★ 07/03/2017
The earthshaking conclusion to Jemisin’s powerful postapocalyptic Broken Earth trilogy (after The Obelisk Gate) finds the fate of a damaged world in the hands of a mother, who wants to save it, and her daughter, who wants to destroy it. Essun believes she is the only person left alive who has the power and skill to open the magical Obelisk Gate and wield its power to save her cataclysm-rocked planet, the Stillness, which is being torn apart by an ancient experiment that got out of hand. But she is caught between that duty and her need to find Nassun, her 10-year-old daughter. Nassun’s father killed her brother and took her away because both children shared their mother’s dangerous talent; he hoped to “cure” her, but instead she has become incredibly powerful. Essun’s search grows urgent when she learns that Nassun is being guided by a dangerous mentor with plans of his own. Jemisin draws Essun and Nassun perfectly, capturing a mother’s guilt and pride and a daughter’s determination to survive on her own terms. The Stillness, where ancient science is powered by magic, is unforgettable. Vivid characters, a tautly constructed plot, and outstanding worldbuilding meld into an impressive and timely story of abused, grieving survivors fighting to fix themselves and save the remnants of their shattered home. Agent: Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency. (Aug.)
" The Stone Sky ... establishes [Jemisin] as arguably the most important speculative writer of her generation... It's that good. She's that good."— John Scalzi, Wall Street Journal
"Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold."— Entertainment Weekly
"[N. K. Jemisin] has pretty well conquered [the epic fantasy scene] with the Broken Earth."— The New York Times
"Jemisin deliberately refuses to provide easy answers: they're simply not available, in this world or ours. Painful and powerful."— Kirkus (starred review)
"Vivid characters, a tautly constructed plot, and outstanding worldbuilding meld into an impressive and timely story of abused, grieving survivors fighting to fix themselves and save the remnants of their shattered home."— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The depth and breadth of Jemisin's achievement with this trilogy is geologic. These books are a revolution in which I want to take part."— NPR Books
"Incredible, wildly original . . . [ The Stone Sky is] blowing me away."— The Verge
"A real tour de force . . . one of the best fantasy trilogies in recent memory."— RT Book Reviews (five stars)
"The powerful conclusion to the "Broken Earth" trilogy will please the author's many fans with its fully developed world, detailed settings, and complex characters."— Library Journal
"[N. K. Jemisin's] books have abstracted real-life race issues in a way that serves to magnify the truth."— Washington Post
"Intricate and extraordinary."— New York Times on The Fifth Season
"[A]n ambitious book, with a shifting point of view, and a protagonist whose full complexity doesn't become apparent till toward the end... Jemisin's work itself is part of a slow but definite change in sci-fi and fantasy."— Guardian on The Fifth Season
"Astounding... Jemisin maintains a gripping voice and an emotional core that not only carries the story through its complicated setting, but sets things up for even more staggering revelations to come."— NPR Books on The Fifth Season
"Jemisin's graceful prose and gritty setting provide the perfect backdrop for this fascinating tale of determined characters fighting to save a doomed world."— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on The Fifth Season
"A must-buy...breaks uncharted ground."— Library Journal (Starred review) on The Fifth Season
"Jemisin might just be the best world builder out there right now.... [She] is a master at what she does."— RT Book Reviews (Top Pick!) on The Fifth Season
"Stunning and well constructed ... a book that imbues itself with deeper meaning the more it unfolds and reveals itself, and by the end, I saw everything in a new light. I knew Jemisin was talented, being a huge fan of her Inheritance and Dreamblood books, but here she employs heretofore unseen skills."— Lightspeed on The Fifth Season
"Brilliant...gorgeous writing and unexpected plot twists."— Washington Post
"One of the most celebrated new voices in epic fantasy."— Salon.com
07/01/2017
Essun is now the planet's most powerful orogene, a human in full possession of the elemental powers. Having unleashed the power of the Gate, destroyed the community that took her in, and killed Alabaster Tenring, she now suffers the same effects that Alabaster was succumbing to. Before she completely turns into stone (the result of wielding her full orogene powers), Essun has two goals: catch the Moon and save the human race, and find her daughter, Nassun. Nassun is on her own quest. She travels with the damaged guardian Schaffa to the other side of the world, where Nassun believes she can find the root of the power she feels. The anger and hatred toward her own kind, until now, has shown her life's darker side. For Nassun, sometimes the only way to fix something is to destroy it. VERDICT The powerful conclusion to the "Broken Earth" trilogy (The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate) will please the author's many fans with its fully developed world, detailed settings, and complex characters.—KC
Narrator Robin Miles keeps up the suspense throughout this dramatic conclusion to the Broken Earth Trilogy, leaping right back into the final moments of the previous title, THE OBELISK GATE. Listeners will be captured by the tense story of Essun and her lost daughter, Nassun, each of whom is working towards saving—or ending—the world. They are powerful orogens who are able to control seismic activity, and each battles the world’s bigotry towards those talents. Miles perfectly embodies the voices of the many characters, including that of Hoa, the ancient narrator who listeners learn had a crucial role in plunging Earth into tectonic chaos 40,000 years ago. Listen and be transported to a meticulously built world that serves as a dire warning about the dangers of prejudice and power. E.E.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Narrator Robin Miles keeps up the suspense throughout this dramatic conclusion to the Broken Earth Trilogy, leaping right back into the final moments of the previous title, THE OBELISK GATE. Listeners will be captured by the tense story of Essun and her lost daughter, Nassun, each of whom is working towards saving—or ending—the world. They are powerful orogens who are able to control seismic activity, and each battles the world’s bigotry towards those talents. Miles perfectly embodies the voices of the many characters, including that of Hoa, the ancient narrator who listeners learn had a crucial role in plunging Earth into tectonic chaos 40,000 years ago. Listen and be transported to a meticulously built world that serves as a dire warning about the dangers of prejudice and power. E.E.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
★ 2017-07-04
Jemisin concludes her Broken Earth trilogy (The Obelisk Gate, 2016, etc.), about a vengeful Earth whose tectonic instability can be controlled by the despised and feared orogenes.Slowly turning to stone as a result of her contact with the Obelisk Gate, Essun nevertheless must repeat that contact to magically grab the long-lost Moon, assuaging the anger of the Earth and ending the devastating Seasons that rock the planet. Meanwhile, her estranged daughter, Nassun, has her own plan to take the Gate for herself and use it to destroy the humans who have responded viciously to the earth shaking and earth-quelling powers of her orogene brethren. Threaded throughout is the story of the stone eater Hoa, who explains his origins from several millennia earlier and how his own struggle to gain his freedom led to the Earth losing the Moon in the first place. Jemisin continues to break the heart with her sensitive, cleareyed depictions of a beyond-dysfunctional family and the extraordinarily destructive force that is prejudice. She wrestles with moral issues at an extreme level: obviously, the cruel discipline and mutilation that orogenes are subjected to violate all standards of decency, and not only is it evil, it's simply the height of idiocy to exterminate the only people capable of calming a constantly tumultuous landscape. But how does one compassionately instill the appropriate discipline in a child who can also casually and inadvertently destroy a village? Can love survive such training? Jemisin deliberately refuses to provide easy answers: they're simply not available, in this world or ours. Painful and powerful.
