The Killing Moon (Dreamblood, #1) in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Apr 09, 2020 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy-and-sci-fi, egypt, gods-known-and-unknown

The Reaper knows that it is an abomination. If it had a soul left, it could mourn this.

I love Jemisin’s writing and ideas in all her books, but this is not her strongest. The story of deep dark political & mystical intrigue is fascinating, but it’s so weighed down with all the Egyptian-esque details that I kept getting lost. I finally figured out that there’s a glossary and I started using that, and it helped a bit. (The glossary is not perfect - for example, Kinja is mentioned 55 times in t

The Reaper knows that it is an abomination. If it had a soul left, it could mourn this.

I love Jemisin’s writing and ideas in all her books, but this is not her strongest. The story of deep dark political & mystical intrigue is fascinating, but it’s so weighed down with all the Egyptian-esque details that I kept getting lost. I finally figured out that there’s a glossary and I started using that, and it helped a bit. (The glossary is not perfect - for example, Kinja is mentioned 55 times in the text, but his name is not in the glossary. I also wished for a map - why didn’t this book have a map??) But any fantasy novel that requires regular checks of the glossary is not a well-crafted fantasy novel. I suspect if Jemisin had been less committed to making this Egyptian-but-not-actually-Egyptian, this would have flowed much more naturally. I never really felt like I saw the world she was creating here.

I also take issue with how male-centric this story felt. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, of course, it’s just personal preference. There are several POVs: Ehiru, a master Gatherer (a man), Nijiri, his apprentice (a young man), General Niyes of the Prince’s army (a man), Charris, another leader in the Prince’s army (also a man), and Sunandi, a diplomat from a neighboring country (the sole woman). It’s not so much that most of the POVs are men, but also that almost all of the supporting characters are also men. This is a world full of men!! All the women must be hiding in harems somewhere. (And yet, Sunandi doesn’t seem to struggle with sexism, she’s shown respect as a diplomat.) Also, despite the amount of time we spend inside the character’s heads, I still didn’t really felt like I knew them.

Reinforcing this male-centric world is the list of four magical humors: dreamblood, dreambile, dreamichor, and dreamseed. Yes, “seed” as in semen. We are meant to believe that their main god figure is female, but there’s no dream-milk???? (and yes, I found these names ridiculous and therefore distracting - how can I take someone seriously when they are nattering on about ”dreambile”???)

This was a rare miss from Jemisin. I probably won’t bother reading the sequel, Shadowed Sun. ...more

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Jul 14, 2015 Roman Colombo rated it really liked it

I might read this again. The audio reader wasn't great, and it's too heavy for an audio book without a powerful reader. But there is still undeniable beauty in it. ...more

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Mar 07, 2018 Lianne rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, 2018

I fell hard for the Broken Earth trilogy, so I was expecting the same from this one -- and for it to pull me out of the slump I've been in since the beginning of the year. It was a lot to ask of one book! I did enjoy this one, although it took me over 3 weeks to read, but not quite as much as the Broken Earth books. I love how Jemisin researches multiple different areas -- here, ancient Egypt, magic systems, and psychology, among others -- and weaves them seamlessly together to create wholly uni ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Jess rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018

3.5 stars. Kept my interest and fascinating world building but not quite as nuanced or rich as The Fifth Season.

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Mar 30, 2013 Kim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, speculative-fiction, desert-island-books, poc-protagonist, 2013

I think I liked this book better than the Inheritance trilogy. It's a more straightforward story, which was good (I got lost sometimes with the Inheritance trilogy) and it's clearly a later work, with a little more polish and cohesion. But really, Jemisin has quickly become an author that I will read anything she writes. ...more

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