I just finished the third volume of NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy. What a way to end. The first volume, The Fifth Season, was fantastic and really ended on a high. The second, The Obelisk Gate, seemed to me to simultaneously flag and to jump the shark. The third volume, The Stone Sky, brought the two together into a whole to a bravura ending. The ideas she is interested in, about exclusion and societies built on slavery, were handled beautifully. The relationship between parents and children, between friends, between lovers, between enemies, all were sensitive and nuanced and utterly believable. Almost all of them were heart breaking. There was no villain here, not the father who kicked his son to death, not the Guardian who trained young children to love him by breaking their fingers, not even the apocalypse that regularly sweeps this world. It was also a masterclass in explaining mysteries without spoiling them. This, in particular, left me awestruck. My only complaint was the title; I think she should have called it The Broken Earth. And the three should have been published together.
The first two volumes both won Hugos. I was wholeheartedly in favour of the first winning, not so sure about the second (though nothing that year really gripped me). I will be very surprised if the third doesn’t win. More than that, however, it’s a perfect series.
There is word that it’s being adapted into a television series. I think they’ll do a terrible job.
Leaving Lahore tomorrow.