SF/F Review: The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth #3) by NK Jemisin. https://t.co/3ktjVpIw7a Short Review: 10 out of 10 - A Tour de Force (1/4)— garik16 (@garik16) August 20, 2017
Short Review (cont): The finale to The Broken Earth trilogy finds Essun & Nassun on a collision course as the trauma of repeated abuse (2/4)— garik16 (@garik16) August 20, 2017
The first two books in the Broken Earth trilogy have won the last two Hugo Awards, and deservedly so. With The Stone Sky, NK Jemisin stands a strong chance at being the first ever back to back to back winner for Best Novel, as this book is clearly the strongest of the trilogy....and maybe Jemisin's best Novel ever.Short Review (cont): & discrimination drives each to opposite conclusions on how to change/destroy the world. Devastating & Powerful (3/4)— garik16 (@garik16) August 20, 2017
Unlike my other favorite work of Jemisin - the Inheritance Trilogy - this trilogy does not end on a triumphant note. This is a story of a people - even a whole world - oppressed and abused for no reason other than fear, jealousy and cruelty. There is no way such a story could end triumphantly. But despite this, the story ends Perfectly, on what is essentially a hopeful note, one that wraps up everything really really nicely.
Of course, as one should expect from this series already, the steps between this book and really this whole trilogy's beginning and ending are filled with heartbreaking powerful moments. This trilogy has not been one for the faint of heart, who can't stand to see good people, even children, face tremendous suffering and abuse. Good writing - and Jemisin is my favorite writer at this point for a reason - makes these things hard to read. But the power of this story could not be done in any other way, and it is all worth it in the end.
More after the Jump (Spoilers for The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate are unavoidable).
---------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------
At the end of The Obelisk Gate, Essun has for the first time activated The Obelisk Gate, in order to save her newfound community of Castrima. She still plans to follow Alabaster's plan and restore the moon's orbit in order to try and assuage the angry Earth and save humanity, but now her body is turning to stone with each use of power and her time is running out. And she still wishes to find and maybe save her daughter Nassun.
Meanwhile Nassun, now 10 years old, has killed her own father. She has killed many others in response to the abuse, oppression and discrimination she has seen, the wrongness in the world. And she has decided, with prompting from the stone eater Steel, that this world does not deserve to keep going. And she intends to seize the Obelisk Gate and not catch the moon....but to drive it INTO the Earth and end everything.
But as the Mother and Daughter head for a collision course over the fate of the Earth, one question will also finally be answered: How did the world become this way, with the Earth in constant anger at humanity, a humanity that discriminates and abuses Orogenes with the help of guardians? To conclude the story, this book will finally tell the origin story of the Stillness, when the person now known as Hoa sent the moon away.
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The Broken Earth trilogy has never exactly been subtle about its treatment of discrimination, with many of our main characters being Orogenes who simply wish to be able to live in peace, but finding no other humans seemingly willing to let them be. The Stone Sky is honestly even less subtle - a set of seven chapters details the origins of Hoa and this world (told as usual from Hoa's POV) and its pretty on the nose with the tendency of humanity to oppress and fear those who are different and to discriminate and abuse (or worse). But it works - and honestly, in the current political climate, it's kind of hard to read this and suggest its comments on human nature are wrong in any way.
Again, Jemisin's writing is fantastic...so much so that a lot of this story hurts. Nassun wants to destroy the world, and obviously that seems like an outcome that would be "bad," but given what she's seen in her 10 year old life, particularly from the ages of 8-10, it's hard not to see her point. And Essun's heartbreak at finding out how much she is responsible for breaking Nassun is similarly painful, given how much we know about Essun's OWN history. And then there's the two's climactic reunion - so many many books are structured in such a way that the climax is of two plot-driving characters reuniting at last but fail at making that reunion not seem small, but Jemisin does not fail in this book here. This is a reunion that follows naturally from all that's happened, indeed feels like the only way it could have happened, and is as satisfying as it is devastating.
Oh and the story finally answers the question as to the voice used throughout the series - why Essun's chapters are written in 2nd person, seemingly from the narration of Hoa, but sometimes Essun is referred to as "she" instead of "you," and why Nassun is written in present tense. This answer is really the closest thing to what Jemisin has done in her past books (particularly Inheritance), but again, it works.
For years, I suspect we'll be talking about this series and this book and the story it tells about oppression. Jemisin herself recently started the #antifascistSFF hashtag, and quite simply put, so many parts of this book could be exerpted with that tag. This book, and this whole trilogy, is compelling, powerful, and a perfect story for this real, dark time.
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