Name: The Obelisk Gate
Rating: 4.250596658711217 (419 reviews)
ISBN: 9780356508368

N.K. Jemisin

The Broken Earth: Book 2

The Obelisk Gate

N. K. Jemisin

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.

I loved being back in this world. Once again Jemisin has managed to astonish and impress me. I loved this installation in the series, it feels like everything is unraveling steadily, tying together.

This book’s plot is way more straightforward than the first one. I loved the perspective changes between mother and daughter. The characters are fully fleshed out and complex. We really get an understanding of all of their driving forces, and the conflict and tension it creates is possibly the main reason I can’t wait to read the next one. The plot is expertly laid out and incredibly interesting, I like how everything is gradually making sense. This book does suffer a bit from being the middle of the series and therefore needing to essentially lay out all the blocks for the finale, but I didn’t mind because I just love the way this is written, I would read Jemisin’s grocery list.

All in all, not much to say. Thoroughly enjoyed this, I can’t wait to see how everything comes to a close. I’m looking forward to being blown away.

bel 

I loved being back in this world. Once again Jemisin has managed to astonish and impress me. I loved this installation in the series, it feels like everything is unraveling steadily, tying together.

This book’s plot is way more straightforward than the first one. I loved the perspective changes between mother and daughter. The characters are fully fleshed out and complex. We really get an understanding of all of their driving forces, and the conflict and tension it creates is possibly the main reason I can’t wait to read the next one. The plot is expertly laid out and incredibly interesting, I like how everything is gradually making sense. This book does suffer a bit from being the middle of the series and therefore needing to essentially lay out all the blocks for the finale, but I didn’t mind because I just love the way this is written, I would read Jemisin’s grocery list.

All in all, not much to say. Thoroughly enjoyed this, I can’t wait to see how everything comes to a close. I’m looking forward to being blown away.

Simon Crocker

Anna 

Syrina

Whitley

"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.

Yash

compared to the fifth season, the obelisk gate elaborated more on different povs and dynamics amongst the characters.

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.

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.

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???

Haley Murray

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.

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!

O Portal dos Obeliscos

Nelson Zagalo

"O Portal dos Obeliscos" é o segundo livro da trilogia "Terra Fraturada" de N.K. Jemisin. Apesar de receber o segundo prémio Hugo consecutivo, o livro foi atacado por alguns fãs por sofrer do chamado síndrome do "segundo livro", ou "livro do meio", de que discordo. Apesar de poder considerar este livro ligeiramente inferior ao primeiro, continua a apresentar níveis de envolvimento, de construção de mundo e desenvolvimento de personagens de grande qualidade. Mais importante, a narrativa prossegue, de modo brilhante, cruzando fantasia e ficção-científica, com várias explicações de grande relevo a surgirem e a fazerem elevar toda a nossa compreensão do mundo-história iniciado no primeiro livro. Inevitavelmente sente-se que estamos em trânsito, que vimos de algum lado e temos um lugar aonde queremos chegar. Este segundo livro preenche o que faltava no primeiro, abre mais elementos do jogo, mas deixa ainda muito suspenso no ar que nos obriga a partir para a leitura do terceiro para poder chegar à compreensão do universo criado por Jemisin.

Continuamos a ter narração em 2ª pessoa o que continua a surpreender-me pela forma belíssima como funciona, e é já uma marca da série. Continuamos a ter personagens densos, intrincados totalmente humanos apesar da sua suposta não-humanidade. Aliás o gozo de ler uma série como estas está na forma como Jemisin cruza géneros, como ora estamos a ler conflitos, lutas, traições, clichés de um género, para a seguir entrarmos em descrições complexas sobre geologia e física, e na página seguinte estarmos dentro dos personagens em total indagação sobre a razão de continuar a ser. Neste livro senti que o modo como a história vai refinando a ciência e humano se aproxima de algum modo dos mundos trabalhado por Alex Garland, o que inevitavelmente me atrai ainda mais para dentro do mundo-história.

O ponto menos bom do livro, mas era-o já no primeiro, assenta no modo algo denso e caótico como muita exposição vai sendo feita que dificulta a completa compreensão, ou melhor, a compreensão fácil de tudo que está a acontecer. Claro que isso ajuda à produção de mistério, mas por vezes sentimos algum desespero tentando recordar que personagem é, ou em que conflito foi relevante, e ligar as informações para chegar ao que autora está a tentar passar. Como digo, acredito que podia ser melhor cozinhado, mas isso faria com que se perdesse alguma similitude com o próprio mundo, caótico, que está a ser descrito.

A diversidade e inclusão continua à flor da pele, muitas situações conflituais são facilmente identificáveis como analogias da nossa realidade o que torna o universo em si ainda mais atrativo e relevante. E agora resta-nos o terceiro livro, perceber de que são verdadeiramente capazes Essun e Nassun e qual a explicação para o surgimento dos Comedores de Pedra e da Orogenia.

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The Obelisk Gate The Broken Earth: Book 2

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