Monday, January 23, 2012

Book Review: The Kingdom of Gods

Time for the long awaited review of the concluding book of The Inheritance Trilogy... The Kingdom of Gods. (Sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Broken Kingdoms, lest you forgot already.)

Overall, it made for a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, but taken on its own, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first two. The plot turns were quite good; I liked the characters; it wasn't that anything was done poorly... I just didn't like it quite as much, mostly because it was much darker and more depressing than the first two. It's still worth reading though, particularly if you liked the first two. And it does bring up some interesting theological ideas that fit in with the religion that is such a big part of the world.

It's told from Sieh's point of view (godling of childhood). And while it was interesting to see all the changes in his character over the course of the book, pretty much everything that happens to him sucks. And so this begs the question: How come it was so much more depressing when Sieh's life was terrible and fell to pieces, compared to when Yeine's or Oree's fell to pieces? Because in all honesty, all three viewpoint characters had really awful stuff happen to them. Maybe it was because the magnitude was so much larger with Sieh, or maybe it was because the stakes were higher. I have to think about it some more.

So: overall, definitely worth reading the trilogy, but be prepared (like I wasn't) for three books, each told from a very different viewpoint, each with a unique style and feel to them. This is not your normal trilogy. But it's still worth it, if only to bring a breath of fresh air into the genre of fantasy.

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