≫ Read Free The Obelisk Gate The Broken Earth Book 2 WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD 2017 Broken Earth Trilogy N K Jemisin 9780356508368 Books

The Obelisk Gate The Broken Earth Book 2 WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD 2017 Broken Earth Trilogy N K Jemisin 9780356508368 Books

Download As PDF : The Obelisk Gate The Broken Earth Book 2 WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD 2017 Broken Earth Trilogy N K Jemisin 9780356508368 Books

The Obelisk Gate The Broken Earth Book 2 WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD 2017 Broken Earth Trilogy N K Jemisin 9780356508368 Books

The sequel to the Hugo Award winning The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin's The Obelisk Gate returns to the Stillness as the aftermath of its latest natural disaster takes hold. Essun, the earth-manipulating orogene from TFS, has chosen to stay in the settlement of Castrima to help them with (for lack of a better word) "doomsday preparations" and to train with her former mentor Alabaster Tenring. What is Alabaster's mission for her? A staggering feat that, if successful, could seal the fate of their world. Meanwhile, Essun's 10-year-old daughter Nassun, who was kidnapped in TFS, journeys with her volatile father to a community rumored to "cleanse" orogenes of their powers. Yet Nassun's gifts rapidly mature, and she learns to use them in unimaginable ways - with consequences that could weigh just as heavy as those from her mother's task.

I'm sure that summary will confuse people who haven't read this series yet. But it's difficult to say more without revealing too much of The Obelisk Gate's incredible world-building and the story itself. We learn much more about the Stillness, especially the obelisks and the stone eaters. Questions that were posed during TFS are answered, and more mysteries arise. There were also moments when I ached for Essun, Nassun, Alabaster, and Essun's stone-eater friend Hoa. (That Hoa scene in particular nearly made me cry.) All the emotional investment and immersion made The Obelisk Gate impossible to put down - and when I was forced to put it down, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Normally I'd use this space for criticisms... But I have none. Sure, The Obelisk Gate is intricate in its plotting and unorthodox in structure (e.g., Jemisin still uses second-person narration for Essun's chapters). But after reading TFS and other novels by Jemisin over the past year, I've learned she has reasons for her unconventional choices - and those reasons always reveal themselves in time. So I sat back, absorbed each chapter's events and the characters' choices, and let my speculations percolate. And based on The Obelisk Gate's climax... Oh my word. The Broken Earth is shaping up to be an outstanding trilogy, and I'm so nervous-yet-scared-to-death for its finale next year. Fantasy readers who haven't started this series need to get on it - but make sure you start with The Fifth Season, because The Obelisk Gate won't make sense otherwise.


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The Obelisk Gate The Broken Earth Book 2 WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD 2017 Broken Earth Trilogy N K Jemisin 9780356508368 Books Reviews

There’s a reason NK Jemisin won the 2016 Hugo for the first book in this series, The Fifth Season. A lot of reasons, actually. And they just get better in The Obelisk Gate.

Take the magic. A looked-down on (rather than the fantasy-trope of revered) class of gifted people can control the forces of the earth, drawing up heat and causing earthquakes in a setting already known for cataclysmic earthquakes every few thousand years. In The Obelisk Gate, Jemisin takes that magic deeper (boldly naming it ‘magic,’ a word fantasy authors have shied away from lately), and adds another layer onto it, building to some epic moments later in the book.

Take the characters. Jemisin’s background as a psychotherapist shines here. I don’t think I’ve read deeper, more complex, more real and loveable-while-hateable-or-vice-versa characters anywhere in fantasy. They are truly top-notch, and in The Obelisk Gate she pushes her characters deeper in quasi-redeeming the villains of the first book, while making her twin protagonists do some pretty terrible things in the name of what they believe in—and they are all written with such attention to the finer points of the human spirit that you walk away feeling more like you’ve read Dostoevsky than Heinlein.

Okay, not to sing only praises this feels like a middle book. Which is to say, the plot is as much a recovery from book one and a build to book three as it is a story unto itself. Not to say it isn’t wonderful and engrossing, but it is those things kind of like The Two Towers is wonderful and engrossing with a stress on middles rather than the tight beginning-middle-end we love from well-told tales.

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People say N.K. Jemisin is on the literary end of speculative fiction, but despite unabashedly using second-person for much of the tale, it never comes off as experimentally opaque or different for the sake of being different. The story sucks you in, the plot moves, the magic’s cool—it really just feels like she added a literary depth of character and experimentation with prose to all the things we fantasy readers love about our genre. Not many authors can do that, but Jemisin nails it. At 120,000 words it’s a decent-length book, but I’m not sure it took me two nights to finish (though they were late nights).

Enough praises. This is well worth a read, for pretty much anyone except a Sad Puppy—and it would probably do them some good too. No wonder it’s nominated for a Nebula Award this year. I usually end with some kind of “for fans of this,” or “if you like that” kind of reading recommendation, but no need in this case. Read it.
If you've read the Fifth Season, you have been waiting on pins and needles for this sequel. If you haven't read The Fifth Season, go do that NOW. Don't worry, we'll wait.

The Obelisk Gate further develops the world we began to see int he first book. We learn more about the Fulcrum, the Guardians, the obelisks--and even more importantly--about the lives and motivations of characters we have come to love/hate/fear. Essun, as a woman in her mid forties is not your average protagonist. But she is someone who feels a million times more human and relatable than the cardboard cut out perfect princesses of urban fantasy. She is both powerful and humble, kind and cruel, she makes mistakes and has victories. She is in short, a person. And you can feel her blood, sweat and fears throughout the novel.

We finally get to meet Nassun, and understand what is like to be the daughter of such a strong and damaged woman like Essun. We learn more about Hoa. And the dark adversary that Alabaster fights is finally revealed.

This is not a novel that suffers from Second Book Syndrome. So much happens and yet nothing feels rushed. Another brilliant entry into an epic and unforgettable series.

What the hell am I supposed to do with myself until the next book is released?
The sequel to the Hugo Award winning The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin's The Obelisk Gate returns to the Stillness as the aftermath of its latest natural disaster takes hold. Essun, the earth-manipulating orogene from TFS, has chosen to stay in the settlement of Castrima to help them with (for lack of a better word) "doomsday preparations" and to train with her former mentor Alabaster Tenring. What is Alabaster's mission for her? A staggering feat that, if successful, could seal the fate of their world. Meanwhile, Essun's 10-year-old daughter Nassun, who was kidnapped in TFS, journeys with her volatile father to a community rumored to "cleanse" orogenes of their powers. Yet Nassun's gifts rapidly mature, and she learns to use them in unimaginable ways - with consequences that could weigh just as heavy as those from her mother's task.

I'm sure that summary will confuse people who haven't read this series yet. But it's difficult to say more without revealing too much of The Obelisk Gate's incredible world-building and the story itself. We learn much more about the Stillness, especially the obelisks and the stone eaters. Questions that were posed during TFS are answered, and more mysteries arise. There were also moments when I ached for Essun, Nassun, Alabaster, and Essun's stone-eater friend Hoa. (That Hoa scene in particular nearly made me cry.) All the emotional investment and immersion made The Obelisk Gate impossible to put down - and when I was forced to put it down, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Normally I'd use this space for criticisms... But I have none. Sure, The Obelisk Gate is intricate in its plotting and unorthodox in structure (e.g., Jemisin still uses second-person narration for Essun's chapters). But after reading TFS and other novels by Jemisin over the past year, I've learned she has reasons for her unconventional choices - and those reasons always reveal themselves in time. So I sat back, absorbed each chapter's events and the characters' choices, and let my speculations percolate. And based on The Obelisk Gate's climax... Oh my word. The Broken Earth is shaping up to be an outstanding trilogy, and I'm so nervous-yet-scared-to-death for its finale next year. Fantasy readers who haven't started this series need to get on it - but make sure you start with The Fifth Season, because The Obelisk Gate won't make sense otherwise.