't crazy aobut this book. In spite of the science set-up it reads to me like a fairy tale for some reason. I also found the writing style very choppy. Not a bad book, but not a great one either.

    

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell you what this book is about. Years ago I picked this up but only made through the first couple of chapters. I find the writing really flat and most of the characters are really one-dimensional. Also, the whole "chosen-one" trope makes me bonkers unless it's done really, really well. Having said that, I powered through the set-up and I'm now at the point where I can see what made the series so popular. The world she has created is really engaging. And the whole "secret world hidden within the mortal world" thing is hugely appealing. I would have loved the shit out of this when I was a tween. I can also say with confidence that I can write as well as JK Rowling. So there's that.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

I re-read The Inheritance trilogy earlier this year. It's so good. I still haven't acquired The Fifth Season

[firecat]

Yay, another NK Jemisin fan!