Book review: "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" by N. K. Jemisin

Last weekend I started (and finished) reading "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" by N. K. Jemisin. I've had this book in my wish list for quite some time - ever since it was published in 2010. It got several award and nominations for best newcomer and etc., and its premise sounded very interesting. I was looking for something new to read after finishing "School Rumble" manga, and decided to finally give it a go.

(a very good front cover!)

"The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" is told from a first-person point of view, with voice of Yeine. Yeine is a granddaughter of Dekarta Arameri, a supreme ruler of the world. Now it is important to introduce the setting a bit. Several hundred years ago, a war started between Nahadoth, god of chaos and dark, and Itempas, god of order and light. Itempas was and punished Nahadoth, with some of his offspring, to server as slaves to his highest servant, priestess Arameri, and her successors. The Arameri, using gods as formidable weapons, managed to conquer the whole world set a government with them at the top - and becoming decadent and eccentric (as in polite word for crazy) in the process. Now let's get back to Yeine. Some twenty years ago her mother Kinneth, a designated heir and very proper Arameri (cruel and manipulative), abdicated and left court to live with her lover from backyard and barbaric land of Darre. After her sudden death, Yeine is called to court by her grandfather where she is suddenly pronounced as one of three potential heirs, together with two her cousins. To become a real heir, one of them must defeat and force another of them to accept them as heir - which usually includes the death of third one. So Yeine is left to learn fast about gods, history, her family and manipulation, because the last hour of her grandfather Dekarta is coming fast.

I must admit that Jemisin came up with some really great concept and setting. The gods-part is based partially on Hinduism (light-dark-shadow; order-chaos-balance), but also on old Greek myths, where gods have human personalities, are petty and vengeful, mingle with humans and so on. But on the other hand, she finely succeeds in making Nahadoth and others strange, inhuman and magnetic. This is also true for the Arameri and the whole court - they are not someone you would want as a family, but they are intriguing. I did have a filling that she maybe should have made them even stranger - being a member of family whose word is absolute law on whole world should result in some strange personalities. Also, is this Arameri having access to ultimate weapons some pun/metaphor with Americans and nuclear bombs?

Plot is an interesting mix of power struggle, detective story and exploration about Yeine's family and history. Much appeal of it comes from the narrator-type storytelling. Yeine is not exactly an unreliable narrator, but she is prone to wandering and skipping. The pace is fast and intense - Yeine is not really a passive person. Expect some big turn-overs at the end - not something you will expect when you start reading.

Other characters are also interesting, although I could appreciate more development, but since this is a first-person POV, it can be expected that all focus will be but on Yeine and her interests. Sieh's character seems quite familiar, but I can't remember from where. I am intentionally skimming on descriptions because this would result in spoilers.

Jemisin's writing was fast and good. There are some violent and some sexual scenes, but nothing over the board. I liked the Nahadoth/Naha thing. There was some humor, streaming from Yeine's observations, but this is in general a dark book, I think.

Although I had some great time with this book, there are some small surprises. When I bought the book, I expected a first part of epic-fantasy trilogy. But this is not really a trilogy. "Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" is a self-contained book with definite ending. Two sequels, "The Broken Kingdoms" and "The Kingdom of Gods", are taking place in the same setting and after these events, but there is nothing in this book that asks for sequel. And second thing, the book was really short: I finished it in two afternoons and one evening.

But these are not serious objections, just misplaced expectations. "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" is a very good and unique book. I would recommend it to everybody - it has unique setting, clever and interesting narrator/main character and some fast and surprising plot.

Movie review: "Immortals"

This Saturday I went with my girlfriend to the movie to watch "Immortals". We decided this on impulse, so I didn't know anything about the movie, except that it was somehow connected to the Greek mythology. In front of the movies, I notice a movie poster saying something on the line "made by the same people who made 300", which was a turn-off for me, because I didn't like "300". More so, before entering we met two friends, of whom one claimed the movie was terrible, while other said it was OK. So you can expect that I wasn't very thrilled for the prospect of watching it.

"Immortals" is very, very loosely based of few Greek myths. We have King Hyperion (marvelously played by Mickey Rourke), a crazy and violent ruler, who decided to take revenge on god because they didn't answer his prayers. His revenge consists of finding the Epirus bow and using it to free the Titans, who will then presumably kill the God. Since he is not on best terms with humanity also, he gathered an army, turned them to blood-crazy torturers and went postal all over Greece. We then have Theseus, who is a simple villager trained by Zeus (my friend who didn't like the movie argued that Theseus is son of Zeus, but there was no implicit claim on that; one of his co-villager said that his mother was raped by some villager and that Theseus is a product of that rape). After attack on his village by Hyperion and his sentence to salt-mines, he will there met a Prophetess Phaedra, who will mark him as Greece's only hope for salvation. With a band of fellow prisoners, he will start a journey to stop Hyperion and his mad plan...

Some spoilers ahead...

Though, it is not a spoiler to say that Theseus will win. Let's face it: "Immortals" is just this kind of movie when that main character is a good guy and he has to win. If you accept this fact and see this movie just as an action hit with cool 3D effects, you can have a good time watching it. Plot is not overly predictable, actor are not too bad (except Rourke, there is no more stars) and action is good. Just be prepared to large amount of blood, gore and violence.

But, have they changed one small detail in movie, things could have been much different. If Hyperion and Titans won (and I don't buy that vision at the end), I would say this is the best movie I watched in last five years! I mean, for the whole movie Hyperion is on the go, killing and raping everybody, having the largest army ever: he looks unstoppable. And then we have this one guy, good with sword, but just one guy. Care to guess who will win? Theseus was down, with knife-hole in his stomach and severely beaten by Hyperion. If in that moment Hyperion stick his knife in him and calmly walked away, I would have stand on my feed and give it a clap. Creators of this movie had a perfect chance to make a biggest surprise since "The Sixth Sense".

As it is, "Immortals" is a decent enough action blockbuster with 3D effects. Lower your expectation and have a good time with it.

Movie review: "Clash of the Titans"

I have been thinking about watching "Clash of the Titans" for some time, now. I like Greek myths in general, and I vaguely remember the original as being a nice movie (though, I was a kid when I watched it). On the other hand, comments on the Internet were not very grateful about the movie. But, with no idea what to watch last weekend, girlfriend and I decided to give it a try.

I was ready for Hollywood's butchering of the original myth, but I must say I was surprised (in bad way) about the extreme of it. There is original Perseus and Andromeda story behind it, but buried very deep. In this version, Perseus is son of Danae and Zeus, but the reason for Zeus' advance on her was because Zeus wanted revenge on her husband Acrisius, for leading a rebellion against gods. Later, after his mother, foster-father and sister end dead, Perseus gets involved with the city and king of Argos, who is current leader of rebellion against gods. He will be semi-involuntary sent on quest to get a head of Gorgon, which is the only thing that can stop the Kraken, a creature that is threatening Argos. There are lots of crazy things inserted in the plot, but the Djinns were most offending. There is also a travel to underworld, giant scorpions, Hades' plot to overthrow Zeus, flying lizard-men...

I would stomach all this if the movie was any good, but it's not. For me, it was just a jumble of scenes with not much connection between them. Effects were nice, and action too, but it was all a bit overdone. Characters were one-dimensional and uninteresting and plot was surprising only in meaning that things didn't follow logically.

I presume I am a little biased here, but "Clash of the Titans" really isn't good. It wasn't worst movie ever, but it really failed to keep me interested. I can't really point anything that can attract a viewer to it.