The Obelisk Gate

Book 2 in the Broken Earth trilogy

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This was a great pleasure to read. Jemisin’s writing is excellent: the pacing of the story, the balance of storylines, the clarity in her character-building, the solidity of the world she’s created, and the science-fictiony bits are fascinating.

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The author is a creative genius. It’s no wonder that this book, like the first in the series, won the Hugo award.

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A moment later Alabaster stirs, lifting his head and uttering a soft groan that throws your thoughts and your heart ten years away before they circle back. He blinks at you in disorientation for a moment, and you realize he doesn’t recognize you with your hair twice as long and your skin weathered and your clothes Season-faded. Then he blinks again, and you take a deep breath, and you’re both back in the here and now.

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This book deals with the love and hate that comprises family ties, a woman and her estranged daughter both coming into their own, separately, at the same time, the shifting of a millennia-old power structure from one race of people to another, friendship, and the creativity and innovative thinking needed to survive difficult times.

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In this book, we finally understand who the narrator is.

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“Crazy” is also what roggas who obey choose to call roggas that don’t. You obeyed, once, because you thought it would make you safe. He showed you—again and again, unrelentingly, he would not let you pretend otherwise—that if obedience did not make one safe from the Guardians or the nodes or the lynchings or the breeding or the disrespect, then what was the point? The game was too rigged to bother playing. You pretended to hate him because you were a coward. But you eventually loved him, and he is part of you now, because you have since grown brave.

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Like with the first book, we understand the scope of the subsequent volume based on the final sentence. The Moon is coming back around. One woman wants to pull it back into orbit, and the other wants to smash the Earth into pieces with it. Both have greater powers than the world has ever seen. The showdown in book three is going to be epic!

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As if noticing her attention, it moves. This feels like the movement of the world. Involuntarily Nassun gasps and leans away, even though nothing changes but the gravity around her, and that only a little. The immensity whips away suddenly, as if it senses her scrutiny. It doesn’t go far, however, and a moment later, the immensity moves again: up. Nassun blinks and opens her eyes to see a statue standing at the edge of the slab, which was not there before.

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This is science fiction excellence. Really recommended.

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