The novel “The Obelisk Gate” by N. K. Jemisin was published for the first time in 2016. It’s the second book in The Broken Earth trilogy and follows “The Fifth Season“. It won the Hugo Award as the best novel of the year.
In the underground city of Castrima, Essun and Alabaster can live even though their orogenic nature is known. That can happen thanks to the influence of community leader Ykka and because the strange mechanisms that run all the city’s systems only work in the presence of orogenes. However, Alabaster is slowly turning into stone and knows he doesn’t have much left to live, so he tries to teach Essun not only more about orogenes but obelisks as well. Essun is perplexed when Alabaster tells her about an object he calls Moon.
After Jija killed his son because he found out that he’s an orogene, he fled taking his daughter Nassun with him. He understood that she too is an orogene but didn’t have the courage to kill her too. There are rumors that in the south there’s a place where it’s possible to eliminate orogeny from a person, and Jija intends to bring Nassun there.
“The Fifth Season” had introduced a world marked by recurring catastrophes of which memory goes back in time for millennia. In this situation, the power of the orogenes can help the inhabitants but also wreak further havoc.
The lack of information on the origin of the orogenes made the genre of the first novel not well defined, with elements of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction but with fantasy connotations. In “The Obelisk Gate” there’s explicit talk about magic but it’s possible that it is such advanced technologies as to be indistinguishable from magic. For this reason, the trilogy is also labeled as science fantasy. Surely this gives this second novel an even more fantasy flavor showing how the labels can be limiting.
“The Obelisk Gate” continues the story of Essun and her daughter Nassun becomes the protagonist as well, so much so that their parallel stories occupy almost the entire novel. Through those stories, N.K. Jemisin further expands this fictional universe focusing in particular on the obelisks. These objects were mentioned several times in “The Fifth Season” but in this sequel, they become central in the development of Essun’s story, also for the connection that emerges with the history of the world.
The second book of a trilogy is often the weakest because it has no beginning nor end, so containing important developments is essential. In my opinion, N.K. Jemisin did a great job continuing with both the characters’ stories and the revelations regarding the obelisks, the past, and more. Of course, the pace tends to be slow because revelations typically come through conversations where Alabaster talks to Essun about what he discovered about the past, magic, the Moon, and the events that led to that chaotic world. In short, if you’re looking for action, this trilogy is not for you.
The characters’ humanity, both in a positive and negative sense, remains a crucial element also in “The Obelisk Gate” and can be seen fully in the attitude towards the orogenes. Already in the first novel, the discrimination against them was seen, in this sequel, we see how Jija considers orogeny a disease, so he takes his daughter Nassun to a place where it’s said that it’s possible to “cure” her.
“The Obelisk Gate” is the second part of a larger story, so this novel has no real ending. If you’re interested in the themes developed in this trilogy, I recommend reading it regardless of genre labels.
