Few books make me feel the losses as hard as I do Essun's. She is a marvel of a character; pitiful and loving and rash and cruel in turn, always with explanation (though not necessarily excuse). I would root for her even if she did want to crack the earth in two at this point. She certainly deserves to.

My complaints are 1) the pondering tone, while beautifully emotive, gives this book the feeling of a campfire story which makes an already long middle volume feel even longer, and 2) the magic system that so imaginatively, carefully drives earth-bending to its extremes in the first book must now stretch to involve another element where I would have prefered to see more creative innovation with orogeny alone. Also, I have not yet been able to concoct a satisfying theory as to why Jemisin chose to continue writing in second person after the reveal of the first book, and am therefore undecided on whether it is achieving something third-person couldn't that makes it worth the occasional awkwardness. (The third book explains why, but I'm still not entirely sold.)

Although my grasp on the wider plot is a little tenuous, the world, characters (including new faces), and stakes are so utterly magnetic I immediately placed a hold on the final volume.