The Obelisk Gate (Broken Earth #2)

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Average customer rating 4 (1 comments)

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Highly imaginative and genuinely original series that, if one must assign a category, probably falls closer to fantasy than science fiction. I'm reviewing all three books in the series with this one review, in part because (duh) it's a series and if you're going to read one book you should commit to all three, and also because, more than most trilogies, there's little separation from one novel to the next; these could easily have been published as one book as there isn't much sense of a climax, or a pause in the narrative, at the ends of the first two books. The plot follows a few (but ultimately focuses on two) of the subset of humans that can control geological forces - the flow of magma, the movement of continental faults, the raising and lowering of mountainous amounts of rock. While forces of incomprehensible power are on display, there's also a very human and intimate element to the central plot of a woman who has loved, lost all, recovered, and is again threatened with loss of everything of value to her. My only criticism, as a self-confessed literalist, is that some of the storytelling can be a bit ephemeral, but if you don't mind the occasional vagueness of the prose (this is not a criticism of the writer's ability, just a personal preference) then this series has nothing to detract from the enjoyment it otherwise consistently delivers.