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The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth Book 2) Kindle Edition

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 25,733 ratings

Essun's missing daughter grows more powerful every day, and her choices may destroy the world in this "magnificent" Hugo Award winner and NYT Notable Book. (NPR)

The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night.

Essun -- once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger -- has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever.

Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power -- and her choices will break the world.

N. K. Jemisin's award winning trilogy continues in the sequel to
The Fifth Season.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Jemisin might just be the best world builder out there right now.... [She] is a master at what she does. --RT Book Reviews (Top Pick!) on The Fifth Season

A must-buy...breaks uncharted ground.--
Library Journal (starred review) on The Fifth Season

With every new work, Jemisin's ability to build worlds and break hearts only grows.--
Kirkus (starred review)

[
The Fifth Season is] an ambitious book, with a shifting point of view, and a protagonist whose full complexity doesn't become apparent till toward the end ... Jemisin's work itself is part of a slow but definite change in sci-fi and fantasy.--Guardian on The Fifth Season

[A] powerful, epic novel of discovery, pain, and heartbreak. --
SFF World on The Fifth Season

Jemisin's graceful prose and gritty setting provide the perfect backdrop for this fascinating tale of determined characters fighting to save a doomed world.--
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on The Fifth Season

Stunning, again.--
Kirkus (starred review) on The Obelisk Gate

Jemisin is a tremendously talented writer on every level and she's at the top of her game here. I love books that beat me up and take my lunch money, and this one left me bruised, breathless, and desperate for the final volume.--
Rose Fox, senior reviews editor Publishers Weekly, (PW Staff Picks: The Best Books We Read in 2016) on The Obelisk Gate

Brilliant characters, vivid world, and pacing . . . .
The Obelisk Gate is an incredibly ambitious and important novel.--The Verge on The Obelisk Gate

Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold.--
Entertainment Weekly

[How] can something as large and complex as this story exist in her head, and how does she manage to tell it to me so beautifully? I can't stand how much I love
The Broken Earth trilogy so far.... Absolutely dazzling.--B&N Reviews on The Obelisk Gate

Stunning.... Jemisin's most accomplished series yet.--
RT Book Reviews on The Obelisk Gate

Astounding... Jemisin maintains a gripping voice and an emotional core that not only carries the story through its complicated setting, but sets things up for even more staggering revelations to come.--
NPR Books on The Fifth Season

Beyond the meticulous pacing, the thorough character work, and the staggering ambition and revelations of the narration, Jemisin is telling a story of our present, our failures, our actions in the face of repeated trauma, our responses to the heat and pressure of our times. Her accomplishment in this series is tremendous. It pole-vaults over the expectations I had for what epic fantasy should be and stands in magnificent testimony to what it
could be.--NPR on The Obelisk Gate

Jemisin builds off of the strong foundation laid in
The Fifth Season ... an interesting new series.
--
Booklist on The Obelisk Gate

One of the most celebrated new voices in epic fantasy.--
Salon.com

Intricate and extraordinary.--
New York Times on The Fifth Season

Exceptional.--
Library Journal (starred review) on The Obelisk Gate

Heartbreaking, wholly unexpected, and technically virtuosic,
The Fifth Season is a tour-de-force. I felt every shock--and the book is packed with them--in my marrow. It's no exaggeration to say that Jemisin expands the range of what great fantasy can be.--Brian Staveley, author of The Emperor's Blades

Stunning and well constructed ... a book that imbues itself with deeper meaning the more it unfolds and reveals itself, and by the end, I saw everything in a new light. I knew Jemisin was talented, being a huge fan of her Inheritance and Dreamblood books, but here she employs heretofore unseen skills.--
Lightspeed on The Fifth Season

This is an intense, exciting novel, where survival is always on the line, set in a fascinating, original and dangerous world with an intriguing mystery at the heart of it. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!--
Martha Wells on The Fifth Season

About the Author

N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author who won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. She previously won the Locus Award for her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and her short fiction and novels have been nominated multiple times for Hugo, World Fantasy, Nebula, and RT Reviewers' Choice awards, and shortlisted for the Crawford and the James Tiptree, Jr. awards. She is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for the New York Times, and you can find her online at nkjemisin.com.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01922I1GG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orbit (August 16, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 16, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2785 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 25,733 ratings

About the author

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N. K. Jemisin
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N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author who won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. She previously won the Locus Award for her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and her short fiction and novels have been nominated multiple times for Hugo, World Fantasy, and Nebula awards, and shortlisted for the Crawford and the James Tiptree, Jr. awards. She is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for the New York Times, and you can find her online at nkjemisin.com.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
25,733 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the story compelling and interesting. They describe the book as an enjoyable read with well-developed characters and a complex plot. Readers praise the writing style as great and the narrative as engaging. The book features unique ideas and a compelling storyline.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

381 customers mention "Story quality"370 positive11 negative

Customers enjoy the compelling story and engaging series. They find the plot moving with layers of complexity, and appreciate the author's world-building and use of multiple narrative points of view. The trilogy is described as thought-provoking and an outstanding effort by a talented storyteller.

"...Much like the first book, we have different POVs throughout the story. The 2 MCs this time are Essun and her daughter Nassun...." Read more

"...well, the characters we spend time with need to be well-drawn and compelling - but sadly I can't say that for the dwellers of Castrima-under...." Read more

"...The story sucks you in, the plot moves, the magic’s cool—it really just feels like she added a literary depth of character and experimentation with..." Read more

"...This series is a masterpiece and I hope you read it, but I also hope you learn from it...." Read more

186 customers mention "Readability"186 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's readability and find it well worth the effort. They appreciate the author's sensitivity to the experience, the tight plot, and the interesting use of viewpoints. The characters are well-developed and the story is enjoyable.

"...to make Earth the hostile place it has become in Stillness is fantastically executed...." Read more

"...For this kind of bottle story to work well, the characters we spend time with need to be well-drawn and compelling - but sadly I can't say that for..." Read more

"...engrossing, but it is those things kind of like The Two Towers is: wonderful and engrossing with a stress on middles rather than the tight beginning-..." Read more

"...It truly is a masterpiece that deserves all the praise and hype that is bestowed upon it." Read more

154 customers mention "Character development"138 positive16 negative

Customers appreciate the well-developed characters and diverse cast. They find the world detailed and the story focused on fewer characters.

"...Essun picks up new companions that will turn out to be uniquely interesting characters and ends up finding a new community that is a combination..." Read more

"...the magic’s cool—it really just feels like she added a literary depth of character and experimentation with prose to all the things we fantasy..." Read more

"...Also, this is the most beautifully crafted diverse cast I’ve ever read in any piece of literature...." Read more

"...Every character involved is smart, stubborn, flawed, selfish, altruistic, and wholly unique...." Read more

146 customers mention "Complexity"124 positive22 negative

Customers enjoy the book's complex plot with foreshadowing and details. They find the worldbuilding and backstory intricate and detailed. The story weaves slowly but methodically to a grand conclusion, explaining much while still leaving room for questions. Readers appreciate how the author blends the plot, characters, premise, and theme seamlessly.

"...The complexity of the wordbuilding, the evolution of the magic systems, and the gradual revealing of what happened to make Earth the hostile place..." Read more

"...The story sucks you in, the plot moves, the magic’s cool—it really just feels like she added a literary depth of character and experimentation with..." Read more

"...So much happens in the pages of this book! Its intricate plot is layered with foreshadowing and peppered with details that each play their own role...." Read more

"...and Essun, the entire community of Castrima is a constantly fluctuating genuine community..." Read more

116 customers mention "Plot"103 positive13 negative

Customers enjoy the plot. They describe it as a masterpiece of fantasy, with suspense and drama. The climax is epic, adding to the grandeur of everything. Readers appreciate the richly imagined world and characters that evolve as the story unfolds.

"...up both the fantasy and SF aspects of the setting and the climax is pretty **epic**. I can’t wait for The Stone Sky." Read more

"...I don’t think I’ve read deeper, more complex, more real and loveable-while-hateable-or-vice-versa characters anywhere in fantasy...." Read more

"...You end up with this experience that just feels so real and so emotionally overwhelming...." Read more

"...between the contemplative, slower passages and exhausting, nerve-wracking scenes, leaving this reader enthralled, and eager to read the next book...." Read more

113 customers mention "Writing style"105 positive8 negative

Customers enjoy the writing style. They praise the story, characters, and narration. The language is beautiful and readable. Readers appreciate the author's unique voice and inclusive writing style. They look forward to the sequel.

"...The writing style keeps you completely engaged in this story of life and loss with a need to understand what has happened before and what will..." Read more

"...story to work well, the characters we spend time with need to be well-drawn and compelling - but sadly I can't say that for the dwellers of Castrima-..." Read more

"...just feels like she added a literary depth of character and experimentation with prose to all the things we fantasy readers love about our genre...." Read more

"...This author has the most unique writing style. It really keeps me engaged." Read more

107 customers mention "Creativity"107 positive0 negative

Customers find the book creative with unique ideas and captivating characters. They appreciate the wonderful mix of magic and science, as well as the world-building that presents amazing possible realities. The setting is described as evocative of Dune and Patternmaster.

"...The complexity of the wordbuilding, the evolution of the magic systems, and the gradual revealing of what happened to make Earth the hostile place..." Read more

"...The story sucks you in, the plot moves, the magic’s cool—it really just feels like she added a literary depth of character and experimentation with..." Read more

"...On top of the amazing diversity and representation, as a woman, I really sympathize with the underlying theme of motherhood throughout this series...." Read more

"...involved is smart, stubborn, flawed, selfish, altruistic, and wholly unique...." Read more

67 customers mention "Emotional depth"61 positive6 negative

Customers find the book engaging and inspiring. They appreciate the thoughtful exploration of love, heartbreak, race, subjectivity, slavery, and caste. The characters are well-developed and the story tackles philosophical questions about love, personhood, prejudice, and fear with empathy. Readers also mention the book forms important bonds with familiar faces from Essun's past. Overall, it raises important issues and confronts relevant issues head-on.

"...She also forms important bonds with familiar faces of Essun’s past that are bound to cause great conflict and heartache in the next book...." Read more

"...It’s just as dark, poignant and heartbreaking as The Fifth Season.) My favorite part of the book was Nassun's storyline...." Read more

"...you to N.K. Jemisin for this world, these characters, and these important messages that continue to render me speechless...." Read more

"...this novel, and for the first time in a Jemisin novel, the relationship is very subtle, a change I enjoyed only because she had become..." Read more

Excellent read!
5 out of 5 stars
Excellent read!
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.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2024
    The Obelisk Gate is every bit as compelling as the first book in the series. The complexity of the wordbuilding, the evolution of the magic systems, and the gradual revealing of what happened to make Earth the hostile place it has become in Stillness is fantastically executed. The writing style keeps you completely engaged in this story of life and loss with a need to understand what has happened before and what will happen next.

    Much like the first book, we have different POVs throughout the story. The 2 MCs this time are Essun and her daughter Nassun. Essun’s story picks up where we left her chasing after her husband before he murders her daughter. Along her journey, Essun picks up new companions that will turn out to be uniquely interesting characters and ends up finding a new community that is a combination of orogene and humans living together cooperatively to survive the season. Here Essun stays since she doesn’t know where her daughter is but instead finds a new purpose besids finding her daughter and is reunited with her old mentor/friend Alabaster, who has much to teach her before he dies. Their relationship is complicated, beautiful, and well written, as are all of the relationships in this story.

    Nassun’s story tells us what happened with her father after he killed her brother for being an orogene and kidnapped her. Their journey is perilous, and Nassun’s childhood is left behind as she matures quickly. She confronts challenging emotional concepts at the core of her story. She also forms important bonds with familiar faces of Essun’s past that are bound to cause great conflict and heartache in the next book.

    While the mother and daughter are being positioned into opposite sides of a war they knew nothing about until this book, their abilities grow immensely as their understanding of magic expands with their connections to obelisks and stone eaters. Ultimately, they will each go after the moon to repair or destroy the world, but we won’t know which until the next book, which I will be reading immediately!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2016
    The Obelisk Gate doesn't feel as startlingly fresh as The Fifth Season, but that's because this is book 2. What a second book needs to do is to expand and deepen the narrative and Jemisin does an excellent job at it. While there were a few aspects that didn’t work for me, the highs were easily as good as anything in book 1 and overall I'm very happy with it. (Speaking of being happy, that is definitely **not** a phrase I’d use to describe this book - Jemisin doesn’t let her characters off lightly. It’s just as dark, poignant and heartbreaking as The Fifth Season.)

    My favorite part of the book was Nassun's storyline. I loved everything about it - the simultaneous love and anger she feels for a parent who killed her sibling, the people and places her journey takes her to, the consequences her actions have. If you stripped out Nassun's story into a book of its own, I'd give it 5 stars easily. There's one particular moment in her storyline where Jemisin pauses the narrative, zooms in on that moment and shows all the disturbing emotional facets of what's happening and it’s just spectacular. She employed this pause-and-zoom-in device to great effect in book 1 and it's even better here.

    The part I have more mixed feelings about is Essun's narrative. In The Fifth Season Essun travelled across the Stillness; here she stays in the same place for almost the entire book. For this kind of bottle story to work well, the characters we spend time with need to be well-drawn and compelling - but sadly I can't say that for the dwellers of Castrima-under. Ykka, Lerna, Hjarka and the rest of Castrima’s ruling cast were pretty dull and uninspiring. But there are a couple of bright spots in the mix - Alabaster and Hoa - and luckily their interactions with Essun take up a significant portion of her storyline. And it’s through them that Jemisin starts expanding on the world’s backstory. I really enjoyed the slow reveals that took place over the course of the book. She inventively ramps up both the fantasy and SF aspects of the setting and the climax is pretty **epic**.

    I can’t wait for The Stone Sky.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Morgan Rae
    5.0 out of 5 stars Such an interesting concept.
    Reviewed in Canada on May 1, 2024
    Dystopian with a unique magic system, complex societal structure, grief and loss, and survival. I can't quite figure out how it will all end.

    This isnt an easy book to read and I do agree with other reviews that mention the change in POV from first to second feels a bit jarring and does impact the flow but I think its intentional. This is not a comfortable story full of racism, classism and persecution.
  • Nina Duarte Hama Gemal
    5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
    Reviewed in Italy on March 5, 2024
    Fascinating view of magic in a world!! Finally something magical but also different from faeries, witches and vampires !!!
  • Susana Ezquerra Díaz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Breath taking
    Reviewed in Spain on July 15, 2021
    If you have read the first novel you already know that you must read the next novel. This is a must. There is a reason for this second hugo award.
  • IxchelL
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
    Reviewed in Mexico on August 8, 2019
    Es una gran secuela... prácticamente la continuación del libro. Sigue siendo genial, creo se convertirá en un clásico de la Sci-Fi
  • Fred
    5.0 out of 5 stars Grandiose Trilogie
    Reviewed in Germany on August 2, 2020
    Bei "Endzeit"-Romanen bin ich mit dem Kauf eher zurückhaltend, aber nachdem jeder Roman der Trilogie mit dem Hugo ausgezeichnet wurde, habe ich mich doch entschlossen, die Trilogie zu bestellen, und dies hat sich gelohnt. Der Aufbau ist etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, trägt aber durch die verschiedenen Persprektiven der Protagonisten dazu bei, die Erzählung spannend zu machen. Die Gestaltung der Welt, in der die Romane spielen, wie auch die der handelnden Personen, ist völlig neuartig und großartig gelungen. Auch die beiden Fortsetzungen warten mit immer neuen Wendungen auf und wurden zu recht ebenfalls mit dem Hugo ausgezeichnet. In jeder Hinsicht lesenwert!

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