Review of The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

The Stone Sky is the third novel in the Hugo award winning Broken Earth trilogy. While perhaps slightly less engrossing than the other two novels, it is still a grand finale to the series. The trilogy features incredible original world building. Its various elements interlock with a thorough consistency. The characters control the world, live the world, breathe the world.
                

The series is set in a world dominated by seismic events. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions regularly send the world into a fifth season, which is an extended winter where the sky is full of dust and the sun is blocked for years on end. This causes widespread famines. Tsunamis from the earthquakes also regularly inundate coastal areas.

There are a special class of people called Orogenes who can sense these seismic events about to happen and, depending on the orogene’s power and the severity of the event, can limit their destructiveness. The orogene can also cause these seismic events, either deliberately or as a result of out-of-control emotions. Consequently, they are feared by the general population, and any child found with these traits is murdered unless they are taken by the Guardians.

The Guardians teach the orogenes to control their power and use it to limit seismic events. The Guardians have powers that can control the orogenes and can hurt the orogenes to discipline them. They subject them to a servitude that verges on slave labour.

The trilogy’s main character is an orogene who goes through various names. She comes to the attention of a Guardian who then trains her. She is then sent out into the world to use her abilities to stop seismic events or use them to do things like clear harbour entrances. But she goes rogue. In the third novel she is searching for her daughter, Nassun, who was taken by her husband. Nassun is also an orogene. Mother and daughter are unaware they have two competing goals, one wants to stop fifth seasons from occurring forever, while the other wants to destroy the world.

The prose for this novel is some of the best I have read in genre fiction. N.K. Jemisin really knows how to construct descriptive narratives. I was often marvelling at a sentence she had written. The characters, for the most part, have a real emotional impact on the reader. The reader develops a strong empathy for their situation and their planned actions, even though they could involve the deaths of millions.

The Stone Sky finally brings in the backstory that shows how the world became so susceptible to seismic events. It does this by introducing the story of a group of exploited orogenes from the distance past. The mother and daughter then have their confrontation that brings the series to a compelling conclusion.

This is one of the best fantasy trilogies I have read. I find fantasy full of wizards and trolls and, dare I say, hobbits, so boring these days. This series thrashes most fantasy because of its sheer originality and the author’s writing prowess. It is not a novel for the faint-hearted as it contains physical child abuse. Good and evil are not as clear cut as it is in most fantasy. All three of the trilogy’s novels won Hugo awards, which is a feat unmatched by any other series.