Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter. (Goodreads)
I stumbled across this one while perusing the bookstore and wasn't completely sold on it at first, mainly because I'm not a huge fan of dystopia (I seem to get enough of that watching the news...). But, a discussion with my fiance and the Nebula it won tilted the book into my purchase pile and I brought it home. There, I promptly devoured it. It is one helluva read. Twists and turns and the three storylines all so artfully brought together. I absolutely loved it and am already enjoying the next in the series. It's very different in parts--the second-tense telling for one of the threads was always a bit jarring when I'd get to those chapters for the first paragraph or two--but I enjoyed the pacing and characters and fitting it all together. Epic novel and well worth checking out if you haven't!
What have you been enjoying reading lately?
Terrific review!
ReplyDeleteAwesome review, thank you!
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