2.5/5 StarsBuddy read with the lovely Melanie!The Obelisk Gate just won the Hugo Award 2017 for Best Novel of the year category, and coincidentally, I finished reading the book on the same day the result of the award was announced. Sadly, it’s not a happy coincidence because I highly disagree with it.This is probably the most unpopular opinion I ever wrote so far. At the time of posting this review, out of 12470 ratings, less than 200 readers rated this book below 3 stars, I am one of them. I lo...

I thought I wasn't going to like this one as much as the first book. The pace was a bit slow... but the ending was great and I'm looking forward to the third one!

There's something so special about this series.I'm not going to lie, it's a bit complicated. It takes its sweet time revealing bits and pieces of itself to the reader. The magic isn't always intuitive, the characters' motivations aren't always laid out nicely and neatly. But it's always fascinating and keeps me asking questions. It's not a series I would recommend for those of us without patience. It's unique second person point of view is, again, one of the best uses of this perspective I hav...

“Being useful to others is not the same thing as being equal.”This series has been the most unexpected but welcome surprise for me this year. I can’t overstate how utterly fantastic N.K. Jemisin’s work is in this trilogy. I don’t know that I’ve read a sci-fi/dystopian/fantasy that better understands the human condition than The Broken Earth trilogy does.We are back with Essun as she tries to either save or destroy the world, I don’t think anyone is sure which yet. She’s recently reunited with Al...

So I read this right after I finished the first one and I read the third one right after. I have to say that I found this to be my favorite out of the three books and the strongest out of the trilogy. Personally I didn't quite like the parts of the book written through second person POV and it felt really weird when it was addressing it directly to the person reading. I think what I enjoyed most about this book was the character development and the complexity brought to the characters we met in

*** 4.44 ***I did not wait for a buddy read, because after finishing the first book I HAD TO KNOW!!! I engulfed this one in a day and have to say, despite loving the heck out of it, my thirst to KNOW is not quenched... I need the third book right now, but alas, I will have to wait like a good and patient reader and preorder it, so I can have it as soon as it comes out, if not possible to get it earlier. "..."Life cannot exist without the Earth.Yet there is a not-unsubstantiated chance that li...

The Fifth Season: ★★★★The Obelisk Gate: ★★★★The Stone Sky: ★★★★ 1/2I will keep this short review spoiler-free even for the first book. This book continues from where the Fifth Season left off but also introduces a new important player. Expectations are very tricky. Sure, we all learned by now to lower our expectations for highly praised books (even if we don’t always do after all). But what about books that we are expecting to dislike? And read some reviews that convinced us that this is book is...

It’s wrong to hurt someone you love. It’s wrong. It’s wrong. It has always been wrong.Spoilers follow, and a discussion of child abuse.So What’s It About?“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 da...

To summarize, it seems even the best authors can fall victim to Middle Book Syndrome.I still adore N.K. Jemisin, I still think she's a goddess. The Obelisk Gate just didn't do it for me. The first book in this series, The Fifth Season, was just so exciting. It was filled with incredible world-building and a well-paced journey with a complex and likable heroine. But whereas The Fifth Season was probably 70% backstory, I should really have known this installment would focus more on the present.The...

"It's never a waste of time to educate others." With an impeccable foundation laid through The Fifth Season, the second book of The Broken Earth is all about bringing the reader up to speed on all things present. With the three character threads in the first book been already woven into a single complex storyline, Jemisin has finally found the time to introduce Nassun into the group. We are finally being told the entire backstory of Essun's family until now, filling probably the most annoying

So I listened to this the first time on audio instead of reading my paperback. As most of you know I only like doing re-reads on audio because I miss too much on first time reads but it's all good. Once again, even though I didn't understand all that was going on (same thing happened when I read the first book by paperback) some of the time I still loved it. I'm so weird that way. 😳Nassun is off with her horrible father and some peeps and her mother, Essun is off doing her thing. These books are...

Edit 8/11/17HUGO WINNER for 2017!!!!! That's the second one in a row for the SAME series! :) And since I've already read the third one and squealed all over it, I'm going on a limb and calling it three Hugos in a row.Don't hate me if I'm right! :)Original review:My mind cannot stop dancing with joy after reading this. You might say that I'm dancing with Father Earth, enjoying the reveals as one would enjoy the unearthing of so many gems of storytelling awesomeness.The world-building is still sha...

▐ WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARDS 2017 for best novel▐4.5 stars. I see you. "I can't stand Fantasy novels! They're all the same! There are too many characters! It's predictable! Unrealistic! Not diverse!" ← Trust me, I hear you. The Obelisk Gate is different, though, and here's why you should give it a chance :① You're very tired of reading the same uninspired writing over and over again? Fear no more! N.K. Jemisin's writing is nothing short of fantastic, with perhaps the best second Person POV I'...

1.) The Fifth Season ★★★★★Buddy Read with Petrik ❤I finished this book just after it won its Hugo award for the best novel of 2017. This and The Fifth Season are so deserving of the awards and praise they receive. These books leave me wordless, because there is no explaining how much of a meaningful impact these books have on the world, let alone the SFF community. All I can truly say is thank you to N.K. Jemisin for this world, these characters, and these important messages that continue to ren...

“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.” So... that was good. That was really, really good.I think… I talked about what makes this series special thematically a lot in my review for The Fifth Season. But I genuinely think the core of this series, the thing that makes it so impactful, is how it talks about oppression. I was really looking at orogeny in book one

This Review ✍️ Blog 📖 Twitter 🐦 Instagram 📷 “It’s not hate that you’re seeing. Hate requires emotion. What this woman has simply done is realize that you are a rogga, and decide that you aren’t a person, just like that.” Actual Rating: 2.5 starsYou, SurprisedYou are disappointed, you liked book 1. You actually had a gut feeling that book 2 will not be as good which made you keep putting reading it off. Your instinct seems right. You actually was bored while reading the book and confuse...

I'd recommend starting this directly after Fifth Season, and I'm about to start Stone Sky right now, treating the trilogy like one book.

Not as good as the first one imo but still extremely good.

4.5 stars.The Obelisk Gate may feel like a middle book, but it is an excellent one. Before I start, I just have to say that this book's cover is my favourite of the trilogy. I absolutely love its colours and beautiful stone design so evocative of past civilisations' architecture. 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...

This book transitions very nicely from where The Fifth Season left off. We backtrack in time a bit to follow the journey Essun's daughter Nassun took with her father, Jija, and then the rest of the book runs in a parallel timeline following Essun in Castrima and Nassun further South in Jekity.Jemisin has a wonderful storyteller's voice, which she uses to great effect here. The pain inflicted on Essun by her time with the Fulcrum continues to reverberate down through to Nassun, as Nassun begins a...