TKA Serials: N.K. Jemisin Part Two

UPDATE: THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS is on Publishers Weekly's 2010 Best of List for Sci-Fi/Fantasy! Congrats N.K.!

Last week we posted the first chapter of N.K. Jemisin's THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS. This week we will continue with the second chapter.

Since our last post, the second book in N.K.'s critically acclaimed Inheritance Trilogy, THE BROKEN KINGDOMS, was made the November feature on the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi/Fantasy discussion board; she scooped up two RT nominations for THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS and THE BROKEN KINGDOMS, respectively in the Epic Fantasy Novel and Fantasy Novel categories; THE BROKEN KINGDOMS made Borderlands October Bestseller list at #7 in the paperbacks category; and finally, THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS was chosen as #5 on Amazon's Best of Sci-Fi/Fantasy List for 2010. Whew! That's a lot of excitement for one week!

So, now's the time to find out what all the buzz is about. Read below for the second installment of THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS. Also, don't forget N.K. will be our featured guest author in the Knight Agency chat room next Thursday (11/18) at 9pm ET!!!

Next on TKA Serials -- Maria Geraci, author of THE BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH CLUB (11/29)
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THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, Sample Chapter 2 (missed Chap 1? Click here.)

The capital of my land is called Arrebaia. It is a place of ancient stone, its walls overgrown by vines and guarded by beasts that do not exist. We have forgotten when it was founded, but it has been the capital for at least two thousand years. People there walk slowly and speak softly, out of respect for the generations that have trodden those streets before, or perhaps just because they do not feel like being loud.

Sky — the city, I mean — is only five hundred years old, built when some disaster befell the previous Arameri seat. This makes it an adolescent as cities go — and a rude, uncouth one at that. As my carriage rode through the city’s center, other carriages went past in a clatter of wheels and horseshoes. People covered every sidewalk, bumping and milling and bustling, not talking. They all seemed in a hurry. The air was thick with familiar smells like horses and stagnant water amid indefinable scents, some acrid and some sickly-sweet. There was nothing green in sight.

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