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The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, 3) Paperback – August 15, 2017
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The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women.
Essun has inherited the power of Alabaster Tenring. With it, she hopes to find her daughter Nassun and forge a world in which every orogene child can grow up safe.
For Nassun, her mother's mastery of the Obelisk Gate comes too late. She has seen the evil of the world, and accepted what her mother will not admit: that sometimes what is corrupt cannot be cleansed, only destroyed.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOrbit
- Publication dateAugust 15, 2017
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.5 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100316229245
- ISBN-13978-0316229241
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"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
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Orbit; Reprint edition (August 15, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0316229245
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316229241
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.5 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #14,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #787 in Fantasy Action & Adventure
- #1,263 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
- #1,587 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author who won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. She previously won the Locus Award for her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and her short fiction and novels have been nominated multiple times for Hugo, World Fantasy, and Nebula awards, and shortlisted for the Crawford and the James Tiptree, Jr. awards. She is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for the New York Times, and you can find her online at nkjemisin.com.
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The Obelisk Gate 4 Stars
The Stone Sky 5 Evil Earth Stars.
Overall Series 4.5 Stars.
If you didn’t give this series a go because it is listed as Sci-Fi, don’t let that deter you. This is probably one of the best completed Sci-Fi fantasy series I’ve read in a while.
As the third book in a very strong and genuinely unique series I had a lot of expectations going into the final book. There were so many things I wanted to know and the story had been so strong that I was worried it couldn’t finish out just as strongly. I have no idea now why I was so worried because N.K. Jemisin delivered up to the very last page.
***“I think,” Hoa says slowly, “that if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back.”***
I’m going to give N.K. Jemisin some huge props for the way she tells this story. It is told from the perspective of three different people but it is told by a single individual. It sounds so much more complicated than it is and in the context of the story it makes perfect sense.
There were certain things that I really wanted from this story.
① - I wanted to know so much more about the Stone Eaters. Who they are? How they came/come into being? Why they are fighting a war? What does the second faction want? I got answers to all of these questions any more. It was amazing to learn the history of the Stone Eaters and Hoa specifically. His story had so many true surprises and the world building around his story was really phenomenal.
***I’m tired, and overwhelmed, and perhaps a little angry. This day has upended my sense of self. I’ve spent my whole life knowing I was a tool, yes; not a person, but at least a symbol of power and brilliance and pride. Now I know I’m really just a symbol of paranoia and greed and hate. It’s a lot to deal with.***
② - I wanted a satisfying ending. Let’s not confuse that with a perfect ending or a happily ever after ending. This is the end of the world we are talking about so I went in knowing that not everyone will make it to the other side of the book alive. I also know that there will be some painful moments that will possibly crush all of my feelings. I can handle all of those things if a story is told well and it isn’t just thrown in for shock value. I have read quite a few books lately that leave the end with an unfinished feeling to them and it really isn’t my favorite thing.
For me, the ending was very satisfying. When all of the stuff happens near the end I understood all of the sides and the emotions and why the characters made the choices they made even if it was painful to watch them make those horrible choices. I loved how Essun wanted so desperately to be able to be the mother Nassun needed. I loved that Nassun found someone to love like a father since her father couldn’t find a way to love all of her. I loved how Hoa was there for Essun through her entire journey with the patience and strength of a Mountain. Hoa’s understanding of humans and the choices they make is definitely born of someone who has lived millennia.
***(She is such a good child, at her core. Don’t be angry with her. She can only make choices within the limited set of her experiences, and it isn’t her fault that so many of those experiences have been terrible. Marvel, instead, at how easily she loves, how thoroughly. Love enough to change the world! She learned how to love like this from somewhere.)***
③ - I wanted Essun and Nassun to meet. They did and they are different people than they were the 2 years before. It was very emotional. That is all I can really say about that without spoiling something big.
④ - I wanted to know what happened to Alabaster. I had a few ideas that were totally confirmed in this. I feel good knowing more about why Antimony ate him and why Hoa is going to eat Essun.
***“This isn’t what you think of it,” Hoa says, and for an instant you worry that he can read your mind. More likely it’s just the fact that he’s as old as the literal hills, and he can read your face. “You see what was lost in us, but we gained, too. This is not the ugly thing it seems.”
It seems like he’s going to eat your arm. You’re okay with it, but you want to understand. “What is it, then? Why …” You shake your head, unsure of even what question to ask. Maybe why doesn’t matter. Maybe you can’t understand. Maybe this isn’t meant for you.***
⑤ - I wanted to know more about Father Earth. We get this too and more than I really expected. The origin story of the seasons and how the moon was lost explained so much. Once upon a time the saying was evil death and not evil earth. Oh but the new saying is fitting for so many reasons and I understood completely why Alabaster would want to be given to Antimony and never buried in the earth.
***So where they should have seen a living being, they saw only another thing to exploit. Where they should have asked, or left alone, they raped. For some crimes, there is no fitting justice—only reparation.***
There are really so many great things about this story. It was innovative and had some extremely cool ideas and cultures in it. It is a bit unique. The heroine is a woman in her forties with children and I really appreciate that as someone not in their twenties anymore. Just because you get older doesn’t mean that all the interesting stuff happens to other people. I keep forgetting to mention that most of the characters are brown and black. I’m not one to pay super close attention to all of the character descriptions but it is really strange to read a book where there are not any blond/blue eyed characters and that most of the descriptions of hair are ash blown and bottlebrush. The narrator is a character in the book and speaks in the voice of two other characters in the book if you read The Book Thief then you will have an idea of how that works.
This was a truly wonderfully written series from beginning to end and I’m so glad that I didn’t know it was classified as Sci-Fi when I started or else it would have probably passed me by. I much prefer to think of this as dystopianesk fantasy since fantasy is my comfort zone.
Audio Note: Robin Miles has done a fantastic job performing the entire series. It is one of my favorite audio presentations this year so far.
There's that hedge again, the one I've been talking about for the last two years when discussing the other two books in the series, THE FIFTH SEASON and THE OBELISK GATE. It looks and feels like fantasy, given some of the trappings and the subject matter, but there is more than a hint of science fiction here, just enough to make the reader think that Jemisin was intentionally blurring the lines between the two genres. That blurring, whether intentional or not, is glorious and wonderful. Both fantasy and science fiction play a huge part in THE STONE SKY and ultimately bringing the trilogy to what can only be called a stunning and outstanding conclusion.
The novel follows three different stories. The two main stories - or so we think they're the main stories - are those of Essun and Nassun, mother and daughter orogenes. Essun wakes up from a coma after using the titular Obelisk Gate of the previous book to destroy the enemies of Castrima. A nasty side effect of the usage of the Obelisk Gate is that she is partially transformed into a Stone Eater. Essun has learned that the Moon is quickly approaching the planet from the distant part of its long elliptical orbit. She needs to use Obelisk Gate to capture the Moon and put it back in its orbit, thus ending the destructive cycle of Fifth Seasons. Nassun, who is angry and despondent over having killed her father using the power of an obelisk, wants to cause the Moon to collide with the Earth and destroy both. Nassun is accompanied by the guardian Schaffa, who agrees to help her in her quest. Both Essun and Nassun travel to the city of Corepoint in order to control the Obelisk Gate. It is there that they meet in a final confrontation for the future of the Earth, Moon, and humanity.
The third story is one that makes this a most satisfying novel for me. It begins thousands of years in the past and in a place called Syl Anagist. The story told in this portion of the novel, interspersed among the other two, takes place over a long period of time, and through its telling the reader comes to understand just how the world got into the predicament it is. This is the piece of the story that gives the novel its science fictional flavor with a dash of magic, as we learn how the Stone Eaters were created and how the Moon was thrown off its course. Through a bit of hand wavium that we really don't seem to mind, characters are transported to the Moon itself to finish their task. The goal is to start the Plutonic Engine, involves something called Geoarcanity, as well as human conductors in a grand plot that, if the novel didn't have enough, presents the reader with a sense of wonder that, barring things like Cixin Liu's The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy hasn't been seen around these parts in awhile. But the novel does have other scenes that make the readers shake their heads in awe; Nassun travelling *through* the planet to get the to City of Corepoint to where she can destroy the world. The journey involves a breathtaking "fly by" of the Earth's core. Their transportation to Corepoint originates in a glorious, awe-inspiring city in the arctic where Nassun learns some secrets of the past.
This novel is about a lot of things: family, growth, and loss play a big part in the story, as does a sense of the other and the outsider. All of these and more are woven throughout the entire story. Essun and Nassun, mother and daughter, who have lost a husband and a father; Nassun, who has lost the only person, Schaffa, who she believes has ever cared for her; Essun, who has lost more than one loved one, the most recent being Lerna, the father of her unborn child; the growth of Nassun as she learns what is more important; the outsider and admittedly vicious treatment of the orogenes by the stills; the list goes on and on. Jemisin weaves it all and more into one of the most satisfying conclusion to a series in a long time.
A story like The Broken Earth comes along, I think, once in a lifetime. I've written more than once that the true test of how good a story might be is how long from now it will still be talked about. Ann Leckie's the Imperial Radch series, the aforementioned Cixin Liu series, and now The Broken Earth, have all entered our collective consciousness within the last decade or so. Whether any of them stand the test of time is yet to be determined. I think we'd be wise to put our money on The Broken Earth. Those of us who will still be around in 20 years need to check back and see if it was money well spent. I have a feeling it will be.
Top reviews from other countries
This is a trilogy Every person should read. It reminds us the world is a living thing we depend on and would not exist without. More than that, it highlights how our worldly experiences and societal "norms" are anything but normal. We live on an ever changing, dynamic landscape or deterministic outcomes. Our actions today have impacts for generations to come. Environmentally, Culturally, Systematically.
Loved every word from start to finish!
At the end I like it, but it was kind of hard to get to the end.













