The Broken Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy, #2)
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The Broken Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy #2)

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03  ·  rating details  ·  5,037 ratings  ·  574 reviews
Paperback, 384 pages
Published November 3rd 2010 by Orbit (first published November 1st 2010)
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I've thought a lot about why N.K. Jemisin's writing doesn't appeal as much to me as it should. Undoubtedly, The Broken Kingdoms was an infinitely better book than The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. You could almost see Jemisin grow as a writer and as a person, as the world becomes more vivid and more real to her than the scattered pieces of lore she inserted into the first book. The writing style and characterizations, too, felt smoother and more personal. All in all, The Broken Kingdoms was a bette...more
So when I heard that the sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was about a blind woman who could see magic and who was a painter . . .?

. . . I made A Face.

A blind woman who sees magic and paints. I mean, seriously, this is the disability equivalent of the magical negro, you guys, and my face was not impressed.

After reading the book, I’m mostly puzzled. Because it was a pretty good book, full of win on several measures, and I just didn’t care all that much. It’s about a fallen god, but not abo...more
Original review posted on The Book Smugglers

Warning: this review contains necessary spoilers for book 1 as well some minor spoilers for book 2. If you read book 1, you should be ok.

The day I started reading The Broken Kingdoms was the day I did not go to bed at all. I’ve been really busy lately with Work and Real Life and my reading time has unfortunately suffered as a consequence: I always used to read till about midnight every day but these days this is a rare occurrence as I tend to kaput way...more
I can't remember exactly when I reread this -- July, I think. Not sure why I didn't review it again at the time. Anyway, I think for the sheer absorbingness of Jemisin's writing this would get five stars every time from me, even if reading it again I decided that I preferred the first book. The fact that she has a disabled main character, and takes a lot of care to make that realistic, really endeared this book to me the first time. I think there are a few cracks where it's not quite believable...more
Merve  Özcan
Son 100 sayfa nasıl geçti hatırlamıyourm. Gene bitti ya . Ne çabuk bitiyor.


Yüz Bin Krallık'a bayıldığımı size her fırsatta söylüyorum, hatta elimden gelse kulağınızdan çekip, kitabı alana kadar sizi azarlayabilirim. O KADAR!

Yorumumu merak ediyorsanız burada bulabilirsiniz.

Neyse asıl konuya gelelim, yani benim saçma Yüz Bin Krallık takıntıma. İlk kitapta anlatılan Nahadoth ve Yeine'nin hikâyesi o kadar hoşuma gitti ki sabırsızlıktan ölüyordum. En son tüyapta haziranda çıkacak denilmişti ve...more
What a difference a book makes. When I reviewed Jemisin’s freshman work, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, I noted that while she had an eye for interesting subject matter, but was exceedingly hampered by a lack of practical experience. Just one book later, Jemisin has successfully cast off her reliance on an irregular narrative, and crafted a compelling plot that doesn’t rely on an enormous plot twist to wrap its story up. Broken Kingdoms pulls together the best aspects of its prequel, and discard...more
Alex Fayle
Although I’ve never thought about writing epic, god-infused, politcal/family intrigues, I love reading them when well done. Part drama, part soap opera, part mystery, and part commentary on society, all with a fantasy sheen. What’s not to love?

N.K. Jemisin’s debut novels The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Broken Kingdoms offer it all. And what’s more, they’re accessible because the main character is a (relatively) normal person thrust into something they neither understand nor particularly wa...more
Oh for goodness sakes, all of you people just commenting "comment" to win the Twitter thing.

I read this and Hundred Thousand Kingdoms back to back, and Broken Kingdoms is actually my favorite of the two. Oree's viewpoint provides a very unique counterpoint to Yeine's -- she has a community memory that fears Nahadoth and loves Itempas, she's urban poor rather than a country noble, she explores the city rather than the palace, she gets to know demigods before gods, she's experienced the Bright in...more
I often have difficulty liking series that have different main characters for each successive installment, but that wasn't so with The Broken Kingdoms. I absolutely adored The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and desperately wanted to continue the story of Yeine, Nahadoth, Sieh, and Itempas, but when I saw that the second story predominantly followed a new character (as well as the others, obliquely) I still couldn't demur. I picked up this book within a few hours of finishing the first book, and read...more
Maree  ♫ Light's Shadow ♪
This is just an amazing series. I love that the world is so complex (and that the story is too) but I never get lost or feel like the author is adding things just so the reader knows what's going on. The story really flows effortlessly and it's fantastic.

This is a world that has its gods and can interact with them rather than just worshiping them. But those gods have human faults as well. Oree is blind but can see magic, which is very present in the city of Shadow with its many godlings confined...more
Well, having drooled all over the first in this series, I didn't QUITE love it as much as the other, but the bar was set so high it would have been extremely hard to outdo my love for the first protagonist. I found myself feeling disloyal when I sided with this one occasionally, haha.

This book was very good though, I was definitely engrossed (except for a section where I got impatient with the character's plight, I don't want to spoil but I think anyone who reads will know what I'm referring to)...more
Unlike many fantasy series out there, the Inheritance Trilogy changes main characters with each book. This could be potentially bad for someone that may not enjoy the main character each time, and it is also a bit strange to be called a trilogy when there isn't complete continuity between each book. For instance, The Broken Kingdoms is set 10 years after The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and while events from that book are mentioned, it's not completely necessary to have read it to understand or en...more
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
Nov 20, 2013 Jayaprakash Satyamurthy rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Jayaprakash by:
Shelves: fantasy
There's so much godfucking in this novel.

I'm being facetious. But really, there is.

Also, the protagonist manages to become unconscious every few chapters so that we have a plethora of chapters that begin with her regaining her senses and taking in her surroundings. Who does she think she is, Philip Marlowe?

I'm being facetious again.

Things I liked: Oree's strange, magical vision. Blind, she can only 'see' magic and magical things. Imagine that! Picture it.

Oree's weird magic. Really magical an...more
Selin Kamaş
Kahretsin!!! Kitaba başladığımda kesinlikle böyle bir kitap okuyacağımı düşünmüyordum. Tabii ilk kitap çok iyiydi ve bir beklentiyle başladım ama bu umduğumun çok üstündeydi. Ah be Oree...

Neredeyse bu kitabı başka bir yazarın yazdığını düşünecektim. Çünkü konu nedense ilk kitaba göre çok farklı geldi halbükü aynı ortamın içinde olduğunuzu hissediyorsunuz. Her neyse.

Ana karakterimiz Oree. Onu daha ilk anlardan sevdim. Öncelikle kendisi kör. Ama büyü içeren şeyleri görebiliyor. İşin aslı kitaba...more
Ranting Dragon

The Broken Kingdoms is the second book in N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy, the sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (review here). In the first book, we followed Yeine, a warrior princess summoned to the great city of Sky amidst a fierce political struggle. In this sequel, we learn the aftermath of that struggle as we follow Oree, an artist living in Shadow, a city teeming with godlings. Oree herself is a mortal, blind except for her ability to see...more
Shannon (Giraffe Days)
This review contains minor spoilers for the ending of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

It's been ten years since the cataclysmic events that ended The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms , and the land has changed a great deal. The people don't know what happened that day ten years ago, only that an immense tree suddenly grew through the city under Sky, the Arameri palace, and through the palace itself - and that the godlings returned after untold years of exile. Godlings, and the Three, the original gods wh...more
Wow, this was amazing!

I was one of those people that loved The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and I wasn't sure how this one was going to compare. I had loved Yeine and Naha and Sieh and the others, and I couldn't imagine how Jemisin was going to pull off a book with Itempas as the protagonist after he'd essentially been the villain of the first book.

Well, she certainly does pull it off, and how!

In a way, Itempas is not a protagonist at all; or rather he is, but in a secondary way. This is, first and...more
Lazy Seagull
wOW THIS ONE WAS SO GOOD TOO I am so glad Hyacinthe made me read this series wow.

So basically if you're considering not reading this trilogy even for a second and you're the kind of person who likes kickass females and really well-developed characters and basically everything right about a YA fantasy book, YOU'RE WRONG.

Read it. Trust me.

I liked this book almost as much as the first one! And that's saying something, because usually sequels tend to drag! This one really didn't!

Oree, Shiny, Madding...more
Wendy Browne
The first book in the Inheritance Trilogy was told by its main character, Yeine, in recollection. I read it a second time almost immediately and was blown away by all the clues to the slowly, deliciously unravelled mystery that Jemisin so carefully and subtly wove into the story. You’d think reading a book a second time within that many months would mean boredom, but instead, it was an eye opening experience.

The Broken Kingdoms is a similar and yet entirely different experience that takes dramat...more
I’m going to keep this declaration of my love ‘review’ short and a rambling mess, because in my ‘this-story-is-so-good’ high (It’s a day later and I’m still basking in that special glow you get from reading a very satisfying book) I can’t think of anything bad (or coherent) to say.

WOW, THIS BOOK BLEW MY SOCKS OFF. It’s was a completely different story than its prequel, yet managed to complement it perfectly and I honestly can’t say which one I preferred. Before starting I thought I wouldn’t be a...more
Agh. This book ends on a tragically emotional cliffhanger that I definitely was NOT expecting at all. I was expecting a clever reversal like in Book One, but instead--nope. I know that's a spoiler, but it's one I would have appreciated going into it, so that's what I'll say.

The key brilliance of this book was getting me to fall for Itempas, who was a huge jerk throughout Book 1 and most of this book; which, well, I frankly didn't think it could be pulled off. Most of the rest of the book I saw c...more
Chiara (delicate eternity)
The Broken Kingdoms begins not too long after where The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms left off. How much time has passed exactly is not given. The Broken Kingdoms follows roughly a year in the life of Oree Shoth, who is blind in all ways but one. She can see magic, and in particular, God magic. Which makes living in Shadow (previously known as Sky the city), where godlings practically run rampant, pleasant. Until Oree takes in a seemingly normal homeless man, who shines brighter than the sun at dawn...more
Like the first book, this was a richly realized world with characters who did nothing without a future goal in mind. Set ten years after the end of Book 1, we follow Oree Shoth, a blind artist with a unique magical gift that draws the attentions of the wrong people in the city known as 'Shadow'.

The ending is no less bittersweet then the first book, nor does it not come without a form of sacrifice. Familiar faces appear from time to time, mostly with unfortunate tidings or actions, but Oree is a...more
Mar 23, 2013 Sunil rated it 5 of 5 stars
Shelves: own, 2013
In The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms , N.K. Jemisin established her world of gods and men. The Broken Kingdoms begins ten years after the events of that book, so to properly describe the setting and plot would require spoilers.

Jemisin gives us an awesome narrator in Oree, a blind artist who can see magic. It's a good ability to have when there are godlings about, and the story kicks off when a godling is found murdered. Who would kill a god? And why? And how? Also, does this murder have anything at...more
So...part two of the Inheritance Trilogy. This one takes place ten years after the events of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and is narrated by Oree Shoth, a blind woman from a remote region, who comes to the capitol, drawn by the magic of the now-free godlings. She's blind, but she can see magic. It's narrated in a similar way to the first book, with occasional interjections/explanations from the future, but Oree has a unique perspective.

It was interesting to see the events of the last book from...more
At the end of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Jemisin left literally a world of possibilities open. Somehow, amazingly, she narrowed those possibilities down to the tiny world of a blind street artist and left me completely satisified. Through the unseeing eyes of her artist, Oree, the world is a magical place full of color, texture, and emotion. Oree's dependence on the help of others and personal determination to fend for herself make her a wonderful representative of mankind's duality. She is...more
Anne Gray
I realized at some point this summer that I was putting off reading this book because I was so impressed by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and I was afraid the sequel would disappoint me.

It did not; in fact, i liked this book better than the first one. Both have vivid imagery but I found this one even more visually evocative, perhaps because different kinds of sight figure keenly in the plot, which is about a blind artisanwhi _can_ see, but only by the light of magic. I also thought the protagoni...more
I've been looking forward to this book for what feels like ages! Not really, I suppose, since I read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in July, but it felt like ages, and I was so excited to get this book. I preordered it, and nearly skipped a class to make sure I could get the parcel when it arrived! And I was so annoyed when I just could not find time, between university and travelling and writing, to read it properly. The fact that I took so long to read it, compared to normal, is nothing to do w...more
Tim Hicks
Can't wait for #3! This is well done. Book 1 showed us a fascinating world with great characters. Book 2 shows the same world about ten years later, and it's like looking at the same world through a window on a different side of the house. The key gods are still the backbone, but everyone else is new. The implications of the existence of godlings and magic are rolled out in an inexorable logical way.

The protagonist is blind but can see when magic is active. I did stall a few times when reading,...more
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More about N.K. Jemisin...
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy, #1) The Kingdom of Gods (The Inheritance Trilogy, #3) The Killing Moon (Dreamblood, #1) The Shadowed Sun (Dreamblood, #2) Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 50

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