The Obelisk Gate

I was really excited to dig into The Obelisk Gate since I’d raced through and loved The Fifth Season. And it was a good follow up, but not quite as good to me. The story picks up almost immediately where the previous book left off but the pacing felt much slower. I enjoyed so much the back and forth and putting the pieces together in the previous book, but in this book it all slowed way down.

That isn’t to say I won’t read the third book, I definitely will. And I still love the characters and the world that Jemisin creates, but I’m taking a break and letting it sit for a bit before I jump in. I didn’t end the second book feeling compelled to find out what happens to Nassun and Essun right away, as I did with the first.

In this book, Essun and Nassun, her daughter, separately begin to learn more about what is causing the seasons to occur and how they may be stopped. Nassun is battling with her father to survive and be accepted for who she is. While Essun is back hunkered down with a community, hoping to eventually find her daughter. We, along with them, learn more about the way in which the world is out of balance and how it can be righted, and we being to see how they may do that.