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> Genre: Fantasy > The Best of the Trilogy

The Best of the Trilogy

The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin

November 5, 2020 by Ale 1 Comment

 

While the whole Broken Earth series was incredibly deserving of the Hugo award, the Stone Sky, in particular, was a feat of literary perfection (at least in my opinion). As I’ve said with both of Jemisin’s previous novels, her ability to successfully deploy second person POV continued to astound me in this last chapter of her epic, and while hints are given in book two of who this narrative voice is, it all comes roaring to the surface in book three.

As with any trilogy, to give away any of the plot is complicated since it’s so intrinsically tied to the first two volumes, but we’ll suffice it to say Jemisin pulls out all the stops in this one, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so satisfied with a story ending. But let’s take a moment to talk about craft; Jemisin has this amazing ability to stroke out a broad, and almost vague sentence that cuts closer and more debilitating than any showy paragraph. At one point towards the middle of the novel, Essun is traveling across the wastelands of her continent with her comm in the hopes of finding a new shelter, and the one paragraph simply suggesting the cannibalism, death, and horror they face is so much more cutting than if Jemisin had described it all.

There’s a definite less-is-more about Jemisin’s writing that both keeps the reader at a distance, but pulls the reader into the depths of these characters’ minds. It’s a reading experience I’ve never encountered before, and by the end of this series, I couldn’t get enough of it. And I’m not really doing it justice in this review, the writing is one of those things that just has to be experienced, so please, if you love speculative fiction, read this series. It’s worth it.

5 stars.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: broken earth trilogy, Hugo Award, NK Jemisin, Stone eaters, the fifth season

Ale's CBR12 Review No:24 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: broken earth trilogy, Hugo Award, NK Jemisin, Stone eaters, the fifth season ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

About Ale

CBR13 participantCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR10 participantCBR  9CBR 8CBR 7

I'm adjuncting in creative writing, and I'm in the midst of editing my first novel. Along with CBR, I have book reviews published with "The Literary Review," short essay with "Fiction Southeast" and a forthcoming publication with "The Book Smuggler's Den." CBR has definitely helped my writing skills since now I know what readers are looking for for in their works. So, thank you, CBR! Hopefully someday, we'll be able to review my novel on this blog. :) View Ale's reviews»

Comments

  1. Merryn says

    November 10, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    Great to hear. I’ve been saving Chapter 3 and just moved it up my TBR list.

    Reply

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