The Obelisk Gate is the sequel to [b:The Fifth Season|19161852|The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1)|N.K. Jemisin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386803701s/19161852.jpg|26115977], and as such, there's no introduction: it jumps straight into action. So, if you haven't yet read the first book of The Broken Earth trilogy, go and read it now. It's worth it.

The Obelisk Gate is, in many ways, symmetric to The Fifth Season. The first book started with the world ending, and Essun finding her son dead, killed at their home. The Obelisk Gate starts with the same situation, but instead of Essun we see the scene through her daughter's, Nassun's, eyes.

Whereas The Fifth Season eased the reader into the brutal world that is Stillness, The Obelisk Gate does no suh thing. It's immediately clear there will be violence, and there will be plenty of it, by good people as well as bad - although as the world comes undone, lines blur and it's hard to distinguish between the two.

The Obelisk Gate is slower in pace than its predecessor. It adds a lot into the world that was introduced in the Fifth Season, giving us a glimpse - but still only a glimpse - of what's happening behind the scenes. It teases us with science-fictiony elements but at the next moment turns into pure fantasy. And that's fantastic.

More than anything, though, The Obelisk Gate is a study in psychology. Or, perhaps more accurately, it's a description of persistent mass psychosis, caused by generations of people living under violent threat caused by Father Earth.

It's a brutal and lovely book, and I can't wait for the third book in the series.