CBR11 Bingo – Award Winner (2017 Hugo Award)
This is the second book in the Broken Earth Triology, and picks up immediately after book one. Basically this entire review will be a spoiler, if you haven’t read the first book… sooo… stop here if you haven’t read them, but want to?).
As the disaster that is this Season intensifies, Essun and Hoa (who she has learned is a stone-eater, and not a child at all) have found refuge in a community that is surviving in an ancient underground cave. This ‘comm’ is unique in that it is lead by an orogene, and welcomes humans and orogenes to live & work together. It’s a unique leadership structure, one that is often filled with conflict and struggle, as two normally adversarial ‘races’ try to put past prejudices aside in order to survive. Essun is safe here, and her abilities are powerful and government trained, which makes her an asset. Her chances of survival increase by staying in community, but she still hasn’t found her daughter – the whole reason for her quest. As an enemy community closes in, in search of precious resources in this time of disaster, she discovers her old friend Alabaster Tenring is also living there, and on his deathbed charges her with a mission that will save the world, and end the occurrence of Seasons altogether.
We are finally introduced to Nassun, Essun’s daughter), a preteen who had fled her village with her father because he was seeking someone to ‘cure’ her orogeny. She finds herself in a different sort of training facility, run by (unbeknownst to her), her mother’s former Guardian, Schaffa. It is quickly evident that her natural abilities, combined with the training her mother gave her in childhood, sets Nassun apart from the other students. Now teamed up with a stone-eater of her own, and effected by the events her mother has set into motion miles away, Nassun prepares to set out on a mission of her own, determined to use her growing power to change the way the world views people like her.
This book is much easier to follow because the players are all in place, and the universe is now familiar. Loved it 🙂