(5 / 5) – It Completes Me!
Rereading doesn’t always have a happy ending. I have reread many books that just don’t hold up, or for whatever reason struck me hard the first time, but subsequent readings leave me cold and slightly confused as to my initial conclusions. There are also times when rereading makes a book SO. MUCH. BETTER! That was the case of book two, “The Obelisk Gate” in the Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin.
I enjoyed this series the first time I read through it about six years ago, but decided this past December to reread it through listening to the audio version and I have not been disappointed. “The Obelisk Gate” picks up from where we leave Essun at the end of “The Fifth Season.” Jemisin continues her form of multiple perspectives and hero journeys that she originates in the first book and we again are taken all over this world, The Stillness.
I don’t want to spoil anything and I feel it would be very easy to spoil, so I will simply say that this book explores the evolution of characters from book one as well as some new characters in in-depth and interesting ways. The end of the world manifests itself in a myriad of ways both literally and figuratively in the case of many of these characters. Jemisin is an exceptional storyteller that keeps me engaged and intrigued to the very end. At the end of each of these two novels, I immediately want to pick up the next and for a reader with deep commitment issues that is saying a lot.
I highly recommend this series if you enjoy fantasy and if you’ve read these books once and enjoyed them but didn’t love them, I invite you to give them another go.
Happy Reading!
Hannah
