The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Section 3

Discuss the events of Chapters 12-End and/or the book/series as a whole.

No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling things for your good read friends.

Referring back to events from a previous section/book is fine.

I thought the ending was quite apt - it made sense, and it REALLY made sense why Hoa has been the narrator of this book. I feel slightly hampered commenting because while I loved the audio format, I can't remember the names of anything! Anyway, I thought this was satisfying - the various threads came together well. I really wondered what would happen when Essun and Nassun met up - it has always sounded as if Essun wasn't the kindest of mothers, and I thought that part was quite realistic. The last battle with Essun basically giving up because she loved her daughter was touching, and I thought Nassuns conflicted feelings about ending the world...or not.... were well done. I didn't totally understand the battle between the stone eaters and how it was resolved other than kind of the basic "Hoa won."

I think the anchor of it all was Hoa/Houwha's story, and particularly in how the implications of it resonate throughout this and the previous books.

One of the things that struck me most was the emphasis on how everything about how the roggers were treated in the present was a choice, dictated because they were necessary, and because they were necessary were not to get any say in how they were to be utilized. From that point of view, everything that follows, The Fulcrum, the node maintainers and the Guardians are all just the same choice being made over and over.

These people are necessary for survival. They must be used for survival. People can choose not to be used. Therefore ... they can't be people. There's such a horrible logic to that. But Castima shows that there was always another way.

I liked the note of hope at the end too - the idea that the status quo COULD be changed - and also the realism that the change of ingrained hatreds is very difficult.

I really liked the ending too, I felt it was a very satisfying conclusion to the whole trilogy and made everything fall into their proper place.

Lindsay wrote: "...One of the things that struck me most was the emphasis on how everything about how the roggers were treated in the present was a choice..."

I always felt this book was about the oppression of minorities and how easily we start doing what everyone is doing… I also understood that this was the reason why Alabaster destroyed the world in the first place: to start anew. I liked the ending in that regard as well (how Hoa instructed Nassun), although I feel not very optimistic that humanity will ever manage it.

I don't feel very optimistic either, but I love that they are determined to try. I liked that Hoa mentioned that to do it you would have to be strong/powerful sometimes.

I think much like the last book, this book was good/satisfying, but fell short of my (impossibly high) expectations after how great The Fifth Season.

I kind of got the ending I was hoping for. Essun and Nassun didn't exactly reconcile, but they kind of did. And the moon is back.

I honestly didn't think that would happen.

I still think her use of different narrative styles and how that ended up working into the story itself was brilliant.

I'm looking forward to see what she does next. Of course I have the first books of both of her previous series on my owned and unread pile as well.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is amazing.

Suzanne wrote: "... I didn't totally understand the battle between the stone eaters and how it was resolved other than kind of the basic "Hoa won."

From what I got from the ending, I believe that Remwha (Steel/Gray Man) simply wanted to destroy the Earth because they were tired of living. When Steel is explaining to Nassun about what she could do for Schaffa, he's making hints about what it's like to live forever and you can really see how it's affecting him:
"...So whether he heals somehow, or you change him into one of my kind, he will have no choice but to go on, alone, endlessly yearning for what he will never again have... You have no idea what that's like."
And then later when all of the Stone Eaters gather when all is said and done Remwha says "I only wanted it to end."
So Hoa wanted to fix things, but he didn't really have 'a side' because none of the stone eaters appeared to be uniform about how they thought they could accomplish this. And then any of the stone eaters that were just done with living forever, like Remwha, they were hoping that someone would just end their eternal lives/fight with 'Evil Earth'. I personally don't blame them. They had been expecting to die, and instead, they ended up 'living' forever and making a serious enemy at the same time.
To me, it felt like Remwha lost his humanity so much so that he wanted to destroy the world so he wouldn't live forever, but the events with Essun and Nassun set the Earth back on track instead of destroying it and that probably just defeated him. Now he and the other stone eaters have to live forever.

At least, that's how I understand it!

Thanks for the insights! That makes a lot of sense. And it also makes all of the motivations very understandable.

I'm rereading the series. In the beginning of The Fifth Season, the man speaking to the "woman" is Alabaster speaking to Antimony and it's the moment when he breaks the world and starts the Fifth season?

WOW... N.K. Jemisin is epically brilliant!

I think I'll likely reread this series at some point, but probably not right away. Knowing the details of the narration would make for some interesting foreshadowing.

That's a pretty interesting discovery Nancy.