The Broken Earth series has some of the most dense, challenging and narratively intense stories that I've ever read. This book is as amazing as the first, yet in a very different way. This trilogy requires endurance and is not the place where I recommend people start even within Jemisin's work.  This is an immense and intimate story and I'm amazed that she was able to coherently complete them all, as well as get them published. They're true science fantasy of a scale that I've never experienced before. Absolutely fantastic, but not for the faint of heart.