This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. Listen to the first book in the critically acclaimed, three-time Hugo award-winning trilogy by NYT best-selling author N. Science fiction is a genre as diverse as you can imagine.
There are stories that take place in deep space, often depicting teams exploring or running away from something; stories that focus on life at the most cellular level, such as a pandemic tale; and stories that take place in times that feel similar to our own. Depicting themes of existentialism, philosophy, hubris, and personal and historical trauma, sci-fi has a cadre of topics and moods. This trilogy is the first ever to win the Hugo Award for every book.
Jemisin is the first person ever to win the Hugo Award for best novel three years in a row, and she did that with this series. Some of the negative reviews were scathing, and I try not to pick up books unless they come recommended by people or sources I trust. So I ignored the nay-sayers.
The sequels will be the first time I spend money for books beyond the free credits. Guys, this book is wonderful. The characters are beautiful, tragic, and desperately human. The setting is refreshingly new. The plot is I hope you decide to ignore the negative reviews and give it a chance. Savor it. The author is masterful in her storytelling. When I saw well over 12k positive reviews I figured I'd give this book a shot.
I tried to stick with it, but it is so crass, so poorly worded, and so unnecessarily gratuitous that I am returning it. Seriously, how on earth does this book have that many positive reviews? It reads like it was written by a high-school sophomore who is trying to spice up their book by throwing in a lot of unnecessary vulgarities under the guise of artistic writing. What a giant waste of time. First off, this book should come with a filthy content warning. My biggest problem is I got halfway through and it has a part that describes a little boy getting teased by other children about getting sexually molested to get some alcohol.
Then he basically get sent off to seclusion and what the author describes as his indirect punishment. The whole time I was listing to this book it basically made me feel awful. I have in fact, volunteered for four different WorldCons where the Hugo's are given. I tried so hard to like these books, but I just cannot.
I understand the originality of how they're written and recognize that the author has a brilliant grasp on how to paint a picture with words, but I just don't like it.
To quote a song by one of my favorite bands: "Different isn't better, it's just different I certainly will not be buying the third. My thought after not really caring for the first was: Maybe the story will flush out in the second Sadly no.
Not for me. I read every review of this book after I finished it, and I have to say "thank goodness" because one of the reviews which I reported spoils part of it. With that said, it seems that nearly every review is either glowing or mad and nothing in between and I have a sneaking suspicion that it's political so, with this review, I aim to be as unbiased as possible so that at least one of these rusting reviews is honest.
For starters, the narrator is flatter than Nebraska. Her range is so limited that it's hard to tell her characters apart with a couple exceptions. Schaffa the guardian is unique and Hoa is unique but the rest could be interchangeable as far as her dialect choices go. I had to give her a 3 star rating because it wasn't terrible but it was definitely not good. The story flow is Around the hour mark I was able to start detangling them and they all made a lot more sense, and thus the book became much more enjoyable.
With that said, the story is very enjoyable in my opinion and I gave it a 5 rating. Now for the reason I feel like nearly every single review is biased: this book has LGBTQ elements more on that in a bit and goes out of its way to point out the color of most characters skin and the characteristics of their hair as pertaining to their race. Look, I'm gonna get this out of the way so that Leftists don't think I'm a nazi and Righters don't think I'm a "crying lib": I'm a center right republican and a normal human being that finds politics and their forced injection into every single facet of life to be tedious and monotone trash talk.
Almost none of it serves a purpose other than to virtue signal, and it drags the parts of the book down because of it. Not because it's there but because it simply serves no point, and that's an objective statement.
Simply put, it might mean a lot to someone that is LGBTQ and if it makes them happy to see it, then fine. Quite frankly it's a small part of the book so if it bothers you, you may need to reassess what you're doing with your life that you get butthurt over the mention of a female character having a penis no joke, the time it took you to read that sentence is longer than most mentions of lgbtq.
As far as the race goes, it's just as important to the story as it would be if you were describing real life races. People on the northern coast are white, equatorials are brown. That's exactly how it is in real life, so why should it matter when the author mentions it here?
There's no demonizing of the white skined people as one reviewer mentioned, in fact the main character says how strikingly attractive many people find them. Having the main characters be black simply shouldn't matter, if it bothers you so much that a character in a book is black, maaayyybe you're an actual racist.
Not only would it fit because it was written as such, but it's an awesome story as I mentioned before. No joke I got goosebumps when the Aurogony no clue how to spell some of the goofy words in this book battles and even the basic uses were going on. How freaking awesome of a concept to steal heat from everything around you as a source of power? And no that isn't a spoiler, it details it within 20 minutes of the book starting.
So any way, in short, this book is neither a perfect 5 star as many people probably rate it for the LGBTQ and black characters, but neither is it absolute trash as the homophobes and racist reviews paint it out to be. From an absolutely neutral standpoint, I think the author did a very great job with the story but her direction was questionable at best she seriously destroys every single ounce of future tension with a plot twist about halfway through I'll start with the good.
This book has a really interesting magic system and has just enough mystery to keep you somewhat interested. The writing is quite solid too, though I find her style to be a bit annoying but that's a personal preference. It takes a good third to halfway through the book for anything interesting to happen and then it is sporadic thereafter. It was quite a struggle for me to finish this book and that's not something I want in a book I listen to for pleasure. I personally found most of the characters to be pretty flat and boring and they all seemed somewhat similar.
I know this is against the popular opinion but I just didn't think the characterization was very good. I also thought the "twist" was pretty telegraphed and I had guessed it long before I was given confirmation. This book actually won the Hugo and so did it's sequel and I honestly can't understand why it was given such a prestigious award.
Nevertheless, she fears her father, who now is aware she is an orogene as well. Her father strikes her early in the journey, and is immediately overcome with guilt; Nassun, however, learns to harden her heart against him, and stops viewing him as her true father at all. They move south through much hardship, and witness firsthand the devastation wrought by Alabaster's fracturing of the entire continent further north.
The Fifth Season triggered by this event steadily worsens as they travel. Finally, they reach the promised settlement: a town called Found Moon, administered by a group of Guardians, though not affiliated with the Fulcrum.
The town is led by Schaffa, who has used it to shelter young orogenes during the years since he arrived. Nassun and her father settle in Found Moon, and Nassun begins to rapidly advance through the ranks of the makeshift Fulcrum the Guardians have established. She forms a particularly strong bond with Schaffa, who is fiercely protective of her and becomes her father figure in lieu of her biological father.
She begins to understand that orogeny, in contrast to the teachings of her mother and the Guardians, is not just about moving heat energy from one place to another; she learns to perceive a mysterious silver energy, generated by living things, that underpins all of her orogenic powers.
Her abilities increase to the point where she begins to learn to draw power from one of the obelisks floating nearby, much as her mother had many years earlier. Her use of this power causes her to accidentally kill one of her classmates by turning him to stone while suffering a nightmare. As Nassun grows in her abilities, her father starts to realize she is not being 'cured' of her 'sickness'.
He confronts Schaffa and later attempts to kill Nassun. She reluctantly uses her powers to turn her father to stone as well. Essun will break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter. Share this post. Subscribe to the latest books update via email:. Newer Post Older Post Home. The situation is particularly precarious as any Orogen who does not successfully learn to control their power can be killed for the safety of others.
Damaya conspires to expose her bullies but in doing so exposes all of her classmates, earning her the enmity of all. Chapter 12 Syenite passively aggressivly tells the deputy governor that she plans to continue to work on her own even though Alabaster is sick. The women have a debate of wills with Syenite eventually succeeding after being introduced to a more senior official.
Syenite discovers that under the coral that she is meant to destroy is a large mass which she cannot get the measure of with her feelings — to her it seems like a void. Eventually, she tries to destroy it and the coral and this unknown mass, as was her task. As she begins to raise it out of the harbour water, she feels filled with power similar to the way she felt when Alabaster took control of her.
However, the power slips back into the massive object, which, as it reaches the surface, Syenite realises as an obelisk. She sees that the obelisk has been damaged at its centre with cracks radiating out from there. They encounter numerous other refugees. Tonkee appears to be well educated, carries a compass which is said to be a priceless item and seems to be a man who has chemically castrated himself. Essun thinks she is a trained geomest. Hoa tells Essun that it is becoming more difficult to sense her daughter as there is a large group of Orogens up ahead.
This is strange information for her as Orogens do not tend to congregate en masse. Essun is unsure whether Tonkee has figured out she is an Orogen; in turn, she is certain that Hoa is not human.
Chapter 14 Alabaster told Syenite to report that she removed the coral and the obelisk popped out of the water by itself — he says this is believable and will avoid people asking too many questions. The Fulcrum tell Alabaster and Syenite to stay where they are and await further instructions; Syenite is frustrated by this. She has realised that the power that coursed through her both while raising the obelisk and twice while being controlled by Alabaster came from the obelisks.
She surmises that she has some control over the obelisks. Alabaster confirms that no one has raised an obelisk like she did in the harbour for thousands of years. Eventually, she comes to realise that Alabaster can also control the obelisks. He points out to her that the obelisk in the sky, from which came power to siphon his poison, is listing. Alabaster is keen that they do not discuss things too much: he implies that as the place in which they are staying right now is connected to the granite bedrock, powerful Orogens would be able to eavesdrop on their conversation through the stone.
Syenite accidentally reveals that it was her, not Alabaster, who raise the obelisk out of the bay. The Guardian draws and quickly throws a glass knife at Alabaster, piercing his shoulder. The knife Alabaster appears to be stopping him from functioning at all. Some power of the Guardian appears to be stopping Syenite from using her Orogen power.
He draws and throws another knife at Syenite. Instinctively, she goes to the obelisk for power and finds herself drawn eventually to the centre of the obelisk, coming face-to-face with the Stone Eater.
For reasons unknown to her, she asks the Stone Eater if he is okay. To her surprise, he replies that he is fine and thanks her for asking. At this, the obelisk shatters. Chapter 15 Essun, Tonkee and Hoa arrive at the commune which contains many Orogens. They are greeted by an Orogen called Ike? Essun and her party agree to enter the commune, mostly because Essun still has slim hope of finding her daughter within it. Chapter 16 Syenite and Alabaster awake on an island to which they have been brought by a Stone Eater who Alabaster knows and calls Antimony, even though she has no name.
He explains to Syenite that Stone Eaters can move through rock as if it was air. Being on an island is terrifying for Syenite as islands are particularly susceptible to the frequent earth shakes. They start to piece together the events of the last few days.
Alabaster thinks the Guardian who attacked them was probably also the person who poisoned him. He explains to Syenite that Guardians have factions just like any other collective.
The Guardians likely knew about the submerged obelisk and, on believing a powerful Orogen had raised and activated it, decided to intervene. Syenite questions just how powerful Alabaster is. He says he is unsure himself as he is learning to do things which she was never trained to do in the Fulcrum and in fact, is having to forget his training in order to learn what he is capable of. Guardians have surgical implants which help them with their Orogen suppressing ability.
Guardians are the children of Orogens but without any of their powers. With direct skin to skin contact, a Guardian can force an Orogen to use its to power on itself. These affects are temporary.
Syenite and Alabaster visit a local town. Syenite learns that Alabaster has been there before. He reveals that these people do not kill their roggas but instead, put them in charge. This is why the island communities have inexplicably survived many seasons. However, she is progressing in her control and is told that she may be able to set the first ring test soon. She spends her free time wandering the ancient building, in particular the deserted portions of it. Wandering back, she encounters a girl she has never seen before.
Together, they discover the secret room with a massive depression in it, which clearly represents something which used to sit there. On the inside of the depression, there are spikes of iron. A Guardian catches them but the leadership class girl essentially pulls rank.
They are taken separately and Damaya is questioned by a Guardian alone. He kills her and removes the surgical implant from the base of her skull in front of Damaya.
He explains to Damaya that this sort of malfunction in the Guardian is not necessarily an uncommon thing but that he is sorry she had to see it and sorry she has been hurt.
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