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Reading: The Stone Sky
Jun. 29th, 2019 10:17 amI'm not entirely sure I was really feeling resilient enough, in the face of the world as it currently is, to tackle The Stone Sky, the third volume in N.K. Jemisin's triple-Hugo-winning Broken Earth trilogy (reviews of parts 1 an 2 here and here), but it had been nagging away at the back of my brain and I decided it was time anyway. Fairly early in I did wonder whether that had actually been the best decision, but Jemisin's writing is so brilliant and compelling I couldn't bring myself to abandon it.
The Stone Sky continues to follow the stories of Essun and her daughter Nassun as they navigate their devastated world; it also brings in a third narrative, the story of the actual narrator of the series who was revealed towards the end of The Obelisk Gate, and fills in some of the backstory of the world Essun and Nassun live in. The narrative retains the immediacy that characterised the first two as the plot builds inexorably towards its climax; along the way it continues to examine systematic oppression and the realities of a millenia-old society built on that oppression, and also becomes a clear and unambiguous parable of climate change and the terrible consequences of human greed to exploit natural resources, and a meditation on motherhood and the relationships between parents and children. Like the first two books, this is not a novel that pulls any punches; it's bleak and uncomfortable and utterly devastating in places (and, like the first one, should come with a strong content warning for scenes that those with more parental feeling than I have may find upsetting), but it's also brilliant and thought-provoking and deeply absorbing and the whole trilogy is just some of the most incredible sff I've ever read. (And it's also excellent on diversity; almost all of the characters are people of colour, and there are queer, trans and non-binary characters, disabled characters, and of course the whole thing is essentially epic fantasy seen through the lens of a woman's experience.)
I think I need to go and find something fluffy and comforting to read next, though...
The Stone Sky continues to follow the stories of Essun and her daughter Nassun as they navigate their devastated world; it also brings in a third narrative, the story of the actual narrator of the series who was revealed towards the end of The Obelisk Gate, and fills in some of the backstory of the world Essun and Nassun live in. The narrative retains the immediacy that characterised the first two as the plot builds inexorably towards its climax; along the way it continues to examine systematic oppression and the realities of a millenia-old society built on that oppression, and also becomes a clear and unambiguous parable of climate change and the terrible consequences of human greed to exploit natural resources, and a meditation on motherhood and the relationships between parents and children. Like the first two books, this is not a novel that pulls any punches; it's bleak and uncomfortable and utterly devastating in places (and, like the first one, should come with a strong content warning for scenes that those with more parental feeling than I have may find upsetting), but it's also brilliant and thought-provoking and deeply absorbing and the whole trilogy is just some of the most incredible sff I've ever read. (And it's also excellent on diversity; almost all of the characters are people of colour, and there are queer, trans and non-binary characters, disabled characters, and of course the whole thing is essentially epic fantasy seen through the lens of a woman's experience.)
I think I need to go and find something fluffy and comforting to read next, though...
