The Stone Sky: Book Review

Today, we will be reviewing The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin, the third in The Broken Earth trilogy. Keep reading to find out what we thought about the final book of the series and the trilogy as a whole!

The Stone Sky Summary (Spoilers Ahead)

After Essun saves the residents of Castrima-under by using the Obelisk Gate, she ends up in a coma. Now, the residents of Castrima-under have to leave and head towards Rennanis to seek shelter there after Castrima-under becomes unhabitable. And as a result of using the Obelisk Gate, Essun’s hand has become stone.

Essun’s daughter Nassum is recovering after using the obelisk to kill her father by turning him to stone. She has decided to destroy Earth by colliding the moon with Earth. Nassum and Schaffa head towards the Corepoint to put an end to it all.

After waking up from the coma, Essun helps the comm travel to Rennanis and only when she arrives there will she try to find her daughter. But she learns that her daughter is not the same person she was 2 years ago when she last saw her. Can Essun save her daughter and bring an end to the seasons once and for all?

Commentary

The third novel is probably the most powerful novel in the series because of Essum and Nassun’s character development. And it isn’t what you would normally expect. While the themes of climate change and colonialism and racism are the ones that will jump out to readers first, the themes of family and friends are also a major part of this trilogy.

It will surprise nobody that this novel won the consecutive Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2018. That was the third straight year that Jemisin won the award, the third one for The Broken Earth trilogy. She is the only author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel for all three books in a trilogy. The pressure that she must have felt while writing these books was tremendous and she still surpassed expectations.

The fact that Jemisin wasn’t a full-time author while writing this series seems criminal. Jemisin released The Fifth Season in 2015 and in 2016, she started a Patreon campaign which raised enough money in a couple of days to quit her job as a counseling psychologist and focus on writing full time.

Conclusion

This felt like the perfect conclusion to the series and I enjoyed finally getting the while story of this world that Jemisin created. This is one of those worlds that I am sad to say goodbye to and will think about often.

 I have seen Jemisin’s name often but this was the first series I read by her and I am a fan and can’t wait to check out her other works in the near future. This was an amazing fantasy series and I have to determine where it ranks on my all-time favorite fantasy series. But it will easily crack my top ten. If you are thinking about reading this and love fantasy novels, then you are in for a treat!

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