The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, 3) Paperback – August 15, 2017

The Fifth Season 4.5 StarsThe Obelisk Gate 4 StarsThe Stone Sky 5 Evil Earth Stars.Overall Series 4.5 Stars.If you didn’t give this series a go because it is listed as Sci-Fi, don’t let that deter you. This is probably one of the best completed Sci-Fi fantasy series I’ve read in a while.As the third book in a very strong and genuinely unique series I had a lot of expectations going into the final book. There were so many things I wanted to know and the story had been so strong that I was worried it couldn’t finish out just as strongly. I have no idea now why I was so worried because N.K. Jemisin delivered up to the very last page.***“I think,” Hoa says slowly, “that if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back.”***I’m going to give N.K. Jemisin some huge props for the way she tells this story. It is told from the perspective of three different people but it is told by a single individual. It sounds so much more complicated than it is and in the context of the story it makes perfect sense.There were certain things that I really wanted from this story.① - I wanted to know so much more about the Stone Eaters. Who they are? How they came/come into being? Why they are fighting a war? What does the second faction want? I got answers to all of these questions any more. It was amazing to learn the history of the Stone Eaters and Hoa specifically. His story had so many true surprises and the world building around his story was really phenomenal.***I’m tired, and overwhelmed, and perhaps a little angry. This day has upended my sense of self. I’ve spent my whole life knowing I was a tool, yes; not a person, but at least a symbol of power and brilliance and pride. Now I know I’m really just a symbol of paranoia and greed and hate. It’s a lot to deal with.***② - I wanted a satisfying ending. Let’s not confuse that with a perfect ending or a happily ever after ending. This is the end of the world we are talking about so I went in knowing that not everyone will make it to the other side of the book alive. I also know that there will be some painful moments that will possibly crush all of my feelings. I can handle all of those things if a story is told well and it isn’t just thrown in for shock value. I have read quite a few books lately that leave the end with an unfinished feeling to them and it really isn’t my favorite thing.For me, the ending was very satisfying. When all of the stuff happens near the end I understood all of the sides and the emotions and why the characters made the choices they made even if it was painful to watch them make those horrible choices. I loved how Essun wanted so desperately to be able to be the mother Nassun needed. I loved that Nassun found someone to love like a father since her father couldn’t find a way to love all of her. I loved how Hoa was there for Essun through her entire journey with the patience and strength of a Mountain. Hoa’s understanding of humans and the choices they make is definitely born of someone who has lived millennia.***(She is such a good child, at her core. Don’t be angry with her. She can only make choices within the limited set of her experiences, and it isn’t her fault that so many of those experiences have been terrible. Marvel, instead, at how easily she loves, how thoroughly. Love enough to change the world! She learned how to love like this from somewhere.)***③ - I wanted Essun and Nassun to meet. They did and they are different people than they were the 2 years before. It was very emotional. That is all I can really say about that without spoiling something big.④ - I wanted to know what happened to Alabaster. I had a few ideas that were totally confirmed in this. I feel good knowing more about why Antimony ate him and why Hoa is going to eat Essun.***“This isn’t what you think of it,” Hoa says, and for an instant you worry that he can read your mind. More likely it’s just the fact that he’s as old as the literal hills, and he can read your face. “You see what was lost in us, but we gained, too. This is not the ugly thing it seems.”It seems like he’s going to eat your arm. You’re okay with it, but you want to understand. “What is it, then? Why …” You shake your head, unsure of even what question to ask. Maybe why doesn’t matter. Maybe you can’t understand. Maybe this isn’t meant for you.***⑤ - I wanted to know more about Father Earth. We get this too and more than I really expected. The origin story of the seasons and how the moon was lost explained so much. Once upon a time the saying was evil death and not evil earth. Oh but the new saying is fitting for so many reasons and I understood completely why Alabaster would want to be given to Antimony and never buried in the earth.***So where they should have seen a living being, they saw only another thing to exploit. Where they should have asked, or left alone, they raped. For some crimes, there is no fitting justice—only reparation.***There are really so many great things about this story. It was innovative and had some extremely cool ideas and cultures in it. It is a bit unique. The heroine is a woman in her forties with children and I really appreciate that as someone not in their twenties anymore. Just because you get older doesn’t mean that all the interesting stuff happens to other people. I keep forgetting to mention that most of the characters are brown and black. I’m not one to pay super close attention to all of the character descriptions but it is really strange to read a book where there are not any blond/blue eyed characters and that most of the descriptions of hair are ash blown and bottlebrush. The narrator is a character in the book and speaks in the voice of two other characters in the book if you read The Book Thief then you will have an idea of how that works.This was a truly wonderfully written series from beginning to end and I’m so glad that I didn’t know it was classified as Sci-Fi when I started or else it would have probably passed me by. I much prefer to think of this as dystopianesk fantasy since fantasy is my comfort zone.Audio Note: Robin Miles has done a fantastic job performing the entire series. It is one of my favorite audio presentations this year so far.

This book…I can’t form the words to describe it but the story and how it comes together is amazing. I will definitely be doing a re-read some time next year so I can understand the story better. The complexity of the story and characters is out of this world. Alabaster is my favorite character in the end. The main character Essun is a woman who is affected by grief constantly in her life but manages to survive it all in the end… it’s amazing and I love her for that! Nassun is just a girl( literally she’s a child) and I want her to be loved. I love how the story came together in the end.

No one has ever won the Hugo Award for Best Novel three times in a row. Even the list of those who have won it twice consecutively is a very short one: Orson Scott Card (1986, 1987 and don't get me started on that man), Lois McMaster Bujold (1991, 1992) and N. K. Jemisin (2016, 2017). I wonder if 2018 will be the year we have a three-time consecutive winner. This book is as perfect a melding of science fiction and fantasy as I have ever read. The world it gives us is so alien and yet its conflicts and its characters are utterly timeless. It is the best book in the trilogy, and I believe the best fiction book I’ve read this year.I have waited a while to summarize my thoughts on the The Stone Sky, the conclusion of N.K. Jemisin's (who I just cannot stop thinking of as Nora because I want to call her by her name) simply stunning Broken Earth trilogy. It published just when I was returning from the Helsinki WorldCon, where she won her second Hugo for The Obelisk Gate. Things were hectic for me then, as my beloved cat was critically ill. So I put off starting the novel, in order to give it my full attention, and then once I did start the audiobook, narrated by the fabulous Robin Miles, I had to evacuate with my family due to Hurricane Irma. I had made it to almost 80% and more than a few friends kept asking (read: pestering me) if I was finished yet. One was ready to pull her hair out when I told her, after returning home after the hurricane, that I was restarting it, yes, listening to the audiobook again, from the beginning, so I would have no distraction. In truth, part of me didn't want to finish the book, because then… it would be finished. I knew that there was no way there was not going to be heartache at the end of this series. But most of all, the series would be at an end, and you know how it is- that special sadness when you finish a series you love. Once I did finish it, it took a while for me to even form words to put on a page. Because I was blown away. My head still spins from it. It has been many years since I have read a book that has impacted me emotionally as this book has.When we began the series, The Fifth Season gave us a narrow focus on Damaya/Syenite/Essun. In subsequent books, Jemisin has given us a progressively wider view of the horribly flawed (dystopian seems like a mild word) world that Essun lives in. Although the books have given us the wider angle, we still have great depth of field, both with characters, and Earth’s history. While much has been written about Jemisin's awe-inspiring world-building skills, what lingers with me is the depth of her characters. Their complexity, and their all too real emotions, seem almost as if she was giving us her therapeutic insights into people who, by the end of the series, whether stone eaters or orogenes or stills or guardians, have become very real to me. I felt like I knew them, I mourned them, I celebrated them. Her insights into motherhood and shattered childhood are particularly poignant. And the evil Earth? Perhaps the most misunderstood character of all.The Stone Sky manages to answer many questions, about the origins of orogenes, of stone eaters, of guardians and of Seasons. It gives us the perspective of the past 40,000 years through the eyes of Hoa, who becomes a POV character, giving us vital backstory about how we got to this horrible broken place. (We also get brief POV thoughts from Alabaster, btw.) We learn how the Earth got to be broken and most of all, why some things that are broken should just be discarded. But there was so much more to this book than all this. First of all, how often do we see a sci-fi/fantasy series where the main character is a middle-aged mother of three? How often do we see the protagonists trying to destroy their world rather than preserving it? How often do you have your two protagonists acting in direct opposition to one another yet remaining... protagonists? Can we possibly choose between Nassun and Essun, given what we know about them and about what they have suffered? Most of all, The Stone Sky gives us the backdrop of Earth’s history- its cycles of oppression, the enslavement of one race or another, the violence visited upon the planet, all proving time and time again that this Earth, these people, are so broken that it is almost impossible to envision fixing things without destroying everything and simply starting over (exactly Nassun’s take). Alabaster’s vision, of recapturing the Moon into the Earth's gravitational field to end the cycles of cataclysmic fifth seasons, seems at times like it could never possibly be enough to right what is wrong. Because what’s wrong is more than just geological and meteorological. The culture of abuse, enslavement are repeated again and again. And yet, removing fifth seasons could change the balance of those left living on the Earth, thereby possibly changing the Earth itself.As she says in her moving Afterward, “Where there is pain in this book, it is real pain; where there is anger, it is real anger; where there is love, it is real love. You’ve been taking this journey with me, and you’re always going to get the best of what I’ve got…”Nora wasn’t kidding.

With each book in the trilogy having a distinctive style, The Stone Sky is a fitting end to the epic storyline. Gorgeous writing, pacing and tone. Complex characters and universally-praised world building carried me through this genre-bending classic. Highly recommend.

A trilogia apresentada pela autora é uma das obras de ficção mais incríveis que já tive a oportunidade de ler. A forma como somos levados a interagir com os personagens, a vivenciar suas experiências, é simplesmente emocionante. Esta é a segunda vez que leio an série, com um intervalo de cinco anos, e posso dizer, tranquilamente, que foi tão bom, tão emocionante quando a primeira vez. Novamente me emocionei e chorei, tanto quanto a primeira vez. É uma autora incrível, e uma obra fantástica. Recomendo muito.

I like the trilogy, it has interesting concepts to think about regarding humanity and it's path. Nevertheless, the books had some parts, that in my opinion, were not so easy, maybe confusing or interesting to read.At the end I like it, but it was kind of hard to get to the end.

The Broken Earth trilogy comes to an end. The final layers of mystery are peeled back, and we finally discover this world, with all it's mystery, wonder and horror.Considering how many layers there are, and how many threads have been woven into the story, it would seem like a huge challenge to bring it all to a satisfactory conclusion - but Jemisin does it superbly well. No plots unresolved, no threads left dangling, and not a hint of an anti-climax in the world-shaking climax.The series throughout has been a hugely impressive display of imagination both in the intricate world-building and the brilliant character development throughout. All presented with a perfect word flow, but that almost goes without saying - writing at this level doesn't dump you out of the story with awkward sentences or confusing descriptions.But, more than an amazing bit of story-telling, the series, and this final novel in particular, has some real depth in its portrayal of human character and human interaction. It shows the worst of us - right back to the very causes of the Earth being broken to start with - it shows both the weakness and strength of people struggling to survive in appalling circumstance.Above all though, it shows love, and how powerful love can be at influencing events on the smallest and greatest of scales. Without love in the equation, the story could not have happened as it did. All outcomes would have been different, and ultimately worse.A powerful and satisfying conclusion to a brilliant trilogy.

The first book can be quite confusing, but after I figured out what was going on I carried on reading all 3. They are excellent, and I will read more of this author.