This is the 2nd in The Broken Earth trilogy. The first book is The Fifth Season and the third book is The Stone Sky. Though this book was released in 2016, it's still well-rated. The audiobook is rated #16 in Contemporary Fantasy, #17 in Dystopian Science Fiction, and #64 in Dystopian Fiction. The Kindle ebook is rated #22 in Black & African American Literary Fiction, #44 in Action & Adventure Literary Fiction, and #96 in Magical Realism. The audiobook is 13 hours and 19 minutes long. The paperback is 448 pages. Each book in this series won a Hugo award and this book was listed on the New York Times' Notable Books List.

I rated this book 18+ because they dropped a pretty bad word twice. But most of the cursing is things like "rust," which is thrown around quite a lot, actually. There is also some violence as there is war and attacks.

This book of the series continues to follow the main character, Essun. She's found a place to live and is making friends. However, this book also follows her daughter, Nassun, as she also finds shelter and grows in her knowledge and control of her Orogen powers. Each has to make difficult decisions that could destroy their way of life, if not the world, but they must do so in preserve their way of life as well. With Essun and her new home threatened by Rock Eaters and fellow Orogens, as well as Stills ("normal" humans), Guardians, and a variety of others, she has to make difficult decisions and learn to use her powers in ways she's never tried. Failing will have disastrous consequences, but so will not trying.

And if trying to save your family, your community, and the Earth wasn't enough. The moon must be retrieved from a wrong orbit to help end the Earth's deadly seasons, another of which has just started, causing the sun to be blotted out and food to no longer be able to be grown. For those who don't have a storehouse of food, starvation isn't long off. But even for those who do, they can't store enough food the thousand or more years that this new season could last. Father Earth must be appeased because he misses his son, the moon.

People who enjoy complex plot lines and books where you have to keep paying attention to get the details.

That I couldn't just mindlessly have the story in the background while doing other things. I did need to pay attention to it, but it was good.

Listen to the 3rd book in the series.

I'd read after the 1st book that the series had a lot deeper social message about in groups and out groups and how we treat others not like ourselves, so with that in mind, I paid more attention to the lessons and critiques of the book when it comes to our own society.

Is very talented, having won a Hugo Award 3 years in a row. I believe she was the only one to have done this, at least at that time.

While it's complex, it's creative and interesting.

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Created Jun 25, 2022 at 3:06am • Submit your own review...