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The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

29 reviews

purple_rose_kat93's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

4.5

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blakethebookeater's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

This book was such a great follow up to the epic Fifth Season.

I’m not going to say much in this review for fear of spoilers, but just know that the narrative gets more and more interesting and you get both answers to questions you didn’t realize you had...and even more questions.

The characters continue to be standouts, with Essun’s story continuing to be outstanding, as well as the new POVs of Schaffa and Nassun. The way these characters’ stories are woven is nothing short of stellar.

I did feel like this book did suffer from some slow pacing, and the action wasn’t as compelling as the first book, but the mysteries contained here are more than enough to compensate.

Overall, I’m so excited to go into reading the finale and can’t wait to see how it ends!

4/5 stars

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yrioona's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.0

Not quite as great as the first book, but still compelling and immersive fantasy/sci fi that carries the massive plot forward and builds its world and characters beautifully. I found some of the prose and dialogue clunky, including a sentence here and there that felt like something an editor should have caught, and I thought some of the narrative got lost in abstraction while Jemisin/the narrator is describing the elaborate magic system(s) at work. I also missed the huge scope and sweeping movement of The Fifth Season, since most of The Obelisk Gate takes place in just two settings. That said, I happily disappeared into this book and am excited to start on the next one in the series!

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regnistegra's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

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eve_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

Overall Thoughts:
⁕ This book works as part of a series, but I don’t think it would make a strong standalone. There’s a lot of info-dumping in preparation for the next and final book, making this one seem pretty stagnant.

⁕ Like the Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate has multiple narratives. Unfortunately, I did not love them equally (again, largely due to info-dumping and stagnancy for one of the characters).

⁕ The depictions of the magical beings in this one are so vivid! Jemisin involves all of the senses to bring to life creatures that I’ve never read of before in mainstream fantasy, but I can picture them clear as day.

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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Broken Earth trilogy is by far the most unique series of its kind I’ve ever read, and I’m comfortable saying that after only having finished the second book of three. The science that drives the dystopia is fascinating, the storytelling style is unique… it takes me a little while to settle back into the world, but once I do, I find myself immersed.

First of all, the writing style is wonderful. It doesn’t have that flowery flow of some of the authors I enjoy – rather, it is precise and strange and beautiful, like a carefully folded origami creature. The Obelisk Gate is written in multiple perspectives – not just character perspectives, but POV styles. Essun, our protagonist from The Fifth Season, is told from a second person perspective. Avid readers know this – second person perspectives are uncommon, and when they do pop up, they are rarely done well. I had forgotten this aspect from my read of the first book, and it took a little while to get used to the second person language… but it is done well. Really well. It gives the novel the cadence of a story being told in some ways, which serves to lure the reader in even deeper.

We also have a new character here, one who I did not expect to see, and I don’t want to spoil for those who haven’t yet read the books. Suffice it to say that there’s a bit of a twist at the beginning of the book.

The Obelisk Gate is more linear than The Fifth Season was. With the world building more or less complete after the first book, The Obelisk Gate is able to spend more time building up the plot and the trajectory of the rest of the story. Characters we knew and cared about from the first book are changed and/or gone, but their mark remains as the story slowly unfolds itself. For me, there wasn’t as momentous a reveal in this book as there was in the last one, but nor did it suffer from the second book blues. It remained engaging, the issues in the book pressing, and had its own momentum.

For those who enjoy science fiction, I think this is a great read. It’s has a bit of a high fantasy feel to the way the writing rolls out and the world is built, but it’s undeniably a far future, post-apocalyptic story, and I honestly believe it’s the best of it’s kind. Well-worth reading, and I’m looking forward to the conclusion in The Stone Sky.

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