The Broken Kingdoms

 This is the second book in N.K. Jemisin's ‘Inheritance Trilogy' and the fifth book I've read by Jemisin overall.  Going into it I was expecting to once again have Yeine as a protagonist with a focus on what her and Nahodoth had been up to since the end of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.     To my surprise, Jemisin took a totally different route, giving us a totally new POV and an almost entirely new set of characters.  The result is interesting.   Second acts in trilogies are always very hard to pull off as they don't have the sense of wonder that exists in a first act while also not having the satisfaction of a conclusion that third acts naturally contain.  Jemisin somewhat avoids this by giving us a lot of new world-building that didn't exist in the first book, making it feel somewhat similar to a first book.  The main problem I have is that some beats are repeated here.  I feel like Itempas is just a less interesting Nahadoth, which really hurts the story as Itempas is so crucial to this book's emotional beats.  Oree is a strong POV and a really interesting character to follow, but I don't feel quite as enamored with her as I did with Yeine.  The supporting characters here are strong but outside of Dateh (who is legitimately fantastic and the best part of the book) I don't think they live up to the Arameri from A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.  When you add all that up, what you get is less of a sequel and more of a weaker version of its predecessor.    With that said, I still like this book.  Jemisin is still an amazing writer and her sheer talent does make this plot and these characters work.  There are a lot of concepts introduced here that are super interesting and Jemisin weaves them into her world seamlessly.  The scenes where Oree does magic are great and this book does add a darker tinge that works quite well.  A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms isn't a bright, fun book by any stretch, but it feels more like dusk compared to The Broken Kingdoms' night.      I am very interested to see how Jemisin concludes this trilogy with The Kingdom of Gods.  I felt like she saved the best for last with ‘The Broken Earth' trilogy, and I have faith she'll do so again here.