My introduction to the works of N. K. Jemisin was through her Hugo-Award-winning series The Broken Earth. It’s a series I have been pushing on friends and family since I read it last year because it is a whole nother level of OH MY GOD spectacular and deserves every ounce of praise it receives. Go read it now. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms with what one might call high expectations and was understandably somewhat disappointed. The Broken Earth sets the bar just impassably high and by reading things […]
if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back
I finally got around to finishing N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy. I read the first book, The Fifth Season, sometime in 2016 and was mostly waiting for the next two to be published before diving back in. They are phenomenal books, if extremely bleak. However, (and take note grimdark fans) Jemisin manages to create this bleakness without raping her female characters every other page. Bonkers, I know. Survival is paramount in the Stillness. If you cannot contribute to the survival of your people, community, or […]
Now the third one is out, you can read all three in a row!
I give up on writing an intelligent, thoughtful review of this book. It has defeated me for almost two months, and I now take this opportunity to concede. Perhaps eventually I will be able to write coherently and usefully about this series, but for now, I will say that she stuck the landing, she stuck it good, and I will most certainly be revisiting the series as a whole in the future. For now, I will say that I was happy with the ending because it […]
I expect another Hugo coming N.K. Jemisin’s way
The Stone Sky is N.K. Jemisin’s stunning conclusion to “The Broken Earth” trilogy. Books one: The Fifth Season and two: The Obelisk Gate both were awarded the Hugo Award and I expect that The Stone Sky will complete a hat trick for Jemisin by earning her a third Hugo. “The Broken Earth” trilogy examines familial bonds, both created by birth and those we choose to create. They are a cautionary tale about what can happen when a society chooses to treat people as lesser and then takes away the […]