
I’m not sure if it’s just down to my state of mind at the time of reading, but I didn’t enjoy this as much as its predecessor. Our environment and the things going on in our lives definitely affect how we consume media and I feel that possibly that I wasn’t quite in the right frame of mind for this book. It’s set about a decade after the events of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms as Oree Shoth takes in a strange, homeless man and, as a result, gets drawn into a plot that starts with killing godlings, but has much bigger implications.
We get to see many more of the godlings in this book than we did in the previous one. That one was focussed entirely on the imprisoned ones, but the others had been banned from coming to the mortal realm. With that injunction gone, they flock there. We see gods of hunger, shadow, debt and more. Jemesin plays them with a light touch; although they supported Itempas in the Gods’ War, they don’t necessarily love him. And speaking of, we get some insight into the mind of Bright Itempas as his time with Oree starts to help heal him. Despite his terrible actions as revealed in the first book, we end this one feeling pity for him, even as Oree does.
And Oree is an interesting protagonist. Not as hard as Yeine from the first book. She’s a blind artist who was never near the halls and corridors of power and finds it difficult to cope with everything that happens to her, although when push comes to shove, she does have the strength to deal with it.
While I wasn’t completely wowed by this book, I’ll still look out for the final book in the trilogy.