The Kingdom of Gods appears to be two books kinda smushed together.

[snarp]

Book #1 - High-stakes book about Sieh, Shahar, and Dekarta dealing with huge problems that are largely Sieh's fault.

Book #2 - Lower-stakes book about Ahad and Glee dealing with more mundane problems (but only slightly more mundane since they still involve gods) with a variety of causes, only some of which are Sieh.

These storylines do not mesh well as presented. I would've liked either on its own, but shoved together like this, the book one narrative diminishes the book two one in a way that comes off as unfair. And I think it's unfair not just to that storyline, but to the series as a whole.

The thing is that the problems presented in the Ahad-and-Glee-intensive sections are, world-impact-wise, relatively minor compared to the ones Sieh brings with him into them. Given that the problems Sieh brings in include "the end of the all existence." This makes book 2 feel slight. Yet from the series-overall perspective, what's going on with them - Itempas's redemption, Oree and Naha/Hado's fates, and the changing relationship between the gods and humans - should really be treated as more important than is Sieh's archnemesis we'd never heard of before. In my ideal version of this series, I think Ahad and Glee would get their own book before Sieh got his.

Also, Jemisin's homicidal deities are more likable when observed by smitten mortals then when they speak for themselves; I assume that's deliberate. You want to whack Sieh a lot in this book.

Comments

[inkstone]

I definitely felt like Kingdom of Gods was a very different book from the previous 2. In some ways I like it more than the other 2 and in other ways less. I haven't really sorted out my feelings about the whole thing yet.

[snarp]

I would say it's a broader book, in that each of the other two took place over a very short duration of time, had only a few locations, and is about a very small cast of characters; this one takes a decade, goes all over the place, and is about a whole society. Sieh still thinks he's in the first kind of book, though.

[estara]

In my ideal version of this series, I think Ahad and Glee would get their own book before Sieh got his.

I TOTALLY agree. My guess is that the third book wasn't written yet at the time the series sold and she couldn't get out of writing it as a trilogy. It certainly is the longest book, as she points out in her afterword.

Also, Jemisin's homicidal deities are more likable when observed by smitten mortals then when they speak for themselves; I assume that's deliberate.

So this ^^ - but it was in character, I thought.