Family drama gets so much more intense when one of you controls the sun and the other controls night and shadow.
That’s basically what this trilogy by N. K. Jemisin boils down to, although it’s much more convoluted than that.
As with the Greek gods, the gods in this world are both family and lovers, which gets as complicated as you might expect.
Nahadoth was the first of the gods and his domain is Night and Shadow.
Then Bright Itempas came along and became god of the Sun. He and Nahadoth were also lovers and lived happily for a time.
Then Enefa had to come along and fuck everything up.
Enefa is the goddess of the in between: dawn, twilight, balance, life and death. Humanity also fell under her domain. They were one of her creations and a sort of pet project for her.
Nahadoth, Itempas, and Enefa were siblings, but also lovers. Sometimes children were born of their unions, including Sieh, the god of childhood. He has the ability to change his form, but he always appears as a child. His main characteristic is mischievousness, but he’s been through too much and lived too long to hold onto the innocence that also tends to define children, although he’s more than capable of acting innocent to get what he wants. He definitely knows how to play on people’s expectations of him to get what he wants.
I got the feeling Jemisin doesn’t like kids because Sieh is a very manipulative and unlikable character. On the other hand, he’s been enslaved and abused for centuries, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
In a fit of jealousy, Itempas poisoned Enefa and teamed up with the Arameri (the ruling family on Earth) to enslave Nahadoth and Sieh. The Arameri use Nahadoth and Sieh as their playthings to amuse themselves and they are awful.
Fast forward a few centuries and Yeine is summoned to Sky (the capital) after her mother’s mysterious death. Her mother was Arameri, but left that life behind to marry the man of her dreams.
Now Yeine finds herself in line for the throne, which also means she’s thrust into the world of ambitious family members who will stop at nothing to take the throne for themselves.
Eventually we discover that Yeine is sorta-kinda Enefa reincarnated. Rather than Enefa’s soul having been reborn in Yeine’s body, Yeine has her own soul, but Enefa’s soul (or a piece of it) also resides in her body and everyone is just waiting for the showdown between the two when Enefa’s soul will win.
Instead, Yeine’s soul defeats Enefa’s and she takes the goddess’ place.
At the same time, she brings down Itempas and the Arameri, freeing Nahadoth and Sieh.
I was so ready to dive right into the sequel to see what came next. You can imagine my surprise when I was introduced to a whole new character.
Oree is blind, although she can see some light. She’s just trying to make a living in the world of gods and godlings when godlings start turning up dead.
Oree is not OK with this because she has become friendly (and even romantically involved) with some of these godlings. The mystery leads her into an underworld of people and godlings intent on returning Itempas to what they see as his rightful place.
What they don’t realize (and Oree doesn’t realize at first) is that Itempas has moved in with her. He doesn’t speak so she names him Shiny after noticing his tendency to glow during sunrise.
He also has a bad habit of not dying, at least not permanently.
As it turns out, Itempas was banished by Nahadoth and Yeine, cursed to live among the mortals until he learns to love them.
But this book starts shortly after the last one ended, which means Itempas falls in love with a human (Oree) way too fast for Nahadoth’s satisfaction. You can’t make up for centuries of enslavement and torture in just a few years.
So Yeine gives Oree the option of leaving Itempas. If she doesn’t, the gods will kill her.
Itempas figures it out on his own and leaves her before she can leave him. Only then does Oree realize she is pregnant.
The third book was my least favorite. It follows Sieh on a wild journey that bounces all over the place with absolutely no cohesion.
I really wanted to like this series, but it ended on such a weird note that it left a me feeling confused and entirely unsatisfied.