Broken Earth Trilogy Review

 Broken Earth Trilogy

The Fifth Season

The Obelisk Gate

The Stone Sky

By Nk Jemisin.

Three books launched in three consecutive years (2015-2017). Each one wins Hugo award.  It is incredible. But each book deserves it. NK Jemisin deserves it. And more. She is a black woman writer in a field that is not. She is a vocal in her activism in a world that is not. She should be the poster child of every diversity led initiative. I hope she gets her due in the annals because her work is just too good.

I finished all three books over three weekends.  But in weekdays, after long days at office, I would sleep for few hrs and get up to steal my morning freshness to immerse in this world. I have been craving for good Sci-fi and this one is one of the best. 

Earth is broken. There are earthquakes everywhere, anytime. Sometimes, these earthquakes are so big that it breaks open the Earth and molten lava with all its gases comes out which causes world-beings to go into survival mode and wait the sky to get clear. This phenomenon is called Season. 

In a world filled with earthquakes, what will be heroic super-power? An ability to control them. That is what orogenes do, born with a power to control tectonic movements. But, normal people fear orogenes. What do you do whom you fear? You kill them or you send them to an institution (read school) where they can be controlled (read taught). 

Wait, what do you mean - how can you control someone who has this power?  There is something that is more fundamental to all this. The energy that powers the core of Earth. Let's call this magic. There are people, called Guardians, who have strain of magic in them using which they can control Orogenes.  The power to control tectonic movements, that is the power of orogenes, is also a variant of this magic and some people can go beyond basic powers to unlock higher potential.

There are also somethings called Obelisks. There are people made out of stone, called stone-eaters. The world building over three books is massive and each book adds more and more layers. Jemisin's craft makes it easy to follow. Her prose is one of the best. Wait, I forgot to tell you that there is also Moon which was dislodged by using this magic but it is now coming back closer to Earth.

The series start when a massive earthquake has broken the earth into two parts and triggered a new season. This massive earthquake was not a natural one, it was done by an orogene. One of the most powerful one. In a world filled with earthquakes, what will be the name of most powerful place? Stillness. The book start when Stillness is destroyed this with this massive earthquake. 

But Broken Earth is a story of none of the above. It is a story of Essun, an orogene, who has lost her daughter  is now on a journey to find her. Essun, who on the second page has found out that her son has been killed and daughter is taken by her father, who is now ostracized, is now determined to find her daughter. 

Broken Earth is not a story of orogenes, magic or seasons. It is a story of a broken mother and her grief.  Each of the three books are journey books. The first one is Essun's journey to search for her daughter and an incredible trick that you suspect all the time but when it unfolds, it is eureka! The second one focusses on the daughter's journey and the last one is when the world building and personal story comes together to deliver an ending which is satisfying.

Back in the day, they said that Lord of the rings is not film-able.  I was born into a generation where Peter Jackson had done it.  In this post-matrix, post LOTR world, anything can be made into a movie. I would love to see Broken Earth into a movie; the novels are very visual.  My choice for Essun ins Regina King or Viola Davis. 

NK Jemisin was tending to her mother in hospital when she wrote the third book. In a prologue at the end of third book, she shared that the pain in her book is real; it is her pain. Once the saga ends, reading this smaller tidbit just makes you realize the depths of pain there could be. I always love books when they layer basic humanity values under these complex world building layers. 

The prose of Broken earth is very raw, like someone who has been describing how a fresh cut wound has healed itself overtime. It is this prose that keeps everything together. The pain is real. So is the reality. Joy? - what happiness can you ascribe to a woman who has lost both children. Beings which are made of stone are the ones who are most humane. 

Do read the trilogy. Do not read just one. These are three different books. Yet they are one. The books are not broken. It is the world that is.