Wendy: The Best Book I’ve Read This Year

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

This was actually  my favourite book of 2012, but after reading the ebook, I had to have it (and all of N.K. Jemisin’s books) on my bookshelf. When it arrived early in 2013, I intended only to skim through to dog ear and highlight all the moments and quotes that had kept me up at nights during my initial read. Instead, I got sucked in all over again. It was even better the second time through, knowing what I did from my first read through. All the little things suddenly had that much more meaning.

Aside from the images and thoughts spilling across Tumblr, one of the things that really attracted me to the book was the author herself who is a woman of colour. It is rare to find people like yourself creating the things that you love so, while I try not to dwell on the paleness of science fiction and fantasy, it increases my enjoyment to be entertained by something that far better reflects life as it could and should be, rather than the reality that sometimes is. It disturbs me that science fiction and fantasy of all things remain bound to our prejudices when the worlds and creatures you can create within these realms should be limitless. It turns out, Ms. Jemisin has much to say on this subject herself:

This genre is rooted in the epic — and the truth is that there are plenty of epics out there which feature people like me. […] So given all these myths, all these examinations of the possible…how can I not imagine more? How can I not envision an epic set somewhere other than medieval England, about someone other than an awkward white boy? How can I not use every building-block of my history and heritage and imagination when I make shit up?