This is the way it happens. You tried once, a few years ago, to read a book by N.K. Jemisin. It didn't go well. But you decide to try again. Why not, am I right?

You try. It's rusting hard. You wonder whether you will ever understand what is happening. Eventually you get into the pace of the book and start to figure out what it means for these characters to live in this world. But then -

Oh.

Oh rust.

You realize this book just isn't that good. You can't stand the style, sadly. You find elements of the concept fascinating, but there are so many things that don't make sense.

You draw all your powers together to avoid icing this thing and you exert enough control to finish it. And then, you look on wikipedia to find out what happens in the next two books so you don't have to read them. This is the way it ends. ( )

This is the first book of an epic fantasy trilogy that has won a lot of awards, and I can see why. It's very good. Quite well-written, with an interesting setting and premise... Just high quality throughout.

Do not read it when you need cheering up, though. The post-apocalyptic setting is bleak and hopeless, torture and murder are commonplace, often including children as victims. The characters are correspondingly bleak and hopeless... Highly recommended, in spite of that. ( )

I didn’t love this book, but I also didn’t stop reading it. A lot of people have said that they didn’t empathize with the characters, and I totally get it. They were almost entirely unpleasant. But the premise is great, and so was the story. ( )

A very intriguing read. I can definitely see why this book received the accolades that it did.

The world building is fantastic and organic - I see there are some complaints regarding 'info-dumping' in other reviews, but I did not find this particularly problematic, as the reader is thrown straight into a world that is at the same time familiar in some senses but completely alien in others without any easing in, and any details given just made me want to learn more. There is an intricate weaving of history, culture and society which forms a deep overall backdrop for the story while at the same time having a direct impact on the experiences, choices and struggles faced by the characters. The book deals with some very mature and real-world issues, and in a way that on the one hand does not shy away from its realities even if they can be confronting and horrific, but on the other hand does not wave in the face of the reader for the sake of eliciting a reaction. The use of second person and present tense was daring, and while jarring at first, it definitely grew on me and created a direct connection with Essun's point of view which made for an empathetic reading experience once I got used to it.

The three perspectives each had their strengths and weaknesses - I felt that on the whole, the Syenite storyline was the most engaging, and although I caught on quite quickly to the twist that the three different viewpoints were leading to and the pacing did feel a bit stop start in some places when jumping between perspectives, the plot kept my attention throughout. Ultimately, I didn't feel like there was an X factor to elevate this to amazing for me, so it remains a 4-4.5*, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this as a specimen of modern sci-fi fantasy that powerfully breaks new ground (or earth, perhaps). ( )

(2.0 Stars)

I feel bad rating this one as low as I did, and I'm sure it was more me than anything else. I just couldn't get into this story. The changing perspective really threw me off at the beginning of the book, and I never really recovered.

I felt like the characters were not really strong enough to be identifiable by any narrative, and the book itself is not dialog driven. I found myself reading it but thinking about other things, or other books. I even had to re-read parts of it because I thought I must have missed something, but I didn't.

I guess, for me... it was boring, kind of like Tolkien's Silmarillion. Again, not bad, but not really a page-turner. ( )