Play Book Tag discussion

It's been so long since I read book 1 that I've forgotten a lot of the details - perhaps that's why I felt this second book was paced a little slow. We continue with Essun's story as she settles in the underground community of Castrima, and tries to learn the skills that Alabaster needs to teach her before he dies. For now Essun has put aside her search for her daughter Nessun, but we readers are allowed to follow her as her father flees their town with her, in search of a community rumored to be able to "cure" a person of the ability to manipulate the forces of the earth called orogeny. But Nessun's ability is instead nurtured in secret, and her power grows.

Really, there is no way any of this makes sense to anyone who hasn't read the first book. This is a trilogy that is simply one big story broken up into 3 pieces - and what a story it is. The world-building that astounded me in book 1 continues to amaze here. Jemisin has not yet disappointed with any of her books, and it's easy to see why she won Hugo awards for both book 1 and 2 of this series, the first African-American to win a best novel Hugo. I am going straight to book 3.

A side note: she has an interesting article in her webpage titled "Don't Put My Book in the African American Section" (http://nkjemisin.com/2010/05/dont-put...), and I wholeheartedly agree with her. It belongs squarely in Fantasy/Sci-Fi where fans of the genre should be able to find it, where it stands on its own merits without having to be labeled otherwise simply because of the author's race, which is the only reason libraries put it there as there are really no "black" characters per se in the books. F/SF readers won't be going to the African American section to find their kind of books, and it would be a crying shame for any fans of the genre to miss out on this (and her other) fantastic series.

But as several people have already tagged this African-American, I'm shelving it here.

I too loved the first book. I'm debating whether I should re-read it so that I can read the whole trilogy as one story. I was going to pick this one for the tag this month as well, but realized I left it up at our other house. :-)

I read this one last month and want to get to the final one soon while it is somewhat fresh in my mind.