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NK Jemisin - any good?


zelticgar

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From what I've heard, the First Trilogy is rather weak, despite my plurk friends singing praises of it. You either like it or you don't, so it's a risk and doubt I'll ever read them. I know nothing of the second set of books, but Broken Earth? OH MY LORD. That one, I think, is a safe bet. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I tried reading both Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Fifth Season.  In both cases, the worldbuilding was a bit too thick for my tastes and I lost interest pretty early on.  People have told me it gets better, but it might just not be for me.  I tried Fifth Season for the second time this past weekend, and spent the first twenty pages thinking about other books I could be reading instead.  That's never a good sign.

Oddly, the only NK Jemisin I've read to completion was her DBZ fanfic stuff from back in her high school/college days.  I enjoyed that a lot.

 

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Broken Earth was really good, but the first book was the most interesting and strongest out of the three. The other two weren't bad (and it picks up a bit in the third book), but the second one left me a bit cold. It felt like the trilogy ended really suddenly, too, like she was hurrying to wrap it up (and maybe she was, to keep it to only three books).

Admittedly, a big part of why I liked The Fifth Season was because I'm a world-building nerd and I love concept-heavy speculative fiction.

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She has rather strong views that some people do not agree with, but they can be ignored, mostly.

She's the only writer who writes in first person I have ever been able to read.

I like her books, all of them. The first trilogy she published but not the first one she wrote was the Inheritance trilogy. 10k Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, the Kingdom of the Gods are a trilogy in the loosest sense. As in each book can stand on its own.

 

 

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On 11/26/2017 at 10:12 PM, RedEyedGhost said:

I hated the first book of the 100K Kingdoms, or is that the name of the book and not the series?  I literally do not remember and can't be bothered to look it up.  So much so that I was sure I would never read another book of hers again.  And while I have yet to read another thus far, I have purchased and plan to read The Broken Earth. 

This is pretty much me. Except for the part about buying and planing to read The Broken Earth. Although, I might do that at some point. There's just too much other stuff out there that I would rather read before going back to an author I really didn't care for at all the first time around.

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1 hour ago, Andrew Gilfellon said:

She has rather strong views that some people do not agree with, but they can be ignored, mostly.

She's the only writer who writes in first person I have ever been able to read.

I like her books, all of them. The first trilogy she published but not the first one she wrote was the Inheritance trilogy. 10k Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, the Kingdom of the Gods are a trilogy in the loosest sense. As in each book can stand on its own.

 

 

If by "some people" you mean Vox Day....

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  • 2 months later...
On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 4:36 PM, Maithanet said:

I tried reading both Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Fifth Season.  In both cases, the worldbuilding was a bit too thick for my tastes and I lost interest pretty early on.  People have told me it gets better, but it might just not be for me.  I tried Fifth Season for the second time this past weekend, and spent the first twenty pages thinking about other books I could be reading instead.  That's never a good sign.

Oddly, the only NK Jemisin I've read to completion was her DBZ fanfic stuff from back in her high school/college days.  I enjoyed that a lot.

 

I have been very addicted to audiobooks, and realized last year that I should really get a library card and borrow them instead of buying. But I have all of Harry Potter and all of GoT, so I can listen to them when I want.

I am now on my 2nd borrowing of the 5th Season. The first time around I decided to listen to other books (like the crazed book buyer I am, I borrow too many at once) after listening to the first couple of chapters. Maybe the reader turned me off, Robin Miles, but maybe she gets better. But the enthusiasm here has spurred me on. I just have to finish listening to The Dragonbone Chair, a book I tried to read but bogged me down very quickly. The reader there, Andrew Wincott, however, is excellent. The third book, though looks ghastly, at 520,000 words. I bet he could have had a stronger editor. :P 

Ooops, good thing I looked up the readers. I thought I had an equal length of time on both books but now I have only 2 days left for NK's book, so I have put in another borrowing request. 3rd time lucky, perhaps? I have Dubliners to listen to as well.

 

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I’m not sure I could listen to the Broken Earth trilogy. I’m hardly the best person to ask for an opinion because I don’t listen to that many audiobooks, but I just think the unique narration doesn’t really lend itself to audio. But again, I generally prefer to read anyway so maybe it will work for you :) 

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