Jun 29

Jun 29 The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2)

Author: N.K. Jemisin
Publisher: Orbit
View on Goodreads

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

***Description is spoiler for The Fifth Season***

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. 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.

TL;DR Review

The Obelisk Gate is a fantastic sequel to The Fifth Season that promises SO MUCH to come.

For you if: You read The Fifth Season. (…Read The Fifth Season.)

Full Review

***Is spoiler for The Fifth Season***

I’ll keep this pretty short, since The Obelisk Gate is the second book in a trilogy. But if you loved The Fifth Season, you’ll also love this one, and you simply MUST continue. This one reveals so much more about the world and conflict, introduces a new FIRE character, and promises sooooo much to us for book 3.

N.K. Jemisin is such a master world-builder. And though I’ve learned that these books are technically sci-fi, it’s “soft” sci-fi, and they blend in magic and de-center humans in a way that feels true to fantasy. She really knows how to break your heart and make you hope and teach you important things along the way.

On to The Stone Sky!