Thursday, September 12, 2019

65:100 The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

The 2nd book in the Broken Earth Trilogy.  Now we know who Essun was and how her choices have shaped her over her lifetime.  She has come to Castrima and found Alabaster again and he has a task that he cannot complete and will ask her to do for him. He will train her to be his weapon, to return the Moon to Father Earth and end the Seasons and change the world forever in ways they can barely contemplate.

But what of her daughter, Nassun, who was taken by her father after he killed their son?  Essun still longs to find her but fate has had other plans.  Nassun walked in on her father, Jija, as he was standing over the body of her brother, Uriche, and she had almost no time to make a choice and she chose to live.  That meant going off with her father wherever he led, learning to read his moods and how to manipulate him so he wouldn't kill her too for the crime of being as she was made, an orogene.  Their path led them eventually to the Antartics where Jija had heard that there was still a functioning Fulcrum and a cure to make orogenes normal.  What they found instead was a damaged Schaffa, who had been Essun's Guardian, who only partly remembered who he was and what his job as a Guardian was along with a small group of orogenes and few more damaged Guardians working with them.  Now Nassun has a place to belong with people who can accept her for who and what she is, and Schaffa who will love her as she feels her parents should have but didn't.  But this is a Season and everything is changing and there is no staying still and no going back, even to the child that Nassun was before this all began.

Wow!  More compelling than the first one.  Shifting between Nassun and Essun, seeing how alike they are but how time and different choices have shaped them.  Beautifully woven and the characters are so rich and deep that it's hard to put down.  Can't wait to read the next one.


Page count: 410p/17,835p ytd/326,530p lifetime

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