I wore a jacket today. Of course, that’s the closest thing to exciting that happened all day.
I did finish reading N.K. Jemsin’s Hugo-nominated novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which was part of the voter packet, for the awards I ended up not voting on. I actually finished reading the novel last night, except for a couple of lines, but my e-book app suggested I still had several pages to go. Had I actually flipped those pages, I would have discovered they were taken up mostly with (fairly unnecessary) glossaries and other appendices.
Still, I liked the book. It’s inventive and entertaining, imagining not just a fantasy world but a cosmology of gods and gods imprisoned in semi-mortal form. I’m not rushing on to read the sequel — which, as I understand it, takes place in the same world but is a stand-alone book — but mostly just because I need a brief break from fantasy novels.
I started Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder this morning.
I’d been wondering if The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was worth checking out. It sounds interesting, but I think I’ve been avoiding it because it’s been over-hyped to me a bit, plus I figured it was going to be one of those series where you’d have to keep reading later volumes just to get the whole story. Maybe I’ll stick it on the wishlist, though.
Not to give too much away, but it feels like a pretty self-contained story. There’s a huge world for her to revisit in the other two books, but my understanding is they’re not direct sequels, despite some of the same characters. I read it because it was essentially free — with my supporting Hugo membership — but I enjoyed it. Her story is a twist on gods-walk-among us I don’t think I’ve encountered before.