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A review by mrbear
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
4.0
I can see why this book is highly rated by many - it is by all accounts an impressive and imaginative story, with some (though not many) twists and turns. However, for me this book fell a bit flat. The scale was too large but somehow unrealized, people were too powerful (orogenes, stone eaters, etc.), the scenes were too rushed, and too many decisions were made based on random emotional whims. It felt very much to me like a book that could have been great with years of work, but was simply too hard to get right in just a couple. That’s a bit of a shame.
In the end, the series as a whole suffers for it. Thinking back, I can’t honestly say there are really any characters I liked or cared about, and many of them I didn’t even understand the motivations of (Nassun being top of the list - an 11 year old with such strong and randomly developed opinions about the world and what to do to it). There’s an extent to which 4 stars feels too generous for how I really feel about this book and series, but at the same time, I acknowledge that from a creativeness perspective, it deserves the score.
I draw many parallels to the Mistborn trilogy in my mind, which also ended with an attempt to pull the first books together cleanly, but did so in a way I found more satisfying. Many of the threads that are brought up in this book felt unexplained. The world of Syl Anagist was merely hinted at as the end product of many years of cocky technological advancement and certainty of human supremacy - a theme definitely interesting enough to have spent more time on. The major events in the book, like the rifting, could have been explained more. The fallout of the event could have been clearer, and the reason why, in the aftermath of the event, civilization *immediately* declines into barbarism (despite the fact that everyone knows about Seasons and anticipates them) should maybe have been discussed. The book features too many logical flaws for a series that clearly prides itself on being about the details.
Overall, I’m left with the feeling that this series could easily have been so much more. Indeed, that it could have been far and away the best book in this Fantasy Sci Fi blend genre, but instead is just another promising, intriguing, but ultimately forgettable tale.
In the end, the series as a whole suffers for it. Thinking back, I can’t honestly say there are really any characters I liked or cared about, and many of them I didn’t even understand the motivations of (Nassun being top of the list - an 11 year old with such strong and randomly developed opinions about the world and what to do to it). There’s an extent to which 4 stars feels too generous for how I really feel about this book and series, but at the same time, I acknowledge that from a creativeness perspective, it deserves the score.
I draw many parallels to the Mistborn trilogy in my mind, which also ended with an attempt to pull the first books together cleanly, but did so in a way I found more satisfying. Many of the threads that are brought up in this book felt unexplained. The world of Syl Anagist was merely hinted at as the end product of many years of cocky technological advancement and certainty of human supremacy - a theme definitely interesting enough to have spent more time on. The major events in the book, like the rifting, could have been explained more. The fallout of the event could have been clearer, and the reason why, in the aftermath of the event, civilization *immediately* declines into barbarism (despite the fact that everyone knows about Seasons and anticipates them) should maybe have been discussed. The book features too many logical flaws for a series that clearly prides itself on being about the details.
Overall, I’m left with the feeling that this series could easily have been so much more. Indeed, that it could have been far and away the best book in this Fantasy Sci Fi blend genre, but instead is just another promising, intriguing, but ultimately forgettable tale.