W&W 2025 Day 29: Deep Dive: The Kingdom of the Gods by N.K. Jemisin

I picked The Kingdom of the Gods for the Wyrd and Wonder day 29 prompt, Deep Dive, because it concludes such a vast epic fantasy series that spans multiple human generations. Beginning The Inheritance Trilogy is like taking a deep dive into N.K. Jemisin’s fantasy realm.

I have a lot of feelings after completing The Kingdom of the Gods. When I first started blogging, N.K. Jemisin’s name kept popping up and I just had to see what people were talking about. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy was more popular, but I already knew this would be an author I would want to read everything from, so I chose to start with her first series. It’s taken me a couple years to finish the Inheritance Trilogy, but I still find that first book incredibly memorable. As I sit processing the finale of The Kingdom of the Gods, I know I will find it just as memorable as the first.

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Blurb

For two thousand years the Arameri family has ruled the world by enslaving the very gods that created mortalkind. Now the gods are free, and the Arameris’ ruthless grip is slipping. Yet they are all that stands between peace and world-spanning, unending war.

Review of The Kingdom of the Gods

• Format: audiobook
• Pacing: slow
• Plot or character-driven: both
• Multiple POVs:
• Representation: bisexual/pansexual main character, multiple characters with fluid gender and sexuality, m/m/f relationship

I was very excited when I started The Kingdom of the Gods and realized the story followed Sieh, who I thought was the most interesting character from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. The dichotomy of Sieh being the god of childhood and mischief yet being the oldest of the immortal godlings raises a lot of questions. Jemisin did not disappoint and dove right into the messiness that arises when an immortal tries to preserve his childlike nature.

When Sieh makes a blood oath with two Arameri children, he becomes much closer to humanity (and mortality) than is comfortable. I liked getting to see how Sieh perceived humans from an immortal’s perspective, especially one who still held a grudge for past wrongdoings. Throughout the series, Jemisin compares and contrasts the experiences of the gods with humans. Gods experience love, loneliness, hatred, and joy like humans, but their experiences are complicated by their immortality. They may experience things more passionately and for longer than humans, but they have lifetimes to change. Gods are also limited by their nature, and through Sieh’s perspective, we learn a lot more about what it means to be the god of childhood and mischief.

To me, it seemed like Sieh enjoyed children and acting childish, but that he was never actually a child in The Kingdom of the Gods. Maybe he was more childlike in the past, but he’d experienced and seen too much to truly be a child. I think this could be seen as a plot hole in the story or a clever characterization of Sieh, depending on how you look at it. Personally, I thought it made Sieh much more interesting not to be a child and set up how his story would unfold.

I loved how complicated the friendship between Shahar, Dakarta, and Sieh was. Sieh begins the friendship hating them for being Arameri while also longing for their companionship, so they were always going to have a messy relationship. I also enjoyed that Sieh never had an equally close relationship with either of the siblings at any one time. Shahar and Dekarta share a mix of love, competition and even jealousy that anyone with siblings can understand. Both siblings being in love with the same god complicates their relationship, as you would expect.

The way Sieh and the other gods interact can only be described as a soap opera. I was not prepared for the level of drama and family secrets revealed in The Kingdom of the Gods. Most of the conflict in The Inheritance Trilogy centers around the gods’ interpersonal issues rather than battles/physical fighting. When the conflict does get physical, it’s often very abstract, which may not appeal to every fantasy readers. I personally really enjoy family drama in books, so loved every second.

Jemisin included romance in the previous two Inheritance Trilogy stories, and The Kingdom of the Gods is no exception. I don’t think that romance was particularly strong, but the story really emphasizes the fluidity of god (and human) relationships, including how they can drift in and out of romantic and sexual attraction. Jemisin always creates very interesting relationships between her characters, even if the romance doesn’t stand out. I thought The Kingdom of the Gods in particular was the strongest of the 3 Inheritance Trilogy books at showing how relationships change over time.

After reading The Inheritance Trilogy, I think N.K. Jemisin is a phenomenal storyteller. I loved how she connected each of the books in her series with immortal characters and “god-touched” mortal family lines. The world she created felt vast and the story came together to form a cohesive plot, despite each book following different characters. I would recommend this series to fans of epic fantasy that enjoy complicated characters and relationships.

Having loved The Kingdom of the Gods so much, I can’t help but want to go back to the second book in the series and give it another chance. In my review of The Broken Kingdoms, I said the story and its characters were unmemorable, but I suspect this was at least partially due to my mental state at the time. I also really didn’t like Itempas after The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and though he was the least interesting of the gods, so I didn’t give the story much chance once I found out it was about him. I want to move on to Jemisin’s other works, but this is a series I can see myself rereading at some point.

You’ll Like This Book if You Enjoy…

• Epic fantasy that spans multiple generations
• Morally grey characters with fluid, complicated relationships

Where to find The Kingdom of the Gods by N.K. Jemisin

Have you read The Kingdom of the Gods? Let’s chat in the comments!