The Killing Moon

This was really excellent. It was soothing and easy to read despite being emotionally powerful, as well as having a captivating story.

I haven't read high fantasy since I was maybe 13. It's not that I don't like it, but I think having to concentrate on absorbing an entirely new world keeps me from getting fully emotionally invested, which I did feel here. In this first couple of chapters I was so overwhelmed I was worried I had bitten off more than I could chew. Once I got into the swing of things though it was easy.

These are the kinds of relationships and people I like to read about, but don't get to very often. Most main characters nowadays are deepened through internal monologues of “what if, do I, should I” and so on. Ehiru and Nijiri, while conflicted and faced with confusing and daunting dilemmas, are ultimately pure of heart. They struggle, but they don't wobble, not from their mission and not from their devotion to each other (which was a happy surprise, I keep accidentally picking up books with the gay love snuck in, clearly I have good taste). I'm not a person of conviction, so I admire people who have minds like missiles. They were also very emotionally unabashed, so that even though the previously mention romantic feelings are actually mostly one-sided, there's a lot of physical affection between them, and it just makes me really happy when male characters touch each other, and I swear I don't mean that in a pervy way.

Moral ambiguity is the focal point of this story, and Jemisin does it beautifully. The prose and story masterfully carry the weight of a faith system that is both beautiful and spiritual, as well as dangerous and potentially vile. There is the holy man who even when he becomes a monster always acts from his humanity and his purity, without swinging around the word justice like the proverbial big stick, and the villain who despite his ruthlessness and nefarious plots to take over the world, makes a hell of a lot of sense most of the time. I should've known when he started going on about peace and treating people with respect that he was about to do something awful, and oh man he did. There's a whole road-to-hell and ends-fits-the-means thing happening here, that corruption is a part of us no matter what we do or what we believe.

The Killing Moon is a little hard to talk about, because as good as it is, its rather nondescript about it. Maybe that's the whole emotional investment problem I mentioned. I ached for Ehiru, I did, but I always had one foot out. Which might be a good thing, because otherwise this book might've broke me.

There was also the politics, which to be honest I didn't really care about. It was necessary of course for setting up the conflict but that contributed a lot to my “Oh god, what have I gotten myself into” thoughts. Fortunately, the second half of the book keeps it at a very personal level, so there's not too much bland talk of military strategy or anything. I also wish there was more Sunandi. She was interesting at first, but towards the end she started to feel a little pointless, which is unfortunate considering she's the most prominent female character.

So I highly recommend this, particularly to those who are used to handling world-building as well as plot, as they'll probably get more into than I did.