The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin
I read The Killing Moon on my quest to find “comparative literature” for my fantasy novel - The Three Lovers: Mirror Of Death.
My fantasy novel has an Egyptian inspired setting and I needed to find something with a similar setting that was modern for agents and publishers, all of my inspirations for The Three Lovers are rather old fashioned.
Art by Marc Yankus
So I set out with unartistic intentions, though the cover, writer and title intrigued me.
Wow. I was floored. What a novel.
This is the first book I’ve read by N.K. Jemisin, of course I’d heard her name batted around as a triple Hugo Award winner, but I don’t generally seek out what is popular nor what the crowd shouts about.
I fell in love with the setting instantly, vivid and influenced by a mythology that I am intrigued by above all others - Egypt. The idea of the book is that Gatherers go into people’s dreams and put them to sleep (kill them), when they need to be put down. It is a culture that worships and venerates death.
The setting, themes and atmosphere are so deliciously intertwined that you cannot separate them. What I mean by that is, dreams, sexual desire, and our lust to die, all feel organic of the world created, the atmosphere bleeds into the themes from the setting and vice-versa. One feels so deeply that the characters grew out of the world they inhabit rather than the other way around, and fantasy is at its strongest when it does that.
The main relationship between our two main characters Nijiri and Ehiru is the backbone of the novel, and it is complex. I found myself understanding and enjoying their intense apprentice/master relationship, which is so much more than that. Ehiru is the Gatherer, Nijiri is a fledgling yet to be initiated. The closer to the end the book gets, the more we see their relationship develop - it was enthralling to see play out, without getting into too much detail.
Jemisin allows you to decide for yourself where you stand in regards to morality, she makes no judgements in the text on who is right and who is wrong, only what the characters point-of-view is, whether assisted dying through dreams is evil or good, it’s a fascinating idea . This sort of writing has always appealed to me.
The main villain was fantastic, I will not spoil anything, but how they are presented to us and then developed was brilliant. What they wanted and how they sought about achieving that goal was dark and “cinematic” if that makes sense, I could see this scheme of theirs playing out on the big screen so well.
The finale is grand, tying up all the character relationships, the state of the kingdom and the themes with a neat twist that I didn’t see coming. I was so satisfied with how it turned out and I’ll definitely seek out the next one.
The prose style is like a spell, seemingly simple but enchanting, no wasted words, terse and at some points managing to be surprising, yet always fitting to the general feel of the book. That sounds a little vague, but I can’t describe it any other way.
Overall this book has convinced me N.K. Jemisin is a master, a master of theme, a master of setting, atmosphere and of complex character relationships. Her books have shot up on my TBR pile… the next birthdays, Christmases and any other times I can squeeze books out of people will be filled with her bibliography. I couldn’t be happier to discover her, alas late, but I’m glad of that too, for it feels like my discovery, and books always sit stronger with you when that is the case.