*Some spoilers*
This is the way the world ends… for the last time. The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster Tenring – madman, world-crusher, saviour – has returned with a mission: to train his successor, Essun, and thus seal the fate of the Stillness forever. It continues with a lost daughter, found by the enemy. It continues with the obelisks, and an ancient mystery converging on answers at last. The Stillness is the wall which stands against the flow of tradition, the spark of hope long buried under the thickening ashfall. And it will not be broken
I took me quite a few chapters to be situated back into the story simply because I read The Fifth Season back in February and some of the finer details and characters eluded me. But around the first 100 page mark I was pretty much reintroduced to everyone and very much invested back into the storyline.
Essun I think has evolved even more in this book than the first. We’ve learnt nearly all there is to know about her and her background and now we get to see how her previous experiences affect her choices moving forward. I think we definitely see how the Fulcrum has influenced her and from her run in with the Guardian we see that her old relationship with Schaffa has definitely left some scars. I like how committed she becomes to her new Comm and the banter between her and Ykka is very entertaining. She truly comes into her powers in this book and I can’t wait to see where she will go next!
I liked the inclusion of Nassun’s point of view. From her reaction to her brothers death and then the subsequent journey with her father afterwards and how she manipulates him through his love for her. It’s definitely an act of desperation to cling to the only parent she actually loves but we can see how it skews her perception of what a proper relationship with a father figure should be and why she latches on to Schaffa who actually listens and tries to understand her. Even though some of the choices she makes is questionable I remember that she is only 10 years old, incredibly impressionable and just a product of her surroundings. I can’t wait for the reunion she is going to have with her mother and I am excited to see their reactions to each other.
The Stone Eaters are what intrigues me the most. They’ve been very much present throughout the course of the series so far and we’ve only just started to learn more about them and their history. I’m still unsure of their motivations yet, we have some like Hoa and Antimony who are helping the Roggas and others who want the human’s to go extinct. Is Hoa actually being honest and honourable with his intentions or is he going to double cross Essun?
I find this book to be quite a bit slower pace wise than the previous. I found the writing to be a little bit harder to get into than what I remember from The Fifth Season as well. It’s very descriptive but there’s a lot of terminology to try and get your head around which I struggled with at times. Overall though I think this was a great continuation from the first book and I am for sure picking up The Stone Sky whilst everything is still fresh in my brain!
⭐️4/5 stars Immersive, surprising and ever evolving!
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