Hundred Thousand Kingdoms read along, part 3!

Posted by: Redhead on: December 16, 2013

• In: N.K. Jemisin | read along
• 12 Comments

Hi Everyone,  we’re up to week three  of our Hundred Thousand Kingdoms read along!  The book hit incredible around page ten, so I bet everyone had as tough a time as I did stopping at the end of this week’s section.   I’m our host this week, so leave your link in the comments, and everyone can hop around and read everyone’s answers.

What everyone else said:

Violin in a Void

All I Am, A Redhead

Books Without Any Pictures

On Starships and Dragonwings

Dab of Darkness

(I will add more as I find them)

Here’s this week’s discussion questions. . .   spoilers abound!

1. T’vril takes Yeine to the servant’s party. What did you think of that party, and of Sieh’s part in it?

Well, we find out a little later how the high nobles amuse themselves, so I’m happy T’vril took her to a more fun type of party. And what a great magic trick by Sieh! It’s sobering that Sieh’s attitude is “we’re all slaves”, but it was neat to see him in a different physical body. I’d like to get more of Sieh’s point of view, he seems so confused by Yeine, he has to constantly remind himself that she’s not Enefa. I think this is the first time Yeine has seen him in anything but his child’s body? I wish Yeine had been able to have more fun at the party.

.
.
2. Yeine presents herself as such a nice, compassionate person. Did your feelings about her change after the meeting she and Nahadoth had with Gemd?
.
.
I suppose I could say that she’d becoming more Arameri?  More ruthless, more cruel?  Or maybe she’s just realized that if you say you’re going to do whatever it takes to get what you want, that you better be serious, you better really be willing to do whatever it takes. She shows up, she makes some demands, some people die horribly thanks to Nahadoth, Gemd is going to remember that!

She does present as nice and compassionate.  But since it’s her telling the story, how do I know she’s a reliable narrator?  that’s one of the many reasons I love first person POV. The narrator tells us what they feel like telling us. Maybe Yeine tortured puppies when she was a kid. We’d never know, because of course she’d never tell us, she’d never want us to know that side of herself.

I don’t think my feelings about her changed at all, she’s still fucking brilliant/awesome in my book. I just got see a different side of her. And now I know I better never piss her off!!
.
3. on page 230 we learn about the Darre concept of “esui”, of attraction to danger. Have you ever experienced Esui? did it help you, or hurt you? Do you think it will help Yeine, or hurt her?
.
Esui strikes me as a cross between the adrenaline rush of a fight or flight response, and a nihilistic dare.  It’s the point where you’ve looked the fear right in the face and said “that’s all you’ve got?”, and you start laughing, because what else can you do?
.
I’ve certainly never, ever been in anything close to the situations imagined in this book, but I’ve had plenty of times where I had to psych myself up to take on a big project at work, or make a sales presentation, or sell myself in a job interview, or talk to a famous author.  And that’s what it is, i think – psyching yourself up for something that would usually be terrifying. Sometimes it’s a situation of “the worst they can say is No”, sometimes it’s a situation of “failure isn’t an option”
.
I’m a big fan of psyching myself up, it usually helps me avoid one my body’s more embarrassing  fight or flight responses: my hands shake. for like an hour. I can barely hold a coffee mug sometimes.  Like I said – embarrassing!!
.
.
4. What did you think of the reveal regarding Ygreth’s (Kinneth’s mother) death? Was it something you expected?  How does being forced to do something like that (or knowing you’ll be forced to) shape a person?
.
.
I was not expecting that AT ALL!  No wonder Kinneth ran as far and as fast from her father as she could! She probably hated him!  and what an awful, horrible “custom”!  I think that quick little scene (and Sieh is so damn nonchalant about it!) bothered me more than when we learned about the Darre coming of age ceremony for their young women.  The way Sieh offered the information, it was as if he didn’t even expect Yeine to respond emotionally.
.
I imagine being an Arameri heir, and having a clue that something like that might be expected of you, that it would majorly fuck you  up.  Yes, yes, I know, the details of the ceremony are secret, but if T’vril could find out, then other people can find out. is that why Relad and Scimina are they way they are? they don’t *want* to ever care about someone, because they might be forced to kill that person?
.
5. If I’m reading it correctly, the ceremony can require a human sacrifice (to show that the heir is strong enough to kill anyone, if asked).  Who might Scimina sacrifice? Who might Yeine sacrifice?
.
Well, Scimina would sacrifice Relad.  I’m not sure that she’s capable of really caring about anyone (see answer to #4), but everyone would assume that of everyone around, she cares most for her brother.  Yeine is the tricky one.  Who is still alive that she cares about?  I can’t imagine they’d drag her grandma all the way from Darre just so Yeine can kill her.  T’vril is certainly a close friend of hers, and I think he’s got a little crush on her,  but she’s only known him for a few weeks, so if she had to sacrifice him, she’d probably get over it.  She seems to care the most for Sieh and Nahadoth, and she couldn’t sacrifice one of them. . .  right??
.
6.The ball is only a few days away. What do you think will happen?

If the rest of this book is any indication, something very unexpected will happen at the ball. LOL, Maybe Yeine can just throw her grandfather off a balcony, he can fall a half mile to his death, and that would be the end of him.

She’s out of choices, she’s out of time.  She’s made a bargain with the enslaved gods, so she’s just got to hope that no one else has anything up their sleeves.

other thoughts:

If Yeine is successful in freeing the enslaved gods, I wonder how that will change the Arameri? If the gods no longer serve them, it’s not like one of them could take Nahadoth somewhere, and say, have him kill a bunch of people.

I couldn’t help myself. I finished the book. One of my guesses was right – that something very unexpected happens at the ceremony!

I thought it was fascinating that Nahadoth is shaped by the people around him. If they are sick and twisted and violent (why, hello Scimina! I didn’t see you standing there!) then he is.  If the person he’s with is compassionate and kind and curious, then he is.  He reflects them.  That gave me something interesting to think about.  I’m so used to the “God made us in his image” line, that it is fascinating to run into godly creatures who are made and remade in our image. It’s a sobering thought to realize we can shape our own deities. I think in real life people shape their deities and don’t even realize it.

Tags: fantasy, read along