The Broken Kingdoms

Starred review from September 27, 2010
New authors often falter when following up on a noteworthy debut, but Jemisin proves more than up to the challenge. A decade after the events of March 2010's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, artist Oree, blind to reality but able to see magic, sells trinkets to tourists in Sky, a city filled with supernatural entities and happenings in a world slowly emerging from doctrinaire authoritarianism. After she discovers the corpse of a murdered godling, Oree is pursued both by fanatic religious officials looking for scapegoats and by the ruthless conspirators behind the murder. Hesitant, impoverished Oree is very different from Jemisin's previous heroine, politician–princess Yeine, and she proves just as compelling as she investigates the murder and her own mysterious heritage. Returning fans will especially appreciate certain details, but this novel stands on its own and is worth reading purely for its own strengths.

November 15, 2010

Blind artist Oree Shoth takes in a homeless man out of kindness. Soon afterward, the desecrated bodies of murdered godlings begin turning up in the city, and Oree suspects that her guest, who appears as a shining figure to her sightless eyes, might be at the center of a conspiracy. Oree's attempt to unravel the mystery of "Shiny" (as she calls her guest) endangers her and those she loves. Set in the same world as The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, where gods dwell inconspicuously among mortals and kinship does not always mean love, Jemisin's latest novel can be read separately from its predecessor, though the two books expand on a fascinating world with an unusual cosmology. VERDICT Jemisin's talent as a storyteller should make her one of the fantasy authors to watch in the coming years.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.