#Nassun

[fantasiadelux]

I illustrated some of the tectonic landscapes inspired by N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy: Lava falls, lava rivers, lava ponds. They are available as prints on https://luxmeteora.com/prints-postcards :)

[bookwyrminspiration]

turning your daughter into you and then being afraid of her. im gonna go feral

[now-that-i-saw-you]

"He will be Jija forever and never Daddy except out loud when Nassun needs reins to steer him" no no you don't understand HER CHILDHOOD IS GONE her daddy is a stranger! He only doesn't kill her for what she is because of who she is. If she didn't beg for his paternal instinct he would've killed her like he killed his son who wasn't big enough to understand what was happening.

[genspiel]

"Do you fear me?" he asks.

For a moment the desire to lie rises within her. It will not please him, she thinks, for her to speak the truth. But she hurts too much, and she is too numb right now, for fear or duplicity or the desire to please. So she speaks the truth: "Yes."

"Good. You should. I'm not sorry for the pain I've caused you, little one, because you needed to learn the lesson of that pain."

(Obelisk Gate spoilers below.)

He remembers breaking Damaya's hand and flinches with it. Why would he do such a thing? Why did he do any of the horrible things he did, in those days? [...]

He finally blurts, "Nassun. Are you afraid of me?"

She blinks, barely lucid - and then she smiles. It untwists something within him. "Never." [...]

"Never again," he whispers, and twitches with the memory of that, too. Then the feeling changes and his resolve refocuses. What happened before does not matter. That was a different Schaffa. He has another chance now. And if being less than himself means being less than the monster that he was, he cannot regret it.

[simonimonim]

Took a nap and dreamt up fancasting for a show based on The Broken Earth triology by N.K. Jemisin and here's what I came up with

Khleo Thomas as Hoa

Queen Latifah as Ykka

Madalen Mills as Nassun

Matthew Gray Gubler (my dream described him as rhat white boy from Criminal Minds y'all love) as Schaffa

Laverne Cox as Tonkee (I don't know many trans actresses, but I do know she would slay as an eccentric researcher a la Professor Von Drake)

Coco Jones as Syenite

Lupita N'Yongo as Essun (my brain original cast Whoopie Goldberg and I was like that hoe is 70 ain't nobody gonna believe she had a baby in the last 3 years)

Coleman Domingo as Jija

John Boyega as Lerna

Daniel Kaluuya as Alabaster (giving my brain huge sideeye with this one idk)

[a-menaceinpink]

finished the broken earth trilogy. think i have to lay face down on the ground for a while

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Book names + authors under the cut

KJ Brandman/Mac Coyle- Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang

Ettian Nassun/Gal Ump Ember- Bonds of Brass/Bloodright Trilogy by Emily Skrutskie

Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus- The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir

Tennal Halkana/Surit Yeni- Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

[mahoushojoe]

havent brought this up before but i recently finished the broken earth trilogy and those books shattered parts of me i didnt even know existed

[perksofbeingalittletwat]

[kbookblurbs]

The Stone Sky - N.K. Jemisin (Broken Earth #3)

4.5/5 - at times too cerebral for my tastes; very fitting pyhrric victory; the mother-daughter relationship in this book makes me SICK. I'm obsessed.

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!

In an effort to keep this a bit more concise and to the point than my review for The Obelisk Gate, I'm structuring this review into three main sections:

Worldbuilding

Pacing & The Ending

Essun, Nassun, & their relationship

Worldbuilding

I deeply love that Jemisin devotes so much time to making sure that the worldbuilding here reflects on a (sub)textual level the point she's trying to convey regarding race, oppression, and the consequences of othering people. It's rich and allows for a really nuanced exploration into what it means to consider people subhuman, what that does to their psyche, and what that exposes about that society. The section about the "Briar Patch" is ... particularly horrifying. A match to the scene in The Fifth Season with the node maintainer in terms of sheer banal evil.

I do feel, however, that sometimes the commitment to this description and this worldbuilding on every page interfered with getting to know some of the characters. Obviously Essun, Nassun, Schaffa, etc. are very well-developed, but characters like Tonkee, Ykka, and Lerna felt very one-note at times. Since our main characters are in their own heads so much, it doesn't really feel like we really get to know anyone else - though that could be a narrative technique given Essun's tendency to misunderstand or underestimate her relationships with others. Either way, I personally wanted to see a little bit more interaction between everyone.

Pacing & The Ending

At times, the book dragged for me. I think this may be because I felt some scenes with Schaffa and Nassun were somewhat repetitive, but I understand the need to keep them in. They each show something different and unique and horrifying, to be perfectly honest, about their relationship and Nassun's underlying traumas.

The ending, however, was everything I could ask for. It's felt all along like Essun wouldn't survive this, but through books one and two, I had imagined more of a go-down-swinging type of exit. This one was, frankly, all the more heartbreaking. She loved her daughter more than she loved humanity, more than she loved herself.

And what a blow for Nassun. To be orphaned twice over, basically, and to have a hand in the death of each of your parental figures makes my heart ache for her. She's so young to have experienced the world like this. It's especially tragic and fitting, as far as endings go, that she loses her orogeny at the end of the series. It's not a stretch to say that Nassun literally lost everyone who ever loved her and a part of herself she loved (and an arm!). What ultimately brought her the most happiness was also the seeds of her own personal tragedy.

Essun, Nassun, & their relationship

Few things have made me more sick, angry, and deeply conflicted than the twisted ties between Nassun, Essun, & Schaffa. How tragic to be so traumatized by even the attempt to live a normal life that you inflict the same pain upon your child. That your abuser can recognize your actions as wrong. That there's no way you could have known any different!

That said, Essun being afraid of her daughter and understanding that she is afraid of Nassun because Nassun is just like her was, again, deeply sad and frustrating on my part. It was understandable, because even as Essun has attempted to accept the whole of her life, who she is, and what she's done, good and bad, she hasn't really forgiven herself for it. She hasn't forgiven herself for being born powerful and stubborn and ambitious and seeing those traits reflected back in her daughter made her frightened!

From Nassun's point of view, for her to know, but not quite understand, that Schaffa had a hand in making Essun who she was and is, made me as the reader miserable. Schaffa is treating her better than many of the adult figures in her life. But he's also grooming her into a weird, toxic, codependent relationship that only serves to confirm Nassun's impression of her mother as someone who doesn't (or can't) love her when Schaffa is literally the reason that Essun acts and parents the way that she does. It goes round in circles and makes me sick and ill and I will be thinking about this for the foreseeable future I fear.

Overall - an excellent book and an excellent series that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a dense high fantasy or science fiction story. It packs a punch!

[bookwyrminspiration]

"my name is schaffa" "duty first"

[sparklestheunicorn]

Essun: *trying to find her daughter*

Me:

[now-that-i-saw-you]

"He will be Jija forever and never Daddy except out loud when Nassun needs reins to steer him" no no you don't understand HER CHILDHOOD IS GONE her daddy is a stranger! He only doesn't kill her for what she is because of who she is. If she didn't beg for his paternal instinct he would've killed her like he killed his son who wasn't big enough to understand what was happening.

[genspiel]

"That was wrong," Schaffa says. His voice is so soft she can barely hear it. She turns to look at him in surprise. He is staring at the ground, and there is a strange look on his face. Not the usual wandering, confused look that he gets sometimes. This is something he actually remembers, and his expression is... guilty? Rueful. Sad. "It's wrong to hurt someone you love, Nassun."

[jedaos]

[captn-lovelace]

well folks for the first time in my life i’ve started shipping something that doesn’t have *any* fics. i might have to be the change i want to see in the world