Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGood, could have been great
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2016
Once again, what I feel could have been a 4 or 5-star review, I have to bump down to 3. Don't get me wrong, this was an enjoyable read. I thought The Obelisk Gate was better and worse in some respects to The Fifth Season.
The Bad:
The use of the 2nd person simply doesn't work. I felt throughout much of the novel how I feel when I watch a foreign-language film in subtitles. Yes, after 10 minutes or so I can almost forget that I don't understand anything anyone is saying and that I'm reading a movie, but the entire time there is a nagging sensation that I would really enjoy it more if I understood the language and didn't have to read English subtitles. Here, I have gotten used to the second-person perspective, but it's a constant irritant in the back of my mind that disallows complete immersion in the novel. No, Jemisin, I am not Essun. I don't agree with some of her motivations and feelings even if you tell me that they're mine. Speaking to me as though this is MY story feels like a constant attempt to guide my reaction to the events of the novel along the lines the author wishes, instead of leaving it up to me to react on my own. It's very heavy-handed on the author's part. It may be that what she has attempted to do is tell this part of the story as a first-person perspective, spoken in the second person, i.e. the "you are doing x" is the narrator expressing her thoughts in a casual manner. It still just doesn't work. When the three storylines came together at the end of The Fifth Season, I hoped that Jemisin would stop it with this 2nd person business and instead employ the 1st or 3rd person perspective (probably 1st is most appropriate). No such luck, and the telling of the story suffers.
Second, the reader is given a great revelation as to the novel power of Orogeny, a power among other things that seemed to have a biological basis that interacted with real-world physics. Yet, after hundreds of pages of reading about a very interesting and unique power, it turns out that way back in the day it used to be called "magic." With one sentence all that intrigue and mystique vanishes and we're left with super powers like in any other fantasy novel, just much better described than most. To be clear, Jemisin's powers of description mitigates the damage done by this misstep somewhat. Jemisin paints the picture of the use of the magic so well that you can't help but feel that fluttering sense of enchantment, and it is a pleasure to read about throughout the book.
Third: the lack of moral reflection by several of these characters is annoying. When a character turns someone to stone, there is some crying about it for a couple days then it's no big deal. Oh, she didn't mean to of course, and she's certainly sad, but these things happen. When this same character then murders and entire village of people, it is justified as "well, those people were wrong." People of this same character's type were hunted down throughout history, yet she apparently feels nothing from killing hundreds of people for no apparent reason, because there is zero reflection from her on this. It doesn't appear to affect her psychology at all. It's the same as when Essun decided to go play pirate in the first novel and drowns ships full of people then just goes on with her day basically. It's all a missed opportunity.
The Good:
I enjoyed the story about Nassun, even if I did find it somewhat unrealistic regarding her journey with Jija. I was willing to overlook it, however, when Jemisin gave me the satisfaction of watching his story unfold to its conclusion. Learning about Nassun was a good addition to the general story and ties one loose-end while introducing some major new ones.
The story is developing in a generally interesting and compelling way. The world's history is told just enough to give the reader an idea that so much has been lost to time. Jemisin does a masterful job there, it makes the world so believable. There are hints of plenty of mysteries left to unfold, ancient secrets to uncover, immense personal transformations to come for several characters, and the brooding hint of cataclysmic conflict with forces of god-like power. There is plenty to like about all of that.
The unrealistic bisexual threesome from the last novel, which I felt was both contrived, and had little effect on the story, is finally given some weight here. It still plays a relatively minor role other than the offspring it produced, but it is better than what was afforded to it in the 5th season. I still think it felt like it was just sort of stuck into the storyline, but my irritation at it is diminishing as the remaining characters at least seem to care about it now. There is a new alt-lifestyle relationship in this novel, and for the first time in a Jemisin novel, the relationship is very subtle, a change I enjoyed only because she had become predictable.
Overall an enjoyable and worthwhile read, and a worthy follow-up to The Fifth Season.
