The Inheritance Trilogy

Fantasy is my favorite genre. In grade school my reading level was very low for my age until I started reading the Chronicles of Narnia. I discovered reading could be fun, even magical. Ever since then I've been a fantasy nut but the problem is it's difficult to find good books in the genre. The bookshelves are always clogged with poorly written rip offs so it's hard to sift the good from the bad.

I recently came upon The Inheritance Trilogy by happenstance looking at top ten lists. I burned through all three books in about a week. N.K. Jemisin creates a very unique, engaging world with diverse cultures and peoples. What makes it great fantasy of course is magic and gods. The world borrows some from Greek and Norse mythology and weaves it into something completely new. We follow the gods and humans as they plot, fight and fall in love. The first two books have female leads and the third book focuses on an androgynous child god. As I read the series I wondered why it wasn't well known. In this age of Twilight and all its spin offs this was a series with actual strong women who teenagers and tweens could look up to. Women who were powerful, independent, and confident. Women who didn't define themselves by their relationships with men but by what they stood for and who they wanted to be. There is great romance in the books and magic. Why isn't there an Inheritance Trilogy craze? N.K. Jemisin has Stephenie Meyer beat hands down.

I recommend these books to anyone who likes fantasy as well as anyone who liked the Twilight series. I would a ledge it's better written, more fulfilling, and more empowering to women.