The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth)

The best science fiction and fantasy (and this book is solidly both) is well written, compelling, and emotionally charged, but also tells us about the world we live in. This series is about love, family, racism, hatred, and redemption. Fans of Jemisin's other books will find this as good or better than her previous work; and wholly original, as I've come to expect. The worst part about this was finishing it ; I can't wait to see what she does next!

No where near as good as the first two books of the trilogy which deserve all of the praise and awards heaped upon them. This just felt phoned in. The characters were as one dimensional in this book as they were complex in the other books. Still worth the read if you have read the other books. However, it tarnishes what might have been one of the best fantasy series of all time.

I really enjoyed the entire series and I thought this book wrapped up the story well. It was well written and engaging with a thought provoking storyline. I'd like to give it five stars, but I found it emotionally draining, and occasionally slow. Overall, I'd recommend it if you enjoy well-told post-apocalyptic stories with strong and interesting but not necessarily empathetic characters.

I want to give this author a very enthusiastic recommendation. I finished this trilogy a little over a week ago, and have just started the third book of an earlier trilogy. These are books of glorious fantasy, filled with eerie and dangerous characters, an earth grown dangerous due to human exploitation, but also what it means to have the best of what makes us human. These books grabbed me, and wouldn't let go.

Likely there are those who will love this book. It is well written, minimal logic gaps, unique characters and a motivating plot.
If I can name one flaw that bothered me, it was calling the "magic system" magic, which you will have to read to experiwnce why this is wonkey. I believe the author intended differently and it was likely edited for simplicity.
I do appreciate the author allowing her own emorions to be put down in blood, so to speak; it definately was a better part, though likely very painful to do.
Will look into future writings by this author, and would likely enjoy a more purist sci-fi from her. Lets see where her carreer goes.
Thank You.

Sad that this is the last book in the series, but I loved the melancholy and sheer "it's just not going to end happily". I blubbed a couple of times.
So very glad I saw a recommendation to read Jemisin's books. They make a lot of other stuff out there shallow and tedious by comparison. I recommend them to anyone around me who'll listen!

This story effectively transported you into the authors universe.. so different, but also not unlike our own. The author leaves you craving more of the smart, complex, creative writing that the trilogy exhibits while simultaneously leaving you satisfied in its end.

Am already reading the third book. If you you are looking at this one you already know what to expect! It picks up right where the first book left off! Compelling read, well written, interesting characters - immerses you in the story.

For those of you who have suffered with the Sanze during the Fifth Season and Obelisk Gate, you will be heartened, disappointed, excited, and transported by the conclusion to the series. NK Jemisin has brought us to our knees, digging deep for the truth layered beneath us, concluding that we are heartless and heartfelt, miserable and divine, and that calling us human will never adequately describe our condition.

These are the best, most creative, compelling sci-fi/fantasy books I have read in the last few years - and I read a lot! The characters have multidimensional depth, which lacks unfortunately in many stories nowadays. The universe created by the author is thoroughly original. Three are plenty of twists in the plot, so you are constantly surprised as the story moves along. A great piece of fiction, most certainly.

For those of you who have suffered with the Sanze during the Fifth Season and Obelisk Gate, you will be heartened, disappointed, excited, and transported by the conclusion to the series. NK Jemisin has brought us to our knees, digging deep for the truth layered beneath us, concluding that we are heartless and heartfelt, miserable and divine, and that calling us human will never adequately describe our condition.

These are the best, most creative, compelling sci-fi/fantasy books I have read in the last few years - and I read a lot! The characters have multidimensional depth, which lacks unfortunately in many stories nowadays. The universe created by the author is thoroughly original. Three are plenty of twists in the plot, so you are constantly surprised as the story moves along. A great piece of fiction, most certainly.

All of the feelings are felt throughout this book. It is so good and proves to me, once again, why NK Jemisin is my favorite writer. An excellent end to an excellent trilogy and I can not wait until the tv series. So good. So heartbreaking. So everything. You have to read this series.

What a fantastic story told by a truly wonderful writer . An intricate story with human emotions woven throughout a tale of hardship. Characters that you actually can sympathize and relate to. There's also a world that is so detailed and developed that you have no problem envisioning it. Quite possibly the best book(series) you'll ever read.

I absolutely loved the first two books in this series and anxiously awaited the third for several months. This book seemed rushed and not nearly as compelling as the first two. While still good, somehow the characters seemed hollow and underdeveloped and the transitions seemed much more abrupt. Overall I would strongly recommend the first two books in the trilogy, but weakly recommend this third one.

I love the Broken Earth trilogy. No spoilers, but the third book is as wonderful as the award-winning second. Breakneck pace, breathtaking intensity, immersive world with characters I can't ever get out of my head. Jemisin's done it again. She wins these awards (Hugo, Nebula etc.) because she's that GOOD at what she does!

The first book on the series was incredibly original, which made up for the sometimes awkward pacing. The author should have imo ended the story there, as she's clearly struggling to find something to talk about that is interesting for the reader.

I really enjoyed the first 2 books, but this one wore me out. Although I persevered and finished it, it was a real struggle to get through it. Very disappointing ending to what could have been a great trilogy.

Deeply moving and familiar, yet foreign and mysterious, one of the best trilogies I have ever read has finally come to an end.

NK Jemisin has masterfully woven together a tale of adventure and of love in a series of struggles which should resonate with truths shared by all of humanity. This book (and the others before it) evoke the entire pallete of human emotion including some surprising moments of confused awareness, linking present day to an imagined future.

I have been deeply moved by this series and it has done what all art should do - evoke feelings, provoke thoughts, and leave a lasting impression.

If you are looking for the Earth to be moved under your feet - in every sense of the phrase - you must read this book.

“Some worlds are built on a fault line of pain, held up by nightmares. Don't lament when those worlds fall. Rage that they were built doomed in the first place.”

You guys, I’m speechless. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read as perfect of a conclusion as The Stone Sky. The Stone Sky easily makes my best of 2017 list, and is also without a doubt one of the most powerful masterpieces I’ve ever read in my entire life. I will cherish this book series until the end of my days, while also trying to convince every single living soul to give this series a shot. Please give The Fifth Season a shot. It is worth more than every ounce of hype and praise it has received. I recommend this series to any and everyone I know. Not just SFF lovers, hell, not even just book lovers; I recommend this to every human being. And I dare you to finish this series, turn that last page, and not feel the urge to change this ugly world we live in today.

This series is a SFF dystopian, where earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other terrible things impacting the earth are constantly happening, but orogenes are able to manipulate the earth to ease them. Even though orogenes are continually saving the world they are constantly oppressed slaves. This world has convinced everyone that orogenes are dangerous and need to be controlled at all costs. Everyone in the Stillness is trying to survive the world's unforgiving environment. This planet is beyond unstable, because of Fifth Seasons. Two years have passed since The Fifth Season and in this concluding book our main characters are looking for a way to stop the Seasons once and for all.

“They’re afraid because we exist, she says, There’s nothing we did to provoke their fear, other than exist. There’s nothing we can do to earn their approval, except stop existing—so we can either die like they want, or laugh at their cowardice and go on with our lives.”

The greatest thing about this series is that it seamlessly mirrors the world we live in today. This book will make you think about your internalized racism and the prejudices that you hold without even realizing it. I mean, look at what is going on in the United States right now. Look at how we are allowing actual Nazis free hate speech. Look who we elected, because people’s hearts were filled with so much hate. Look how we are trying to protect confederate statues, while allowing our government to bulldoze native sites for pipelines. Hate is a powerful force, and white supremacy is real. Charlottesville is happening all over our world, and we don’t need orogeny to stop it, either.

“But for a society built on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.”

I wrote in my review for The Obelisk Gate that the heart of this novel is oppression, but the soul of this novel is motherhood, and I stand by this assessment even more so. Again, I’m not a mother, but the underlying theme of parenthood and the indescribable love between a mother and child is something so pure and beautiful. I can’t even begin to describe the feelings and emotions this book was able to evoke from me.

The constant messages and reminders of the importance of found families is also something that I appreciate with every bone in my body. I don’t want to keep using the word beautiful, but these messages that N.K. Jemisin has created are nothing short of the word beautiful. Blood is just that, blood, but choosing to spend your days with people who unconditionally love and support you is the true meaning of family.

Just thinking of the people who have followed Essun throughout her journey makes me weep from equal parts of joy and sadness. I loved seeing people love the broken parts of Essun, seeing her friends love the strong woman she always was all along, seeing her family choose to follow her to the end of the Earth.

“…if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back.”

And seeing the choices that Nassun made all by herself from both places of hurt and love just broke my heart. The choices we all make from being hurt or being loved is a discussion I could write pages and pages on. The feelings and emotions in this book are so very complex and the narrative only makes you feel everything intensified. Right now, as I’m writing this review, I’m equal parts heartbreak and hope.

“It’s just that love and hate aren’t mutually exclusive”

And the representation in this book is the best I’ve ever read in all my years. First off, this book is unapologetically and beautifully black. Next, N.K. Jemisin writes about systematic oppression expertly. Then, she also seamlessly writes in LGBT+ representation effortlessly. This book has the best written trans side character I’ve ever read about. I’ve said it before, and I’ll scream it from the rooftops again: Every author should strive to write representation like N.K. Jemisin.

The writing is also exquisite. The prose is a tier above the rest. The narrative in unique and heartfelt. The world building is nothing short of perfection. The themes are relevant, important, and inspiring. The acknowledgments broke my heart. This series is truly a masterpiece.

This is one of the best stories I’ve ever read in my entire life. No amount of words I can write here is going to do it justice, so I can only ask, or beg, you to pick it up and see for yourself. Thank you, N.K. Jemisin, for this masterpiece. I will never stop moving forward, and I will never stop fighting for a better world.

“We could’ve all been safe and comfortable together, surviving together, but they didn’t want that. Now nobody gets to be safe. Maybe that’s what it will take for them to finally realize things have to change.”

The final book in N.K. Jemisin's incredible Broken Earth trilogy, The Stone Sky in an amazing way to wrap up Essun's travels through a post-apocalyptic world riven by cataclysmic tectonic events. This is a tale about motherhood and magic - about living through love and loss.

What would you give to save the world? What would you give to save a daughter? What would you do if saving one might cost you the other?

Really was not sure how Ms. Jemisin was going to pull off the ending of this complex, gripping, heart-breaking series. She fills in worldbuilding details that have been a long time coming, without leaving the reader feeling strung-along. Finally learning the origins of the stone eaters, guardians, and obelisk-builders was deeply satisfying. Her conclusion to the heart-wrenching story of Essun and Nassun feels realistic and pulls no punches. There are no easy answers in this ending, just as there are no easy answers to fix or destroy real worlds built on oppression, but all aspects of the ending ring true. I love these characters so deeply.

Several parts of this book were really hard to listen to, and it comes with a content warning for near-constant peril to children. I never felt it was tragedy for tragedy’s sake – it all drove home Ms. Jemisin’s point about the ways trauma and systemic oppression perpetuate themselves. Definitely a touch darker than even the first two books in this series.

I listened to the audiobook version, and Robin Miles did a great job differentiating between the narrators in different sections. I particularly love the accent she gave Ykka, one of my favorite characters. Literally the only quibble I have about her narration is that Tonkee’s voice changed between the second and third book, I think? Ms. Miles' melodic voice gives the story all the weight and gravitas it deserves, but she also captures each character's unique personality well, and knows how to deliver sarcasm or a joke.

I'm in line with the other folks which rated this book with 3 stars. It was not as well written as the first two. I also read the whole series from beginning to end in about 2 weeks time, so perhaps I felt the change in style more acutely than others. I read the author's notes at the end of book 3 which indicated that she had been going through a particularly rough time in her life while she was writing this book and although it's none of my business, if I had been her editor reading through this I would have advised the author to take a break and come back to the book at a later time. The writing was distracted and at times nonsensical. I felt like the author struggled to tie up the story and the loose ends so much so that she produced a lot of "word salad". Maybe her editor just needed a sharper pencil? And I agree that the ending was weak. To say anything more than that would be a spoiler and my reasons would be just that much more word salad.

The Stone Sky is a phenomenal end to one of the best fantasy trilogies I’ve ever read. Seriously, this series is amazing. If you haven’t read The Fifth Season (aka book one), then you need to get on that right now.

And yes, this is a series you need to read in order. I actually wish I’d read these three books back to back, because I kept forgetting secondary characters and some of the nuances. The good news is that this series is definitely worth rereading, so maybe that can be a future project.

Essun has learned to take control of the Obelisk Gate, but she’s now suffering the same side effects as Alabaster. Every time she uses her powers, part of her turns to stone. Still, now she’s powerful enough that she might be able to use the Obelisk Gate to bring back the moon, appeasing a planet dead set on killing all of humanity. But which is more important: saving the world or saving her daughter, Nassun? Nassun doesn’t want to save the world. After everything she’s been through, she’s decided it’s better to burn it all down. And her power is growing to rival her mother’s.

Like the previous books, The Stone Sky has three primary perspectives. Essun and Nassun are a given, but the novel also dives deeper into a character who’s been there from the very beginning: Hoa, an immortal stone eater who’s been guiding Essun’s journey. While the majority of the book is set in the timeline of Essun and Nassun, Hoa’s chapters flashback thousands of years, before the Shattering, showing how humankind’s hubris lead to the series of constant apocalypses. If you thought the scale of this story was already vast, it just got larger.

<blockquote>“They’re afraid because we exist, she says. There’s nothing we did to provoke their fear, other than exist. There’s nothing we can do to earn their approval, except stop existing – so we can either die like they want, or laugh at their cowardice and go on with our lives.”</blockquote>

Like the best works of speculative fiction, The Stone Sky is as much about our world as it is a fictional one. Sure, this book might be about an apocalypse. But it’s also about all the horrible things people can do to one another and how we can deny the humanity and personhood of other people. Like many other apocalyptic stories, it asks whether the survival of the human species is worthwhile if we loose our humanity, but it also dives deep into topics like oppression, slavery, genocide, and how past injustices effect the present. These are powerful themes, and The Stone Sky handles them brilliantly.

However, the heart of the book is the relationship between Essun and Nassun. Essun isn’t a particularly gentle or affectionate mother; there’s a horrifying moment in The Obelisk Gate where I realized she was inflicting some of the same childhood abuse she’d endured onto Nassun. She wants her daughter to survive, and she puts physical survival ahead of kindness or softness. It makes a horrifying sort of sense when you consider that Nassun is the only one of Essun’s three children who’s still alive. Essun loves her daughter, but she isn’t able to give Nassun the sort of parent-child relationship the girl needs.

The Stone Sky caps off the Broken Earth trilogy with a potent cocktail of emotions, powerful thematic material, stunning prose, and the innovative structure that’s become the norm for this trilogy. In short The Stone Sky solidifies how impressive Jemisin’s work on this trilogy is. I think we’re seeing a genre classic in the making.

This is the third book in the "Broken Earth" trilogy. I liked the story a lot, though I found the writing style slightly challenging (albeit appropriate for the world she created). And I felt that Jemisin's world -- fifty thousand (or more) years in the future was exquisitely drawn. It's differences from today's world, together with the ways it was tragically similar, all made sense. The tone of the story is one of challenge, heartache, and loss. At the same time, Jemisin managed to craft a *narrow* way forward to something more positive. That really "worked" for me.

I found her characterizations to be, for the most part, realistic and compelling and especially liked that there were few true "bad guys." For the most part, conflict came from differences that made sense: competition for horribly scarce resources. The greatest pathology was deeply-engrained, officially perpetrated bigotry, which though presented through a different vehicle than what we see in today's world, was terribly plausible and believable.

Unlike many multivolume stories I've encountered in recent years, this series held my interest all the way through. In fact, this book (volume three) seemed to move very quickly. Before I knew it, I was into the action peak, which lasted a good long time. If it weren't for the difficult structure & language usage, I'd have scored this as a strong "Five," though I admit that her approach made sense.

I checked this book out from my local library.

This trilogy is delightful and haunting, beautiful and scary. What does it mean to be a human and how can we make the world and its inhabitants agree with us? What do we do when the world does not want to change?

What is it about?

At the beginning of book 1, a cataclysmic event causes a rifting in the earth destroying most of its surface and causing the remaining inhabitants to fight for their life against ever increasing odds. By the time you get to book 3 you might see a light at the end of the tunnel, a way to possibly make peace with Father Earth. It won’t be easy and you need to decide if all the sacrifices along the way are worth it.

Was it good?

I’m not sure I have the right words to tell you how brilliant this trilogy is. It was a real pleasure to read. I especially love the second person story telling, “you did this/felt that” and the reason for it is finally explained. I actually can’t believe it took me that long to figure out why the story was told this way.

Honestly, this story deserves a read from anyone with a slight interest in earth magic, earth being alive, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, found family versus blood family versus forced situation family.

I knew from the heartbreak that came in the first two books in this series that I should expect this one to be similar. Honestly, though, I think this one was easier. It's hard to top the extreme amount of pain and loss that happened in book one.

Hoa finally really grew on me in this book. I was fascinated to read about his history, seeing him fleshed out. The book, really the entire series, deals so heavily with issues of slavery and prejudice, and it does not pull punches, ever.

This final book also had a theme of moving forward after devastating loss, which was really poignant.

I do think it was clear from the end of the previous book where Essun's story was going to end, given the style of narration. But even realizing that, the journey was not nearly so easy to predict, and I really fell in love the these characters. None quite as much as Alabaster, though.

This series is not easy to read, because it's so heavy, emotionally. I can't recommend it to everyone. But if you enjoy fantasy and want something different, that really delves into the ugly parts of humanity, and the ways that people survive horrific adversity, you should not pass this up.

I've been reading science fiction and fantasy for more than forty years, and this series is among the best I've ever read. Beautifully written, great characters, fascinating relationships, super structure over the three volumes. Many people have mentioned the world-building and it is indeed amazing -- for long-term speculative fiction fans there's a sheer geeky pleasure in learning details about this universe works.

A few reviewers have mentioned that they were made uneasy by the sections written in the second person. I'm generally luke-warm about second-person narratives but thought Jemisin handed these sections beautifully, and the coda to this volume, which reveals the reason for the second person, literally made me say "AH HA" in my chair.

As for the resolution of the plot: I had to think about this for a couple of days after finishing this volume. On the first reading it's very moving, but only after some thought did I see how carefully it had been prepared for from the first book, and how it resonated with ethical questions raised in vol 1 & kept in play throughout.

The series nods in the direction of a lot of mythology and speculative fiction (among much else, Medea, Persephone and Demeter, Pygmalion, stories from the life of the Buddha, Leguin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas") and radically revises these narratives to reach different conclusions. Taken as a whole, the series is an enthralling adventure, a meditation on the terrible costs of injustice (personal and societal), and a moving human story. Speculative fiction at its very best.

Wow. My mind is blown. The imagination of this woman is awesome.

I can't give a synopsis of this story that will make any sense to anyone who hasn't read the previous books. Let's just say it brings the story to a thrilling and incredible conclusion, and in doing so lifts the story to another level just when I thought it was already fantastic. I will be surprised if this does not receive another Hugo since the first two already did.

That said, here is a recommendation for anyone who is planning to read this trilogy - read it all as one book, one after the other, easy to do now that all three books are out. Otherwise, if you take a break in between and forget some stuff - like I did, forgetting a lot of details from the first book - you will get confused and have some difficulty understanding what follows and will appreciate it less. I had to wait for book 2 after reading the first, and in the interim forgot too much. On the one hand, I waited too long, but on the other, since I didn't start book 2 until book 3 was already out, I was able to dive straight into the last one with no break. One day I will have to re-read this straight through. But you sci-fi/fantasy fans - read this. You won't regret it.

What can one say about The Stone Sky?

It's the utterly wonderful third book of an uttlerly wonderful trilogy. One could make equally excellent cases for it being science fiction or fantasy, but Jemisin says it's fantasy. (And as the author, she gets a vote, right?)

It's the most complete, compelling, original world-building I've seen in fantasy in years. The characters are complex, interesting, and compelling.

The trilogy starts with the end of the world, and why not? And then we learn both how we got there, and where we're going after.

I'm honestly not sure whether a reader who hadn't read the previous two volumes could find their feet by starting with this third volume. On the other hand, skipping the two previous books would be a real loss, so, go get them. Read the whole trilogy.

This volume brings vital threads to a conclusion, and answers questions that have been haunting the reader from the beginning. The ending leaves room for further stories in this world, some of them involving characters we've met, if Jemisin is so moved, but they would be different stories, not continuations of this one.

For myself, I don't care what Jemisin writes next. I want to read it. She's a stunningly good writer.

Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

In the final book of The Broken Earth trilogy, Essun and Nassun are both trying to open the Obelisk Gate. Essun hopes to bring the Moon back to Father Earth so the Seasons will end at the Stillness might once again be still. Nassun has a darker purpose and a Guardian to help her. Both must travel to the other side of Earth to Corepoint, a city in the middle of the ocean, a city where obelisks were made, the city where it all began and ended.

Another beautifully written novel, The Stone Sky brings us back in time to a world in which stone eaters were human, although they were never treated as such. In the present, Nassun grieves as she watches Schaffa, the only adult she loves and believes in anymore, slowly waste away while he fights the core stone in his brain stem. Essun is turning to stone as Alabaster did after causing the Rifting, but she doesn't seem to care too much until she wants to use her orogeny.

This is an amazing story, a perfect ending to a remarkable series!

(Disclaimer: I received this free book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

I simultaneously want to be with our main characters in their world, and know it would absolutely kill me. Like spit me out for breakfast I am so dead instantly kill me.

Jemisin is not only an expert world crafter, but story teller. At the end of this book, I was in awe and I haven't gotten out of this stupor. I am both so happy to have read this trilogy, and also sad it's finished. How do I even sum up my intense love for this series? Everything is brilliantly crafted. There's such care, such love, such detail into each aspect. I'm not sure if I've ever read a book that is so descriptive in its world building. I could hear the wind and feel the trembling ground.

In this final installment of the trilogy, we see Essun and Nassun move toward the same place with different motivations. We learn why part of the sorry is written in the second person (I loved this slow reveal). We jump back thousands of years to get the origin story of the broken Earth, a brilliant rendering of bioscientific, magical hubris. We see the rise and fall of civilization - one of my favorite passages was an evaluation of the fears of a colonial people. I am left breathless with the complexity of the story, the way the author fleshes out her concepts so immersively in the realms of science, interpersonal relationships, civilization, governments, religion, and what makes us alive. She takes her time, putting each component in place. From the vantage point of the last page, I can't help but stand back and admire the via she has created for the reader. I didn't think I could be a bigger fan of NK Jemisen's work, but now I am.

I think there is a good chance of this novel winning even more awards for N.K. Jemisin because this was my favorite book of the series so far. I believe this is the final volume to the series or at least this major story arc, though I hope to see this world revisited someday in the future. It's one of the most unique worlds I've ever visited in SF or Fantasy. It's extremely imaginative, intelligent and beautifully complex, filled with very strong characters, grandmaster-level world building and great emotional content. It's not just anyone that can pull of a story almost entirely written in the second person but the author manages to do it well. The Broken Earth is a dramatic new epic for the 21st century.
Also, kudos to Robin Miles, one of my favorite narrators, for giving us a master-level dramatic narration.

Excellent ending to this series of "Broken Earth" books.
Once again there are multiple stories going on at once...Hoa becomes the historical touchstone character and his narrations of the past events is more than just a little eye opening. Most of the loose ends were accounted for though I still don't know when and how Hoa became encapsulated in the garnet obelisk...or for that matter how he managed to appear as he did in Book 1 (The Fifth Season) with skin and flesh. Oh well, stone eaters are suppose to be secretive and many things about them and also the Guardians were never explained. Explanations lost in history. Great read!

I think there is a good chance of this novel winning even more awards for N.K. Jemisin because this was my favorite book of the series so far. I believe this is the final volume to the series or at least this major story arc, though I hope to see this world revisited someday in the future. It's one of the most unique worlds I've ever visited in SF or Fantasy. It's extremely imaginative, intelligent and beautifully complex, filled with very strong characters, grandmaster-level world building and great emotional content. It's not just anyone that can pull of a story almost entirely written in the second person but the author manages to do it well. The Broken Earth is a dramatic new epic for the 21st century.
Also, kudos to Robin Miles, one of my favorite narrators, for giving us a master-level dramatic narration.

Excellent ending to this series of "Broken Earth" books.
Once again there are multiple stories going on at once...Hoa becomes the historical touchstone character and his narrations of the past events is more than just a little eye opening. Most of the loose ends were accounted for though I still don't know when and how Hoa became encapsulated in the garnet obelisk...or for that matter how he managed to appear as he did in Book 1 (The Fifth Season) with skin and flesh. Oh well, stone eaters are suppose to be secretive and many things about them and also the Guardians were never explained. Explanations lost in history. Great read!

I think I might actually be obsessed with this story (the epic as a whole). If I was a little kid, I would beg for a Broken Earth themed birthday party and give myself an Orogene name, and cover my walls with crayon drawings of Essun and Nassun being super heroes. I would probably also start collecting rocks and planning for my career in geology.

Instead I follow N.K. Jemisin on Twitter (and there was a stone ester cake at a release party OMG) and am about to read every review of this book and search it on Pinterest. That is how much I loved this series.

I cannot remember enjoying the actual reading of a story this much since Harry Potter. So many end-of-the-world epics are just TOO of something: too tragic or too hopeful, too fun or too bleak, too science-y or too fantastic, too metaphorical or too removed from real issues. This was absolutely just right. A joy to read and one I look forward to rereading — likely several times.

I thought this was a really great series overall. Not just the story, which is awesome, but the writing itself.
First, the story. While we received hints in the first two books, in the Stone Sky things are finally explained, going back to the real beginning of it all. The characters are all rich: complex and human, even as they sometimes lose that humanity.
Second, the writing. The first novel hinted at Essun's history, but the strange use of the second person (you) was never explained. In this book it all makes sense and comes together in a narrative that is masterfully woven together.

The final book in N.K. Jemisin's incredible Broken Earth trilogy, The Stone Sky in an amazing way to wrap up Essun's travels through a post-apocalyptic world riven by cataclysmic tectonic events. This is a tale about motherhood and magic - about living through love and loss.

What would you give to save the world? What would you give to save a daughter? What would you do if saving one might cost you the other?

This right here is a trilogy. I really enjoyed the Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, and I'm glad my finances made me put off starting this trilogy until all three were out.

N.K. Jemisin is absolutely phenomenal at rich world building. Both of her trilogies that I've read have a cast of interesting characters with understandable motivations. She writes a lot of characters who aren't strictly good or evil, but complex.

I think her work also stands out in its uniqueness, and I'd heartily recommend both the Inheritance Trilogy and this one.

It's hard to describe the plot, but the first two books were real page turners, and this one was a nice finale. There's a lot to unpack, and I feel like I need to go back and reread to fully understand everything that happened, but she did a really fantastic job with these books and I really love her work.

I wish I could give this book six stars. N.K. Jemisin's writing is brilliant. The story has left me both heartbroken and inspired. I think this might be one of the most important fantasy series in decades. It says so much about our "broken Earth," not simply the shattered, fictional world in this novel.

I've been a fan of Jemisin for many years now, and she continues to amaze me. The Stone Sky reveals just how brilliant her writing is, because this book brings added meaning to little details in the previous two books.

The ending is perfect, and I was shedding tears during the last few pages.

Some books can scar a reader, and I'll gladly wear my scar from The Stone Sky for the rest of my life.

Final novel in the Broken Earth trilogy. A world with extreme geological instability, wracked by frequent extinction events. The people of this planet have learned to survive as best they can, and to blame their lot on father earth and the Orogenes - people born with the ability to control rocks and subdue earthquakes. The series follows Essun and her daughter Nassun - powerful Orogenes who must decide whether to save a planet full of peope who would subjugate and murder them.
These books are so powerfully written, full of characters in difficult situations who aren’t always like-able in their every reaction, but are always complex and full of interiority. I would recommend anything by Jemisin.

This series is fascinating. This fantasy world is masterfully-constructed and the organization of this book (The Fifth Season) was perfection. When the pieces really fell into place my jaw literally fell. I have, of course, now finished the entire series and it is excellent from start to finish. I absolutely recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi/fantasy. And while you're at it, check out her Inheritance Trilogy as well... As for me, I'm on to the Dreamblood Duology. Like binging a TV show I anticipate a real sense of withdrawal when I catch up and am eagerly awaiting her next publication...

This was the third book in The Broken Earth trilogy and I loved Hoa (and the history told there) and I loved the ending of this novel and series. The middle section challenged me at times conceptually and didn’t always keep me as engaged but this series actually had meaning relevant to current times far beyond its great characters and compelling narrative.

Uh. Wow. In 40 years of reading SF (and lots of it), very few books equal or surpass this series in my mind. My only regret is that I was late to start them, since I'd read her first set of novels and thought they were merely OK. Finally bowed to the hype and picked up The Fifth Season. Glad I did, and the quality continues all the way to the last page of this novel. The only de-merit is that the publishers decided to put this out in a fairly cheap trade paperback edition, and you have to pay small press prices to get the limited hardcover.

“For a society built on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.”

The layers in this book.

I. Am. In. Awe.

Jemisin completes her trilogy beautifully. I even cried. She displays the constructs of her society and their inner workings with grace and a harsh truth, revealing our own reality to us.

We need this book. I’m so glad we have it.

I’ve been looking forward to the release of The Stone Sky ever since I read the previous books in the series, The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate, (both of which have now won the Best Novel Hugo!) earlier this year. I devoured it as soon as I received it and it’s just as good as I thought it would be.

I don’t want to say too much about the story, it’s the third book of the series so pretty much everything is a spoiler. The Stone Sky does add a new viewpoint and it’s probably the most fascinating one so far. We explore the history of the world and how exactly it ended up being the way it is. We see things from the perspectives of Essun and her daughter Nassun, of course, they are the heart of the book.

The end of The Obelisk Gate had mother and daughter on a collision course (somewhat literally) and I wasn’t sure how the book would wrap up the story in a satisfying way because both characters were equally sympathetic, they’d both been through more than their fair share of horrible things. The conclusion was completely satisfying though, now that I’ve read it, I can’t imagine how else it would have ended.

Like the previous books, this book is sometimes agonizing to read, Much of fantasy focuses on the best things about people (honorable, idealistic, heroic, etc.) but this book does the opposite. It shows people at their worst, but not unrealistically so (I wouldn’t call it “grimdark”), and some of things that Essun and Nassun do and have done to them is quite unpleasant to read about. But there are still uplifting moments, and that’s even more hopeful than always seeing people as good because you see humans do good things even when everything around them is terrible.

N.K. Jemisin’s next project is apparently a contemporary Lovecraftian fantasy series set in New York, and I can’t wait for that to come out.

WOW. I am blown away by how this all comes together, and the way Jemisin deftly ties the global to the personal, from beginning to end. This series absolutely deserves the Hugo three-peat. Gorgeous and heartbreaking and hopeful, and absolutely worth a read.

It has a clever fantasy idea as the centerpiece. Many of the characters are compelling. The plot twists are interesting. It goes on (the trilogy) a long time for the amount of action that happens. There are lengthy vague descriptions of imagined action or characters' internal states.

N.K. Jemisin brings The Broken Earth trilogy to a gripping conclusion in The Stone Sky. The book's pacing is faster than its immediate predecessor, and Jemisin brings back more of the adventure and uncertainty that first hooked me in the trilogy's first novel, The Fifth Season. But The Stone Sky adds new and often disturbing layers of backstory to the characters. Several fascinating new narrative points of view bring readers the shocking history behind Jemisin's most inventive creations. Taken together, the trilogy feels like an excavation of a parallel world's tortured past, with each chapter breaking through new strata and provoking me to think about the painful foundations of our own society.

What a wonderful, perfect way to end one of the best fantasy series I've read in a long time. Maybe ever. Jemisin deserves to be recognized as one of our greatest living SFF writers, and I'm thankful to have gotten the chance to read this. Down to the very last line, this book is giving me life right now.

What a beautiful end to this remarkable series. Jemisin crafted a world that was so unique, yet immediately familiar. The pain and struggle that underlay these characters' lives was simultaneously unfathomable and also utterly real. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say this is one that'll stick with me.

The Broken Earth N.K. Jemisin is a brilliant author who has created a world populated with incredible characters, intriguing story lines, magical phrasing, and brainy settings. This book is one of the best science fiction books ever written. I loved every minute of the series. This is the kind of book that you can’t put down until you have finished reading it and then you want it to go on.

An excellent end to an outstanding trilogy; thoughtful, thought-provoking, imaginative (crazily so!), with science, magic, the Earth, the Moon, and all things possible and impossible in between. N.K. Jemisin is incredibly talented, and one of my new favourite authors. The Stone Sky ties everything together in a very satisfying and emotional way, without getting mushy or maudlin. I highly recommend the trilogy.