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A review by fulltimefiction
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
4.0
The Fifth Season: ★★★★
The Obelisk Gate: ★★★★
The Stone Sky: ★★★★ 1/2
I will keep this short review spoiler-free even for the first book.
This book continues from where the Fifth Season left off but also introduces a new important player.
Expectations are very tricky. Sure, we all learned by now to lower our expectations for highly praised books (even if we don’t always do after all). But what about books that we are expecting to dislike? And read some reviews that convinced us that this is book is not that good? But "hey, don’t worry the last book will be much better". What if we were waiting for a very boring annoying book? Yet, once we read it, we learn it’s not so bad after all.
And I’m left wondering if this book is worth my rating. If I had NO EXPECTATIONS whatsoever, would my enjoyment have been any different?
I always thought that the important thing is to lower my expectations but this book showed me that no, the important thing is to be neutral about a book. It’s no easy feat, however…
You might be thinking, I don’t see the problem here.. but let me tell you, I agree with what those people say.
You might answer you can agree but like this book anyway.
And it’s true but these negative things if I wasn’t mentally waiting for, I might have changed my rating…
Because:
1) the book had little action. The pace was slow. Only stuff happened at the end. But I was expecting extreme boredom. The book wasn’t that boring though.
2) Essun’s pov. The dreadful “you”. Again, something I would’ve disliked if I wasn’t prepared for it.
3) the info-dump. Ok for this point I’m still unsure if I’m really stupid and didn’t understand lots of orogeny stuff or some things weren’t explained well enough (and I’m too lazy to go back to previous explanations). It’s probably a bit of both, I guess?
The book had more telling than showing, honestly. But I enjoyed it. I finished it fairly quickly. I didn’t get bored but I didn’t read it in one sitting either.
At the end of the day, the purpose of reading is enjoyment. I don’t read to criticize books, for example. If it was a book I’m positive I’m going to hate, I avoid it. On the other hand, I prefer my ratings to be fair and well-deserved.
We had some important revelations in this book and an explanation for a character’s behavior (kind of). We are introduced to more characters in this book than the first one (who at least make regular appearances). It’s not divided into three POVs so it makes sense. I’m looking forward to reading the final book and see how everything is going to be wrapped up.
The Obelisk Gate: ★★★★
The Stone Sky: ★★★★ 1/2
I will keep this short review spoiler-free even for the first book.
This book continues from where the Fifth Season left off but also introduces a new important player.
Expectations are very tricky. Sure, we all learned by now to lower our expectations for highly praised books (even if we don’t always do after all). But what about books that we are expecting to dislike? And read some reviews that convinced us that this is book is not that good? But "hey, don’t worry the last book will be much better". What if we were waiting for a very boring annoying book? Yet, once we read it, we learn it’s not so bad after all.
And I’m left wondering if this book is worth my rating. If I had NO EXPECTATIONS whatsoever, would my enjoyment have been any different?
I always thought that the important thing is to lower my expectations but this book showed me that no, the important thing is to be neutral about a book. It’s no easy feat, however…
You might be thinking, I don’t see the problem here.. but let me tell you, I agree with what those people say.
You might answer you can agree but like this book anyway.
And it’s true but these negative things if I wasn’t mentally waiting for, I might have changed my rating…
Because:
1) the book had little action. The pace was slow. Only stuff happened at the end. But I was expecting extreme boredom. The book wasn’t that boring though.
2) Essun’s pov. The dreadful “you”. Again, something I would’ve disliked if I wasn’t prepared for it.
3) the info-dump. Ok for this point I’m still unsure if I’m really stupid and didn’t understand lots of orogeny stuff or some things weren’t explained well enough (and I’m too lazy to go back to previous explanations). It’s probably a bit of both, I guess?
The book had more telling than showing, honestly. But I enjoyed it. I finished it fairly quickly. I didn’t get bored but I didn’t read it in one sitting either.
At the end of the day, the purpose of reading is enjoyment. I don’t read to criticize books, for example. If it was a book I’m positive I’m going to hate, I avoid it. On the other hand, I prefer my ratings to be fair and well-deserved.
We had some important revelations in this book and an explanation for a character’s behavior (kind of). We are introduced to more characters in this book than the first one (who at least make regular appearances). It’s not divided into three POVs so it makes sense. I’m looking forward to reading the final book and see how everything is going to be wrapped up.