SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

The Stone Sky

Today (March 15) starts "The Obelisk Gate" RR and we are organizing "The Stone Sky" BR for all those who are planning to finish the series.

We're starting March 29-ish ;) The date is orientational. Some of us are going to start earlier, some plan necroposting.

I'm looking forward to reading with you. The more the merrier.

The Fifth Season >> First impressions | Final thoughts
The Obelisk Gate >> First impressions | Final thoughts

I'll be joining you, Aga :)

Yey :) I've started "The Obelisk Gate" on Monday, but if you are ready to start "The Stone Sky" go ahead. I should finish the sequel by the end of the week (or I hope so).

I finished The Obelisk Gate early this week and immediately put The Stone Sky on hold. I'm #2 on 2 copies at the library, so hopefully it will be a relatively quick wait!

I've read the prologue and the first chapter. Very strong start! I was really surprised that (view spoiler)[it was Hoa, who started The Seasons. Is he planning to catch the moon or is it a lie? He mentioned before that he is going to betray Essun. (hide spoiler)]

I was worried after taking a break for so long that it might take a while to get back into the story- nope! That prologue sure packed a bang

The series gets better and better. Discovering Hoa's past is my favourite part.

Brilliant, I am about half way through The Stone Sky after racing through the first two books, such a brilliant series!

I am only a few hours short of finishing OG. Some mind-blowing things happening here.

There is some action at the end of OG :) I’m glad I could start the next book right after finishing it.

With a last chapter like that, there was no way I wasn't going to immediately jump in to The Stone Sky!

I'm reading chapter 4. The scene when Shaffa is (view spoiler)[how to kill a comm member to survive (hide spoiler)] gave me chills.(view spoiler)[It's so tragic that because he doesn't want to kill them, he has to teach them how to kill and use it to gain an advantage. (hide spoiler)]

Just finished The Stone Sky :) This trilogy has quickly risen to be one of my favorites!

I realized I'm gradually slowing down because it's the end of the series. I'm curious how it's going to end but at the same time, I want to spend more time with these characters.

@Aga I was the same, it took me a lot longer to finish this book than previous. I have just finished and quite pleased with the ending, lots of feelings! I will definitely miss all of these characters

I hope I will like the ending too.

Just finished the Stone Sky. Will comment when I've thought things over.

I'm still reading :) I've read 50-60% and no signs of Alabaster so far. I wonder if I understood correctly what has happened with him. Is he a stone eater? I hope he will appear in "The Stone Sky".

Finished reading.

I liked this part of "The Broken Earth" trilogy the most. I was just a little surprised by the happy end. Don't get me wrong, I'm satisfied with this ending and IMO it's consistent with the character's development. I think I've expected a grim, heavy conclusion. Hoa started his story in "The Fifth Season" telling Essun (and us) that this is going to be the real end of the world (this time). At the end of "The Stone Sky" is revealed that he tells the whole story to build/preserve Essuns identity while she is becoming a stone eater. At this time he knows it isn't the end of the world just a new beginning. This reminds me of Enya's song "Anywhere is". In fact, the whole story reminds me of this song.

At first I put this aside because I thought I would want to savor it... but then later I put it aside because I was bored 😅

I don't know why, but this one didn't work for me as well as the first two books. I didn't particularly love Hoa's part, which I think was a big part of it.

Also, re: the ending (view spoiler)[ I was also expecting it to be grim/heavy. In fact, I think I would have preferred that a little bit. I was kind of looking forward to a knock-down-drag-out fight with the world getting destroyed. But hey, that's just me. (hide spoiler)]

Emmett wrote: "At first I put this aside because I thought I would want to savor it... but then later I put it aside because I was bored 😅

I don't know why, but this one didn't work for me as well as the first t..."
(view spoiler)[We were promised the end of the world. After finishing the book I was ok with the ending, but after some time has passed I would prefer The Big Fight and a total catastrophe. It would have been more memorable. (hide spoiler)]

TSG Readalong for The Stone Sky, just in case anyone wants to discuss it over yonder.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/readalo...

I'll finish The Obelisk Gate either today or tomorrow and then move right on to The Stone Sky in time for the Virtual Book Club.

Started yesterday. Currently at chapter 3.
Should we use spoiler tags? I will, even if I don't have much to spoiler yet.

Jemisin nails the book opening again.
(view spoiler)[She started The Obelisk Gate with Nassun, after her mother Essun spent the previous book looking for her in the middle of the oncoming Season.
And here, after dropping (some) revelations and (mostly) hints in TOG, she opens with Houwha's previous life and a whole new civilisation. Or rather, old, very old. Wow.
There are major discoveries already in "Syl Anagist: Five", and I expect even more going in. (hide spoiler)]

The typography setting looks effective.
(view spoiler)[Especially in conveying Essun's brief moments of consciousness followed by long blanks as she recovers from using the Obelisk Gate. (hide spoiler)]
I wonder how they make it work for ebooks.

Chapter 8 (40%).

(view spoiler)[Surprisingly, this is the least impressive book of the trilogy. So far. There's almost a placid feeling to the narrative, which is odd, smack in the middle of the Season to end humanity. Or maybe reading the whole trilogy straight through drags you through so many traumas and so much death,cruelty and pain that an extinction-level event is less painful by comparison. (hide spoiler)]

Finished!

Wow. I really wanted to read this trilogy, and it doesn't disappoint.
I see now that the premise of this saga is "what if the hype surrounding it is real?"
On the other hand, this third book is in some sense the weakest of the three. Spoilers follow.
(view spoiler)[
The deus ex machina was a let down. For a good part of the saga, at least until somewhere in book 2, I considered that of course a civilisation so fixated with Earth, tectonics and orogeny would project divinity on the Earth itself rather that on the sky, and portay it as an angry father: Evil Father Earth. This much was ingenious.
But to make it actually sentient? Make it the antagonist? Nah.

Then again, maybe it wasn't. What I mean is that I wanted Jemisin to avoid such easy handwavium, and problematise instead human self-exploitation, hate, racism, &c.
And she's done that abundantly, and brilliantly.

Maybe Evil Earth was never the problem. Humanity is more than capable of making itself miserable.
After all, as the Syl Anagist subplot shows, people were very efficient in dehumanising the "other" well before shooting the Moon out of the sky, and kickstarting the Seasons.
(hide spoiler)]

Besides.
(view spoiler)[
I wanted Essun's and Nassun's reunification to be more than a few minutes tugging at the Obelisk Gate. But maybe Jemisin's managed to tuck that in as well, in the brief moments the two characters shared at the end, and I just have to untagle that, too.
(hide spoiler)]

Or at least this is my impression, minutes after finishing. I do need to think about it much further, and I'm really looking forward to the Virtual Book Club. Speaking of which...

Did anyone dig into the appendix and figure out all the names and places or read any outside information to help them follow the story? I read the three books with hardly any outside input and struggled to follow what was happening. Maybe I should have read more slowly. But some books do a nice job of explaining things along the way and for me The Stone Sky left too much unexplained in a quick read through without any outside reading.

I agree with you @a.g.e.montagner
I too think book 3 is the weakest and a let down
for everything you mentioned
I absolutely LOOOOVED books 1&2
annotated them thoroughly
but book 3 I was just very disappointed
all that hype with Essun and Nessun's apparent reunion only to end like that!
but still, one of the most imaginative trilogies I've ever read