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Summary
Summary
Assassin priests, mad kings, and the goddess of death collide in the first book of the Dreamblood Duology by NYT bestselling and three time Hugo-Award winning author N. K. Jemisin.
The city burned beneath the Dreaming Moon.
In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers -- the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe . . . and kill those judged corrupt.
But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh's great temple, Ehiru -- the most famous of the city's Gatherers -- must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering dreamers in the goddess' name, stalking its prey both in Gujaareh's alleys and the realm of dreams. Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill -- or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.
Author Notes
N. K. Jemisin is an American author and blogger, born in 1972, and based in Brooklyn, New York. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from Tulane University and her Masters of Education from the University of Maryland College Park. Her work includes numerous short stories, a novella, a triptych, The Inheritance trilogy, Dreamblood series, and The Broken Earth trilogy. The Fifth Season is a book in The Inheritance trilogy for which she won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Her other awards include Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice, Fantasy (for The Shadowed Sun); Sense of Gender Award, 2011 (for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Japanese version); Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice, Fantasy (for The Broken Kingdoms); and the Locus Award, 2010 (First Novel, for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms). She won the 2017 Nebula Award and the 2018 Hugo Award, Best Novel category for The Stone Sky.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Jemisin's gripping series launch immerses readers in an unfamiliar but enthralling world as well as a rousing political and supernatural adventure. In Gujaareh, a city-state reminiscent of ancient Egypt (though the differences far outnumber the similarities), dreams are the source of magic, and it is Gatherer Ehiru's job to collect the mystical life-giving dreamblood from the dying-and those deemed too "corrupt" to live. Devout and loyal, Ehiru is slow to accept that heretical evil lurks behind Gujaareh's unblemished facade; only after encountering Sunandi, a foreign spy who is far less naive about Gujaareh's "mad bitch" goddess and her unscrupulous worshippers, does Ehiru begin to glimpse the rot that extends up to the pinnacle of Gujaareh's social pyramid. As a hideous monster preys on the innocent, Ehiru's faith is tested in a crisis of world-shaking proportions. Rather than merely appropriating various details from Earth's past and present, Jemisin (the Inheritance Trilogy) has created a fully developed secondary world that is an organic whole. Agent: Lucienne Diver, the Knight Agency. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
The first volume of Jemisin's Dreamblood is set in the vaguely Egyptian city of Gujaareh and follows the Gatherer Ehiru, a priest trained to bring the dying or corrupt a peaceful end through powerful, dream-based magic. By refusing to kill a visiting ambassador, Ehiru is drawn into a world of intrigues that involve not only his superiors in the priesthood and Gujaareh's ruler, the Prince of Sunset, but also dark secrets about the origins of dream magic itself. An engaging and well-realized setting and equally strong characters recommend this for sf-fantasy general readers and Jemisin fans alike.--Keep, Alan Copyright 2016 Booklist
Kirkus Review
New ancient Egyptflavored fantasy from the New York resident author of The Broken Kingdoms (2010, etc.). In the city and state of Gujaareh, the Hetawa temple is dedicated to Hananja, goddess of dreams, and its priests harvest the people's dreams to create dream-magic to heal wounds and cure ailments. The Hetawa's elite Gatherers also ease the passage of the dying--and kill those judged corrupt. When Gatherer Ehiru is ordered to kill Charleron, a corrupt outlander, somehow his flawless technique goes awry; Charleron dies in agony, but not before hinting that something is gravely amiss in the Hetawa. Shaken, Ehiru finds he can no longer function as a Gatherer and goes into seclusion, watched over by his young apprentice, Nijiri--until Ehiru receives orders to kill Sunandi Jeh Kalawe, the "corrupt" ambassador from neighboring Kisua. Sunandi bravely defends herself and reveals that her predecessor and adoptive father passed to her a dreadful secret involving war, murder and, perhaps, Eninket, Prince of the Sunset Throne--who happens to be Ehiru's brother. Though all the signs point towards the Hetawa--innocent dreamers are being murdered by an insensate, renegade Reaper--Ehiru cannot believe that the priesthood itself is corrupt. Nevertheless he agrees to help Sunandi unravel the conspiracy. Though a little too heavily dependent on the intricate details of Gujaareh's religion, Jemisin's patient world-building and extraordinary attention to detail help frame and propel the complex plot, and she weaves subtle, emotionally complex relationships between the main characters. The text includes a useful glossary but, alas, no maps. Tends toward the claustrophobic at times, but superior and fulfilling.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
The desert city of Gujaareh is known as a peaceful society, free of violence and crime. To maintain the peace, Gatherers-priests of the goddess Hananja-police the city, siphoning the dreams of its residents and using them to heal, bring solace to the dying, and deliver death to the corrupt. When the city's most famous Gatherer, Ehiru, receives a commission to collect the dreams of a diplomat from a neighboring land, he and his apprentice Nijiri stumble into a web of political intrigue that could destroy their city and undermine its holy purpose. The author of the award-winning "Inheritance Trilogy" (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms; The Broken Kingdoms; The Kingdom of Gods) launches a new series that explores the meaning of religion and the nature of faith. VERDICT This story, set in a world inspired by Africa and the Middle East, shines for its remarkable characters and graceful prose. Jemisin's fans and readers who enjoy China Mieville, Daniel Abraham, and Mike Resnick will embrace her attention to detail and the love of storytelling that infuses this novel. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
