Publication Date: 4th August 2015
Goodreads Summary:
THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS. AGAIN.
Three terrible things happen in a single day.
Essun, masquerading as an ordinary schoolteacher in a quiet small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Mighty Sanze, the empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years, collapses as its greatest city is destroyed by a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heartland of the world's sole continent, a great red rift has been been torn which spews ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
But this is the Stillness, a land long familiar with struggle, and where orogenes -- those who wield the power of the earth as a weapon -- are feared far more than the long cold night. Essun has remembered herself, and she will have her daughter back.
She does not care if the world falls apart around her. Essun will break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
**No Spoilers**
Three terrible things happen in a single day.
Essun, masquerading as an ordinary schoolteacher in a quiet small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Mighty Sanze, the empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years, collapses as its greatest city is destroyed by a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heartland of the world's sole continent, a great red rift has been been torn which spews ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
But this is the Stillness, a land long familiar with struggle, and where orogenes -- those who wield the power of the earth as a weapon -- are feared far more than the long cold night. Essun has remembered herself, and she will have her daughter back.
She does not care if the world falls apart around her. Essun will break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
So, I'd heard so much about this book on both booktube and from the blogging community that I just had to pick it up. Fantasy is my favourite genre and this book just seemed to contain some of the buzzwords that makes me immediately want to read a book: unique magic system, diversity, immense worldbuilding, and incredibly real characters. I have to say, I wasn't disappointed in the slightest with this book.
In this world, the magic users are the oppressed people who are trained, feared, and used by the rest of society. The magic system is volatile and very difficult to control which leads to many of them being killed. The magic system itself is so complicated but so unique that it made it feel like it could be real. There are so many consequences to the magic/science that the oppression of their people is believable.
This book follows three main characters: a young girl who is being brought to the University where they are trained by her Guardian, a young adult woman who is going on her first mission, and a middle-aged (maybe forty) woman who is trying to find her daughter. I found all of the characters so compelling and three-dimensional. Each woman was strong and each perspective was fascinating. I was constantly looking forward to reading the next person's perspective to see where their story was. Even every single side character was interesting and felt so real. I think I loved Syenite's perspective the most, especially when her and Alabaster grew to know one another. But so many side characters stood out: Alabaster, Innon, Hoa, and Tonkee.
Although this book was slow to get in to, in a sense, the worldbuilding was amazing. Jemisin really does throw the reader in the deep end and expects them to learn but it really makes it feel as though the world existed outside of the story, and not just for it. I know some people probably don't like that, but for me it's perfect. The history is fascinating and I could picture every part of the world. I just felt like nothing was lacking in this world and there was a reason for everything. There was no needless exposition, the worldbuilding just flowed so naturally alongside the story. Jemisin is an incredibly talented writer.
Despite being a fantasy, this book was also full of plot twists and reveals. They were done so, so well that I just didn't see then coming, and when the reveal occurred I had to go back to different parts of the book in fascination of how well it linked together. Not a single word is wasted in this book and I feel like I already want to re-read it to look for the clues.
There is also so, so much diversity in this book and none of it feels like it's token, or that it's done just for the sake of it. Jemisin is incredible at portraying a realistic world. I feel like the majority of fantasy books I have read are filled with white, male, straight characters, and it was so refreshing to see a world with people of colour (including many main characters), polyamorous relationships, homosexuality, fluid sexuality, and trans representation. It accurately reflected a real world with these very real people in it. It just all felt so natural and I hope to see more of this in future fantasy books.
Overall, despite the slow start to the book, I absolutely loved it. I found it refreshing and just an incredible story. I read it so quickly and constantly couldn't wait to go back to reading it. I'm already onto the second book and I hope it's just as good as the first. I would definitely recommend this to lovers of high fantasy/science-fiction; it's a wonderful book that deserves the praise it has got over the years.
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