brokenearth

Essun broke Nassun's hand 😳

I didn't remember that. Gods, that's so fucked up. Essun was a terrible mother. Yeah, I know: Not entirely her fault—she's been feared and hated by stills her whole life, she was raised by a paramilitary organization that taught with violence and punishment, and she was trying to make her daughter safe in a world that would kill her just for being who she is—but at some point every parent has to take responsibility for their own actions and can't just blame the way they were raised for the awful things they do to their children.

Intentionally breaking your child's hand to teach a lesson absolutely lands you in the "terrible parent" category.

Fuck me.

And then Nassun comes to love Schaffa. Fucking Schaffa! Deer gods, this is all so twisted.

@bookstodon#Books #Reading #SFF #SciFi #Fantasy #Fiction #BrokenEarth

(comment on The Obelisk Gate)

ALT

The scene in the control room of Castrima is one of the best scenes I've ever read in SFF. I don't have the words to properly explain the sense of awe and dread it evokes in me. This is the moment when everything Alabastar has been telling Essun finally becomes real to her—and, by extension, to us.

The plinth with dark metal shards; iron, like the core of the Earth, flecked with some rust. Ancient warnings that label the shards as the enemy. Then Tonkee grabs one, and it attacks her. Burrows into her flesh, swims up an artery toward her sessapinae. Essun makes contact with the thing using her orogeny and senses hate and anger and a presence that speaks into her mind:

Hello, little enemy.

Gods, can you imagine? Your people accidentally fling the Moon away from the Earth, setting into motion a cataclysm that will kill your civilization and set your species back thousands of years in development. And as if that's not bad enough, you suddenly discover that the planet you live on is alive and angry and it hates you for what you've done. That it will work for ages to exterminate you all.

The curses that have peppered this story thus far—"rusting" and "Evil Earth"—take on a different feel after this scene. We know now why the people of the Stillness use these words as curses, even though they've long forgotten the real reasons.

Absolutely brilliant worldbuilding here. Gives me goosebumps.

Fuck 😳

@bookstodon#Books #Reading #SFF #SciFi #Fantasy #Fiction #BrokenEarth

(comment on The Obelisk Gate)

ALT

Well then. Ykka and the other Castrimans are ungrateful rusters. Kinda feeling like Essun should have just left them to be abducted by stone eaters, murdered by Rennanis soldiers, and eaten by boilbugs 😒

@bookstodon#Books #Reading #SFF #SciFi #Fantasy #Fiction #BrokenEarth

(comment on The Stone Sky)

ALT

I think Ykka's being a jerk.

Firstly, her assessment of Essun's actions on the day Rennanis attacked is inaccurate and unfair. Essun did think about Castrima when she was killing Rennanis soldiers and trapping stone eaters. If it had only been about destroying her enemies, Essun could have simply crushed the geode; it wasn't just about destroying her enemies, though—Essun was as precise with her magic as she could be in order to save her fellow orogenes.

Secondly, Ykka is dripping with privilege when she chastises Essun for thinking of short-term survival rather than long-term community goals. She wasn't imprisoned by her own parents then sold off (basically) to the Fulcrum for indoctrination and military training. Her community accepted her for what she was. Her community supported her.

I'd give Ykka a piece of my mind if I could 😤

@bookstodon#Books #Reading #SFF #SciFi #Fantasy #Fiction #BrokenEarth

(comment on The Stone Sky)

ALT

It's so twisted that Nassun goes to her father in that moment when she walks in on him having just murdered her younger brother 💔

@bookstodon#Books #Reading #SFF #SciFi #Fantasy #Fiction #BrokenEarth

(comment on The Obelisk Gate)

ALT