Review: The Stone Sky

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Stone Sky is the final book in N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy, and it may well be my favourite of the three books. The first book, The Fifth Season, left me with extremely mixed feelings. I loved and loathed the book in almost equal measures, until the end where I was convinced my feelings were more towards the positive. The second book, The Obelisk Gate, also caused mixed feelings. Unlike the first book, however, the second book was more towards the negative. Had I not brought the entire trilogy, I doubt I would have completed this series. Having brought all three books, though, I needed to see how things came together.

With The Fifth Season, I handed off a three-point-five star rating. I rounded it down to three stars, but in retrospect I think the extra point five stars was a reflection of how I was feeling generous. In retrospect I would give The Fifth Season three stars, The Obelisk Gate remains a two-star read, and The Stone Sky is the three-point-five star read of the trilogy. Although I enjoyed this one a lot more than I enjoyed the two prior books, it still wasn’t enough for me to round my rating up.

Of the three books, The Stone Sky is the one I found the easiest to get through. I read it the quickest, without putting it down for extended periods of time – as I did with the two former books. I feel as though the potential we were introduced to at the end of the first book really came to life in this final book, bringing everything together well.

I will be honest and point out I did work out the ending well in advance. In fact, I worked it out a couple of chapters into the second book. I expected to be shocked, to be proven wrong, but I was correct in my belief of how things would end. I did not have all of the specifics, though, and it made it interesting to watch as the details came to life.

As with the prior books, the storytelling throws us in many directions. Whether I was used to it by this book or whether it’s a reflection of the events told in this one, but I found I was not as put off by it as I was with the prior books – in fact, I rather looked forward to some of the scenes, finding myself curious about the information that came to light. I felt as though there were some things I would have liked to see play out – quite a few things felt brushed over, some things were mentioned and not shown – but as a whole the events that came out in this book were more interesting than those in the prior books, keeping my attention much better.

Overall, this was a decent ending to a trilogy I wasn’t overly fussed about. Although I’m willing to label this my favourite book in the trilogy, allowing me to appreciate how things came together, it was not enough to leave me in love with the series.

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