I most assuredly enjoy revenge stories. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms of N.K. Jemisin is a romance enrobed in revenge stories. Yes, stories, more than one. An abbreviated list of characters who gain revenge during the course of this novel: 

• Yeine.
• Nahadoth.
• Itempas.
• Enefa.
• Scimina.
• Kinneth.

This is the start of a trilogy and it does a superb job of showing us the status quo before smashing it to bits. It plays games with how the narrative is presented but less in the way of an unreliable narrator and more in the way of Corwin recounting the tale of the Amber princes to his son. To my way of thinking, it also resonates for me with Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows. These are positives.

Other positives are the convincing presentations of a handful of cultures, long-standing rituals and long-standing grudges in nuanced fashion which leave the reader feeling clever rather than hammer-struck; the aforementioned revenges, variously righteous and misdirected; tightly time-limited course of events which provides a sense of urgency to the narrative.

Set against those is that, at the core, this is the story of a taboo love between a wronged woman and forbidden fruit. In the end, true love (or perhaps I mean true life) triumphs, wrongs are addressed, the god gets the goddess and that was the part of the book I was less interested in.

In short: revenge good, love less so.

Who might like this

• People looking for a new lush fantasy world.
• People who want to smash a monotheism and restore pantheism
• People who like revenge.
• People who don’t hate romance.
• Divine beings trapped in mortal flesh and looking for an exit strategy

Who might not like this

• Misogynists
• Patriarchists
• Sun worshippers
• Imperial hegemonists
• Antimagic technocrats

Oh, and it’s got some clever appendices which give some more context to this story. Save those for last, though there is also a Glossary you can consult if you find yourself confused because you’re reading it in bursts or interleaved with something else.