The Obelisk Gate

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin, 410 pages

The second book in Jemisin's Hugo-winning trilogy (Yes! All three!) picks up where the last left off (so SPOILER ALERT if you haven't read The Fifth Season, which you really should): Essun is attempting to fit in with the community in the underground community of Castrima while simultaneously getting lessons in controlling the floating obelisks from her dying mentor, Alabaster. Meanwhile, Essun's daughter, Nassun, and husband, Jija, have fled south in search of a place that Jija is convinced can cure Nassun of her orogeny. When they get to this place, it's not exactly as it seems, bringing Nassun under the tutelage of Essun's old Guardian Schaffa. Has Schaffa changed his ways? It's unclear.

What is clear is that the final book in this series will bring some major power and major conflicts to this super-powerful mother and daughter, and I can't wait to read it. I love how Jemisin has created all of these wonderfully complex characters and situations in a world that's both completely foreign and so realistic. No wonder she's the first person to win the Hugo Award three years in a row, for all the books in a trilogy.