The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth Book 2)

The Obelisk Gate is every bit as compelling as the first book in the series. The complexity of the wordbuilding, the evolution of the magic systems, and the gradual revealing of what happened to make Earth the hostile place it has become in Stillness is fantastically executed. The writing style keeps you completely engaged in this story of life and loss with a need to understand what has happened before and what will happen next.Much like the first book, we have different POVs throughout the story. The 2 MCs this time are Essun and her daughter Nassun. Essun’s story picks up where we left her chasing after her husband before he murders her daughter. Along her journey, Essun picks up new companions that will turn out to be uniquely interesting characters and ends up finding a new community that is a combination of orogene and humans living together cooperatively to survive the season. Here Essun stays since she doesn’t know where her daughter is but instead finds a new purpose besids finding her daughter and is reunited with her old mentor/friend Alabaster, who has much to teach her before he dies. Their relationship is complicated, beautiful, and well written, as are all of the relationships in this story.Nassun’s story tells us what happened with her father after he killed her brother for being an orogene and kidnapped her. Their journey is perilous, and Nassun’s childhood is left behind as she matures quickly. She confronts challenging emotional concepts at the core of her story. She also forms important bonds with familiar faces of Essun’s past that are bound to cause great conflict and heartache in the next book.While the mother and daughter are being positioned into opposite sides of a war they knew nothing about until this book, their abilities grow immensely as their understanding of magic expands with their connections to obelisks and stone eaters. Ultimately, they will each go after the moon to repair or destroy the world, but we won’t know which until the next book, which I will be reading immediately!

First impressions: N.K. Jemisin's writing style is a pleasure to read. It flows so naturally that it's very difficult to put the book down once you start reading. Her magic system is brilliant in its complexity and evolution (if not entirely original). Her plotting and explanation of the mysteries within the story are as good as anyone writing today. And her use second person limited in narration is inspired. The only thing that keeps me from rating this book a 5-star is that her characters just aren't as good as some other writers I've read. Still, if you love High Fantasy as I do, this is well worth the read. Can't wait to start the next one!

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 render me speechless.I also finished this book the same night that white supremacists rallied at Charlottesville and spread their hate in my country. The country that says we are past racism. The country that is constantly telling us that we are the greatest and most forward-thinking country of all time. The country that’s passing this hatred and violence off as “free speech”.“But if you stay, no part of this comm gets to decide that any part of this comm is expendable. No voting on who gets to be people.”Literature does represent our real life. The Broken Earth trilogy makes us feel the things it does because it mimics our world today. It shows us the oppression unapologetically, and this oppression doesn’t just live in this SFF book, it’s in our world right now, even if you’re choosing to keep your eyes closed to it. This series is a masterpiece and I hope you read it, but I also hope you learn from it.The Obelisk Gate picks up where The Fifth Season left off, where earth’s civilization is beginning to prepare for a new Season. What doesn’t kill them quickly, will starve them to death slowly. This book mostly follows Essun, one of the most powerful Orogene in existence, where she is trying to live in a new community in a rather strange location. She meets up with old friends who are now also a part of this community, but her thoughts never stray from her daughter that has been missing since the start of The Fifth Season. Essun is also met with new problems and dilemmas that are so much bigger than the community she is residing in.This is one of the most immersive books I’ve ever read. The narrative of this book just forcefully will pull the reader into this broken world, regardless of if they want to or not. You can’t help all the connections you will feel and form subconsciously. You end up with this experience that just feels so real and so emotionally overwhelming. Plus, I read this with so many tears in my eyes constantly, because even though this earth is trying to kill everyone that inhabits it, it is still the humans that are the terrifying villains.Also, this is the most beautifully crafted diverse cast I’ve ever read in any piece of literature. The representation is just on an entirely differently level. And I believe with my whole heart that every other author out there should aspire to seamlessly create their cast of characters like N.K. Jemisin.On top of the amazing diversity and representation, as a woman, I really sympathize with the underlying theme of motherhood throughout this series. I do not currently have any children, but I’d one day like to, and this book just emphasizes that there is no word to describe the love a mother feels for her child/children. Like, this book is heartbreakingly beautiful, and this constant reminder of how it feels to lose a child is something I can’t put into words. I think that is every parents’ greatest fear and this book doesn’t shy away from that topic ever. The heart of this novel is oppression, but the soul of this novel is that there is nothing a parent wouldn’t do to protect their child.“You serve a higher purpose, little one. Not any single man’s desire—not even mine. You were not made for such petty things.”But this all being said, this book does feel like the second book in a series, and it feels like it’s leading up to what I’m sure will be a perfect ending in The Stone Sky. There wasn’t any filler so to speak, but the events very slowly unraveling to put the pieces in place so that everything makes sense. But please, don’t let that stop you from giving this once in a lifetime series a try. It truly is a masterpiece that deserves all the praise and hype that is bestowed upon it.

The plot is starting to thicken and I believe that the two main characters are going to end up fighting. I hope that I can solve this mystery in the next book.This author has the most unique writing style. It really keeps me engaged.

Fascinating view of magic in a world!! Finally something magical but also different from faeries, witches and vampires !!!

If you have read the first novel you already know that you must read the next novel. This is a must. There is a reason for this second hugo award.

Es una gran secuela... prácticamente la continuación del libro. Sigue siendo genial, creo se convertirá en un clásico de la Sci-Fi

Bei "Endzeit"-Romanen bin ich mit dem Kauf eher zurückhaltend, aber nachdem jeder Roman der Trilogie mit dem Hugo ausgezeichnet wurde, habe ich mich doch entschlossen, die Trilogie zu bestellen, und dies hat sich gelohnt. Der Aufbau ist etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, trägt aber durch die verschiedenen Persprektiven der Protagonisten dazu bei, die Erzählung spannend zu machen. Die Gestaltung der Welt, in der die Romane spielen, wie auch die der handelnden Personen, ist völlig neuartig und großartig gelungen. Auch die beiden Fortsetzungen warten mit immer neuen Wendungen auf und wurden zu recht ebenfalls mit dem Hugo ausgezeichnet. In jeder Hinsicht lesenwert!

Todos os livros da série tem uma ótima escrita, com direito boa trama e um encerramento bem interessante no livro três. Recomendo muito, fazia tempo que não lia uma séria tão legal.