N. K. Jemisin

""Intricate and extraordinary."--New York Times on The Fifth Season (A New York Times Notable Book of 2015) The second novel in a new fantasy trilogy by Hugo, Nebula & World Fantasy Award nominated author N.K. Jemisin. THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS ... FOR THE LAST TIME. The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night. Essun -- once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger -- has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever. Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power - and her choices will break the world. For more from N.K. Jemisin, check out: The Inheritance Trilogy The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms The Broken Kingdoms The Kingdom of Gods The Inheritance Trilogy (omnibus edition) Shades in Shadow: An Inheritance Triptych (e-only short fiction) The Awakened Kingdom (e-only novella) Dreamblood Duology The Killing Moon The Shadowed Sun The Broken Earth The Fifth SeasonThe Obelisk Gate"--

"Essun--once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger--has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever. Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power--and her choices will break the world"--

The Obelisk Gate

"This is the way the world ends, for the last time. The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night. Essun — once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger — has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever. Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power - and her choices will break the world." --Publisher's description.

Katherine Yang

Still really good! The worldbuilding and setting and characters and issues of the whole series are strong enough to hold this middle book up. That said, it did feel more static and regurgitative compared to the high-inducing experience of the first book. I also found it more confusing, plot-wise, maybe a little uneven. I think the highlight of this book for me was getting to see Nassun's POV and character development, which felt very mirrored to her mother's self-discovery and strengthening/hardening in the first one, with the twist of Nassun's own experiences and situation. 

Excited to see how the threads (wink!) coalesce in the finale!

Side note: being immersed in the POVs and world of magical beings really lifts you up only to thunk you back down in the muggle world. Woe is sci-fi/fantasy.

Essun's missing daughter grows more powerful every day, and her choices may destroy the world in this "magnificent" Hugo Award winner and NYT Notable Book. (NPR) The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night. Essun -- once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger -- has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever. Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power -- and her choices will break the world. N. K. Jemisin's award winning trilogy continues in the sequel to The Fifth Season.

Jamieson

Ms Jemisin had changed the fantasy game. This series has raised my fantasy standards, I can’t believe they used to be in hells basement. My bar is higher now I am a changed person 

Although bk1 is more twisty and clever book2 is more sustained and takes much needed time to develop the mc and the magic system. I appreciated it A LOT

Review to come

Rachel Kanyid

I honestly thought this was incredibly slow and did not have a lot of story-line. It kind of felt like a book full of filler... Not sure if I'll continue with the series.

Ryan LaFerney

The Obelisk Gate is the sequel to the excellent The Fifth Season and the middle volume of the Broken Earth trilogy, N.K. Jemisin's critically-acclaimed take on the venerable Dying Earth subgenre. The Fifth Season was a highly accomplished novel, describing a brand new world with skill and intelligence and blending together elements of fantasy, post-apocalyptic fiction and a dash of the weird to create something compelling and interesting. 

Transitioning from where The Fifth Season left off, The Obelisk Gate is a stunning sequel. The non-linear plot of two past timelines and a present one converged towards the end of the first book, and The Obelisk Gate takes the story forward almost immediately with the second person present POV of Essun. There are two new third-person POVs. One is a character from the first book, Schaffa, and another which was only mentioned but not seen, Nassun, Essun’s daughter, who ran away with her father after he beat to death her brother.

The Obelisk Gate mainly moves between Essun's story and that of her daughter’s Nassun. The first book was an extended road trip - mainly through the eyes of Essun, the second book alternates between Essun's static story in a local comm and Nassun's long journey across thousands of miles into the far south with her abusive father, who desires to cure her “orgeny”. This changes things up nicely and means that Essun, now a guest of the community of Castrima, has to actually stay put, learn what's going on from Alabaster and help defend the community from outsiders that would steal their supplies, even while she fears prejudice and hatred from members of her own comm.

The worldbuilding deepens in this installment, with fresh revelations about the distant past and the true and alarming nature of the enigmatic stone eaters. But as in the previous volume, it’s the people who take front and center: Nassun and Essun are fascinating characters. And Jemisin’s depictions of mob behavior are frighteningly realistic.

This rightfully deserved the Hugo award. The Obelisk Gate is a powerful middle volume.

Put this series next to Lord of The Rings for best Fantasy.

Izza

4.25 stars | this series is blowing my mind.

eliz

i would give nk jemisin the entire universe

"After all, a person is herself, and others. Relationships chisel the final shape of one's being. I am me, and you. Damaya was herself and the family that rejected her and the people of the Fulcrum who chiseled her to a fine point. Syenite was Alabaster and Innon and the people of poor lost Allia and Meov. Now you are Tirimo and the ash-strewn road's walkers and your dead children...and also the living one who remains."

First of all, I would like to take a moment to appreciate this author's introductory paragraph(s). Caught me off guard once again, just like the first book did. The best thing is, nothing gets bad. Father Earth is still deteriorating and everybody's flaw started to show and civilization is (still) about to be totally wiped out, yes. But that's what made this book even better. At first I find it slow but never dragging, because every character was given an exposure for a reason (literally no tapon no extra-lang). Surprisingly relaxing and frustrating and nerve-racking. Did not expect that the gaps will be filled out this way but surely excited for the last piece!!

excerpts: (wish I could put more but technically most of my fave lines = spoiler)
p. 7 "He can sleep through anything. The songs of the earth have always been his lullaby."
p. 163 "Thirty thousand years? Forty? A long time to be pathetic creatures we are now, huddling behind our walls and putting all our wits, all our learning, toward the singular task of staying alive. ... Once, we were so much more."

(wish I could put more but technically most of my fave lines = spoiler)

Janice Hopper

The second book in this series is simpler in structure than the first. The chronology is mostly linear. Much of the story takes place in one location. But we get more information about Essun and her daughter Nassun, as well as more information about the Stone Eaters. [Y'all, I listened to the audiobook. I may spell the names wrong since I haven't eye-read them. I had to look back at other reviews just to get the names of the main characters spelled right.]

It's a good continuation of the story, though not quite as compelling as the first one. I've got volume 3 queued up on my audio player, so I'll be listening to that pretty soon!


Distracting annoyance: Audible narrator Robin Miles appears to pronounce spinel (I think that's the word she's using) as SPY-nel (like spine, with el hooked on the end.) Seriously???

Didi Chanoch

What do you do, after writing a blindingly impressive fantasy novel as the first in a series? If you're Nora Jemisin, you follow it up with a sequel that may be better. 

As this is the second in a trilogy, and as just about anything I have to say will be a spoiler, I'll just say this: Read this series. The Broken Earth is staggering. The language, the characters, the worldbuilding, the story. No element is weaker than the rest. All are almost ridiculously strong. 

If you played the Mass Effect 3 DLC "Citadel," you may be familiar with with the arena in that game. As Shepard, you can basically break the scoring system of the arena. If I could award this book the number of stars it deserves, it would break Goodreads' scoring system.

Haley Murray

3.5

god damn this is so complex.. like the world building is so hard to follow sometimes it kind of takes me out of the story :/ but for the most part, still enjoyable

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel The second book in the record-breaking triple Hugo Award-winning trilogy The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night. Essun has found shelter, but not her missing daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request only Essun can grant. Praise for this trilogy: 'Amazing' Ann Leckie 'Breaks uncharted ground' Library Journal 'Beautiful' Nnedi Okorafor 'Astounding' NPR 'Brilliant' Washington Post 'Heartbreaking, wholly unexpected' Brian Staveley 'Awesome' Book Smugglers 'A powerful story of hope and survival' The Root The Broken Earth trilogy begins with The Fifth Season, continues in The Obelisk Gate and concludes with The Stone Sky - out now. Also by N. K. Jemisin: The Inheritance trilogy The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms The Broken Kingdoms The Kingdom of Gods The Dreamblood Duology The Killing Moon The Shadowed Sun

The Broken Earth, Book 2, WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD

Laura Kehoe

I know I've read this before, but for some reason I could not for the life of me remember much of the last half. Soooooo glad I reread this beauty. N.K Jemisin is just so fantastic. This series is terrific!

James Eaton

I love this series. Jemisin is an amazing writer and this series is just so good. 

Excited to finish this series soon.

Zoey Mikalatos

AMAZING! Excellent sequel to the first book.

"The way of the world isn't the strong devouring the weak, but the weak deceiving and poisoning and whispering in the ears of the strong until they become weak, too."

Dweedle 

And on the second day, there was magic. I might have liked this one even better than the first!

Elinor

why arent more people talking about this book
it is so amazing and Jemisin's worldbuilding is one of the best that i have ever read. these characters are so incredibly complex and the magic system is so cool and there is a cast of very diverse characters and it doesnt follow the usual fantasy tropes like you would expect it to. and just wow these books are amazing i cant wait to read the stone sky.

Sarahi

I like how the story is developing. Not as confused as before. Love that the Moon is a recurring subject

Michelle García

HOLY COW this book is so good, the author has an amazing way to just keep things steady just to let shit hit the fan near the end!! And I just want more!!
Amazing, can't wait to read the third one

Fraser Simons

A few more interesting revelations about the setting kept up my interest. It’s always tough to keep up the excitement after a first instalment but the author does a great job of pacing everything interesting out. I’ve also guessed why Hoa is educating the main character about their life, which is pretty cool (if I’m right, but I am, I’m sure). 

Nassun’s story paralleling it was also interesting, as it revealed more about the mysterious guardians. I enjoy the amount of hard-sci-fi attaches to the fiction as well. Just enough to keep it interesting, not enough to make it boring as all hell, as most hard sci-fi tends to be for me.

elif sinem

The sleight of hand framing is excellent. Man... man.... man. Once again the skill and nuance to write this. The addition of Nassun is simply perfect as well. Yeah no I don't think Ms Jemisin can do wrong in this trilogy at this point.

Omar Fernandez

At some point, I was about to stop reading this book. In fact, I put it aside a few times. It was just a bit slow at the beginning and boring. I didn't care much for any of the POV. 

However, I kept reading and about halfway through things started moving more quickly and got much more interesting. The characters became more likeable for me and the story unfolded in a way that was captivating. Now that the book is over, I'm interested in reading the third book to know how the story ends. 

Someone told me to think of all three books as one long book. I think that's a good way to think about it. That lull in the middle is just you getting information and context.  While I feel that it could have been shorter, I'm glad that I pushed through and now I'm looking forward to the last book. 

Francis Buggey

ok i loved this so much BUT the excitement of the first book wasn’t present in the sequel

The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster Tenring -- madman, world-crusher, savior -- has returned with a mission: to train his successor, Essun, and thus seal the fate of the Stillness forever. It continues with a lost daughter, found by the enemy. It continues with the obelisks, and an ancient mystery converging on answers at last. The Stillness is the wall which stands against the flow of tradition, the spark of hope long buried under the thickening ashfall. And it will not be broken.

Cheryl Hedlund

4.5 for now. Might adjust a little with time and upon finishing the series. As the second book in a series, I think this was not as mindblowing as the first book. That is not the books' fault. Just how series often work. The world and the conflict does expand and the stakes get higher in this book. We learn more about orogeny and some of the beginnings of things. New characters are introduced and developed. There are a couple of those that I especially like. Am starting to get a little bit of a chosen one vibe, but it is not presented in a cliche way. We get to spend time with Nassun and the theme of motherhood and parent/child relationships continues to be explored in a wonderful way. Still plenty of content warnings. The brutality and harshness has not let up during this apocalyptic season.

Caitlyn Hagen

O.O. What the Damn Hell. 

This book was so good. Equal if not better the The Fifth Season. Nassun and Essun were both intriguing. I really enjoyed Nassuns perspective. I was glad to see Alabaster and Schaffa again 

And Jija got what he deserved.

The Obelisk Gate

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