Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

12 reviews

shlymiller's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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abijmieds's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I rarely give a final book 5 stars, but this book wrapped up the trilogy in such a memorable and satisfying way. You have to pay attention through the final third, but it really pays off.

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biobeetle's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is bursting with hope. It just keeps reminding you that yeah, life is hard, and people can be awful but also life should be great and people make it worth living. The POVs work really well to reinforce these ideas. My only thing is that sometimes the fantasy and scifi elements clash but that also kind of helps thematically.

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ailsaod's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 There was a bit of what I like to call third book overbuildup here - the mysteries of books one and two were very intriguing but in this book there wasn't quite enough time to unpack everything so you feel a bit overwhelmed. There is a lot of ground to cover - both in terms of narrative and distance and while the getting there was interesting the final destination was a bit eh. I was pretty sure going in that there wasn't going to be a happy ending given the tone of this trilogy but I am still here asking what am I supposed to do with this?? (I shall not go into any further detail because spoilers but I did not find it satisfying at all!)

I did however appreciate there being an in universe reason for the trilogy being in second person, now that was very cool! I also enjoyed how cool some of the settings visited in this book were and how they still stick in my mind all these months later.

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jessthanthree's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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drips's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

a few tiny plot holes nagged at me but overall it's a beautiful heart wrenching conclusion to the trilogy. what a pleasure to raze through a series in a week again (and so much food for thought to boot! i'll probably read these again one day, maybe in paperback)

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nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75


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bodagirl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Jemisin's world-building is a gradual puzzle, with pieces fed to you chapter by chapter from different points of view until the picture finally comes into focus. I started this trilogy a few years ago and finally got my hands on the last book. I tried just diving in, but found I needed to read some synopses in order to remember/understand what was going on in. In the earlier books, you knew that Jemisin's world had some issues with racism and colonialism, but in this final installment the puzzle is complete and you see exactly how the Stillness became so still.

Are Essun and Nassun the most loveable characters? No, but they are complicated characters and their journey is thought provoking just the same.

Some of my favorite quotes:
 "But breathing doesn't always mean living, and maybe... maybe genocide doesn't always leave bodies." 

 "But there are none so frightened, or so strange in their fears, as conquerors. They conjure phantoms endlessly, terrified that their victims will someday do back what was done to them - even if, in truth, their victims couldn't care less about such pettiness and have moved on. Conquerors live in dread of the day when they are shown to be, not superior, but simply lucky." 

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rubybastille's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

These were challenging reads, both thematically and structurally, but well worth it. I did not expect such a satisfying ending. My heart broke so many times reading this and yet there were so many grains of hope scattered just where they were needed.

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