The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3) in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Dec 11, 2017 Loretta rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi-and-fantasy

It's funny, I went back to check my earlier reviews and I gave four stars to both the earlier books - when I remember The Fifth Season as SUCH a five star book. Huh.

But now that the trilogy is done, five stars, for this volume and the whole series. Fan-freaking-tastic on every level. Deeply satisfying resolution. Beautiful writing.

I listened to all three volumes via audiobook, and am now going to turn around - well, within the next year or so anyway - and read the "written" versions. Probably ...more

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Aug 04, 2019 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic, fantasy-and-sci-fi

When I finally finished this I had to go snuggle my dog for a while. Then I had to snuggle my kids. Only one kid was happy about this, the dog and other kid were reluctant participants. I have to let this book set with me for a while yet before I can properly decide how I feel. It was all the things: powerful, wrenching, complex, impressive, relevant. But it fell a bit short of perfect.

Not once did I guess at a reveal before it was revealed. Each time I was surprised, and that’s pretty cool.

A l When I finally finished this I had to go snuggle my dog for a while. Then I had to snuggle my kids. Only one kid was happy about this, the dog and other kid were reluctant participants. I have to let this book set with me for a while yet before I can properly decide how I feel. It was all the things: powerful, wrenching, complex, impressive, relevant. But it fell a bit short of perfect.

Not once did I guess at a reveal before it was revealed. Each time I was surprised, and that’s pretty cool.

A lot of plot lines were tied up, a lot of back story was explained, origin stories were laid out, but one detail that I was hoping would be explained was not. Maybe I was supposed to figure it out on my own, but I’m still confused: (view spoiler) I was really hoping that would be explained with all of the other satisfying backstory, but it never was.

I was also really confused about WHY (view spoiler)

If anyone had any doubts that this story is about racism, those doubts will be erased with this volume. ...more

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Feb 28, 2018 Cathy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I'm giving the five stars for the series as a whole, honestly. This last installment in the series was a lot more dense than the previous two, as the entire mechanism of the obelisks/the obelisk gate/orogeny/Guardians had to be explained. I really liked going back in time with Hoa, to fully understand how everything began. I also liked interaction with "Father" Earth, and the culmination of the mother-daughter struggle between Essun and Nassun. This book is about the meaning of family, friends, ...more

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May 17, 2020 Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Only the mildest of spoilers below...

This third book in the Broken Earth trilogy does not disappoint -- far from it! It was unexpected, wild, sad, gripping, and sticks the landing in every way you could hope for. (Except for Lerna. Poor guy got a real "beer-truck ending."*)

Other than that one tiny nitpick, Jemisin just keeps throwing balls into the air throughout all these books and then somehow at the end catches them all with an authoritative flourish.

I know, in theory, that "epic fantasy" nov Only the mildest of spoilers below...

This third book in the Broken Earth trilogy does not disappoint -- far from it! It was unexpected, wild, sad, gripping, and sticks the landing in every way you could hope for. (Except for Lerna. Poor guy got a real "beer-truck ending."*)

Other than that one tiny nitpick, Jemisin just keeps throwing balls into the air throughout all these books and then somehow at the end catches them all with an authoritative flourish.

I know, in theory, that "epic fantasy" novels are in some way supposed to reflect and illuminate our current times and lives (duh). Tolkien was working through the world wars (or something), CS Lewis was converting people to Christianity (I guess?), maybe Frank Herbert was thinking about drugs or the environment or something (I'm sure). But Jemisin's Broken Earth books are the first fantasy books that felt relevant and essential to life today (2020ish) in ways I did not expect. Slavery, racism, imperialism, extractive capitalism, environmental apocalypse...these (and more!) are all explored in wildly creative, totally unexpected ways. I loved it. Loved it!! Jemisin takes on these HUGE, challenging, and painful ideas in a was that is exciting, compelling...dare I say...fun!?

Recently I finished reading the first three Narnia books to my daughter, and while it's still perfectly great in plenty of ways, it's also...really weird? Slow? and super dated and "british" in a way that's less accessible than I remembered it from my own childhood. (And that's if you're as willing as I am to carefully ignore all the proselytizing.) Jemisin's Broken Earth books -- while far from being kids books -- offered a fascinating contrast of relevance and accessible immediacy.

As a final side note, I just wanted to mention one last thing. After finishing this last book, I felt compelled to do something I've never done before: go search the internet for fan art. Everything Jemisin describes in this world feels tangible and real, yet she doesn't stop everything narratively to nerdily describe everything for pages and pages (yeah I'm definitely LOOKING AT YOU, ALL YOU OTHER "EPIC FANTASY" NERD-AUTHORS). She sketches super-effective, stunning images quickly and then relies on you to fill them in with your good old-fashioned imagination. I have specific ideas of how everything and everyone in the series looks, but was desperate to see how other folks envisioned all the elaborate, awesome, crazy things described in the series.

Loved this book. Loved all three books in the series. Would recommend to anyone.

*in high school one of my English teachers coined the term "Beer Truck Ending" which has stuck with me my entire life and it always bums me out that nobody else knows about it (except perhaps a very few others). At the ending of some story (either one my teacher was writing or one he had once read), the protagonist is casually crossing the street and gets suddenly, unexpectedly crushed and killed by a beer truck. The end. Hence...a "beer truck ending"... ...more

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Dec 10, 2022 Jaime rated it really liked it

Shelves: black-author, audiobook, poc-author, fantasy-high, read-2022, 52-book-club-2022, popsugar-2022

In this final book of the Broken Earth trilogy, Essun has resumed her search for her daughter Nassun. And once she finds her, she can complete the mission that Alabaster's power will allow her to complete -- return the moon to its orbit and end the fifth seasons.

But Nassun has her own mission, and perhaps her own special power. And her mission is the exact opposite of Essun's.

As we follow their journeys, we also get the story of how the fifth seasons came to be, how it all began.

This is an incre ...more

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Sep 20, 2018 Nichole rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2018

This story is what I’m always hoping to find when I pick up a sci-fi or fantasy book. Gorgeous world-building, compelling characters and a tense, engaging and emotional plot. The Broken Earth series is beautiful.

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Apr 03, 2018 Kate rated it liked it

Shelves: book-riot-2018

Only finished the series because it fit into Read Harder. The series was good, but not 300 extra pages good. I think I’m really just not a sci-fi person.

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Oct 09, 2020 Julianne Dunn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-read-harder

It's not my favorite of the trilogy but it is incredibly satisfying end. The shifting perspectives in this book were so illuminating and answered a lot of questions that have been presented over the past 2 books. Of course, it also prompted different questions so it feels a little like there could be another trilogy in the series. ...more

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May 04, 2019 Dana Berglund rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-for-grown-ups, queer

This book definitely pays out. I encourage people to read all three in rapid succession, as there are details from earlier books that are too easy to forget if you let time (a week, a decade, a month) go by. I had misgivings about book 2, but they were evened out in this one. How will the world end this time?

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