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 […]
The Obelisks are so much cooler than previously thought!
Oh my goodness gang! Ms. Jemisin knocks it out of the park yet again. You know how in a lot of trilogies you assume the second book is just filler, getting everyone in place for the final act so you don’t really read it as closely? Yeah, that doesn’t happen here. This one is just as good, and arguably better than The Fifth Season. Spoilers abound below folks. Go read both first. I’ll wait, and then we can all wait impatiently for the final installment […]
The Mother of Fantasy
Oh my goodness gang, I haven’t even started the book club selection for fantasy, but it should have been this one. It’s a little long, but it’s Oh. So. Good. I’ve heard of N.K. Jemisin for a few years, and have been wanting to give her fantasy a try as that’s a genre I’m trying to give a chance right now. Enter an audible sale, a holiday break, and then not wanting it to end so I slowed down my listening. The Fifth Season begins […]
why is nk jemisin so good at words?
Okay, need the third book now, so there’s that. This second book was still really good, but it didn’t feel as revelatory as the first one did. I mean, that was inevitable. (Oh, boy, though nothing like a first book in a series that smacks you upside your head.) Still, this is a great second book. Second books are hard. They’re not as fun as first books, because beginnings are wonderful, but they still have to be interesting and matter without giving too much away […]
Scary, but so good, and so smart.
Sometimes you read a book and you’re like, the hell did I just read? And then other times you’re like THE HELL DID I JUST READ. This is the second one. This is the last novel I had to read before I could vote in this year’s Hugos. I probably wouldn’t have read it for a couple of years otherwise because the older I get and the more fantasy books I’ve got crammed all up in my head, the harder it is for me to […]