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The ending to this book is damned weird.

Okay, that's poor review etiquette. Start at the beginning. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.J. Jemisin, or 100K K by J if you're a rapper, is a political fantasy about the daughter of an exiled aristocrat who returns from a childhood spent living with matriarchal barbarians when the Emperor (there's always an emperor) announces that she's one of his heirs. The story mostly takes place in a floating city (there's always a floating city) where our heroine Yeine tries to survive the scheming of the Emperor, her rival hairs, a few gods, and, you know, boys.

One of the things that surprised me is that Yeine is a very inactive protagonist. Her role as the Chosen One (there's always a Chosen One) is very passive, in contrast to your epic fantasy where the Chosen One has to kill a Dark Lord or something. Mostly, she just spends her time figuring out the backstory and then things just work out. It's an odd choice. There's even a line where she says "Wow, things really worked out well based on sheer luck" and someone else says "Yeah, it was fate!"





Okay, so Yeine ends up becoming a goddess (by complete and utter coincidence) and the time has come to send the nogoodniks packing.

Evil Big Bad (Dude): I betrayed my sibling-lovers, leading to them being enslaved and raped for centuries, while a corrupt dictatorship took over the world and tyranny and injustice flourished.

Yeine: Well, I'm nice, so I'm going to be merciful and turn you human until you redeem yourself.

Traitor (Girl): I betrayed the resistance, but I was really only doing what I thought was best and I never condemned anyone to sex slavery.

Yeine: Die!

Heartless Bitch (Girl): I'm pretty much straight-up evil, yeah.

Yeine: Death for you too... after my boyfriend tortures you extensively.

Evil Big Bad (Dude): I, uh, can't help but notice a discrepancy in the mercy you're handing out.

Yeine: Poor Big Bad. You just need to recover from your emotional scars, then you can rejoin me and my boyfriend. OT3!

Evil Big Bad (Dude): Yeah, but none of the people you just killed would've done anything wrong if it weren't for me enabling it or driving them to it.

Yeine: What, if you're a good guy, you have to be moral all the time?

Yes. Yes, that's how that works. And I know that they pretty much can't kill Itempas, and the human thing is basically to contain him like he did them but without being as mean about it, but Yeine even adds an extra bit of mercy to it. So not only is he only going to jail until he's paroled, but his cell has a color TV.

It just kinda reminded me a bit of the end of Sandman, where all the villains got mercy extended to them, even the rapist ("Go on, get out of here you nut, don't let me catch you raping any more women! Ah, he's a good kid."), then the completely sympathetic woman who only did anything "wrong" because she suffered from a mental illness caused by the "hero" got told she was a whore by, like, fucking everyone. Like, what the hell, Gaiman? I know Morpheus is the lead character, but he had it coming.

I'm just saying, at the end of Return of the Jedi, you didn't see the entire Empire getting cookies and then Darth Vader and Boda Fett turned to the Stormtrooper who shot Leia to go "Man, you are such a prick."

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