The Killing Moon

I'd been unfairly neglecting The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin. I'd picked it up on impulse on the basis of the author's name, having enjoyed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, but I'd assumed from the title and the series name (The Dreamblood) that it was some kind of supernatural vampirey/werewolfy kind of thing, which isn't really my thing, so I'd given it a low priority and shelved it.

It was only when the author guested on a recent podcast, possibly Rocket Talk, that I learned that it was in fact an epic fantasy with an Ancient Egyptian theme. This sounded a lot more interesting to me, so I bumped it up the list and have now read it.

And it was interesting. I enjoyed it, and I think I'd like to read the second book, but I've scored it relatively low because it never quite seemed to catch fire. I don't quite know why, but I never felt very swept up in it. Maybe I didn't feel like I understood the stakes, maybe the characters were a little too alien in their beliefs, I don't know.

It might have been a mistake to read it so soon after Soldier of Sidon. There can't be that many Ancient Egyptian fantasy novels, but I've manager to read two in as many months. There is very little overlap in feel or content, but that didn't mean I wasn't constantly looking for some.

Something of a mixed bag, then. An interesting setting, but I wasn't wholly taken with the story.