The Obelisk Gate
N.K. Jemisin
This review is going to be a lot shorter than my “Fifth Season” review, I promise! The two volumes are more or less a seamless book, so everything I said there pretty much goes for this one too. I liked “The Obelisk Gate” a little bit less, mostly because I found the Nassun story a little less compelling than the Essun story. (In part I think Nassun isn’t sufficiently differentiated from her mother, kind of coming across as “super-Essun”.) But there is a lot of cool stuff to recommend the OG too. Ykka is another great character (I think we met her at the end of the FS, but she really becomes an important character here). Schaffa is really fleshed out in a way that he wasn’t in the FS. Essun continues to be an awesome badass. Probably my favorite part of this second volume is learning more about the Stone Eaters and how they are related to “normal” people as well as to the current state of the Stillness.
I really, really hope someone has optioned these books for a movie adaptation. Especially if they don’t whitewash the cast (most of the characters are described as dark-skinned). The Stone Eaters would be awesome portrayed on screen, as would orogeny.
Third book comes out in August. Shut up and take my money!