I Can't Even

Seriously, if you are looking for the crack cocaine of speculative sci-fi/fantasy, this is it. The author is the queen of tantalising her listener/reader with titbits of information before jerking away on another tangent, such that it's half an hour later when you realise the Very Important Question hadn't been answered. Devious. I CANNOT wait for book 3.

6 people found this helpful

A one book story dragged into a trilogy

t is sad that fantasy fiction has somehow latched itself to the trilogy format. This lengthy format addiction means that too many authors stretch their material to fit. The Broken Earth story has material for one book - at max two. Being stretched over a trilogy means that it looses its momentum. It keeps going long after the reader/listener has lost interest. It is a pain to listen to plot elements that would have been exiting in a 5-10 minute frame, being dragged out for over an hour.
Authors, editors and publishers - Please start making single novel fantasy stories. Please don't make epics out of a one book novels!

As for the Broken Earth trilogy, a drawn out storyline is not the only problem unfortunately.

They author struggles to make some of the key characters believable. The daughter is particularly jarring. It seems that the author is concerned that the reader/listener will not follow her development - so she over explains. Sadly, for me that just emphasises the wrongness and strains the character's credulity.

Magic and the fantastical is part of the beautiful escape of the fantasy genre. But even magic and the fantastical needs to be consistent. If a rule for the magic has been established - then it can't be ignored half a book later. Changing rules/systems along the way challenges the reader/listener"s belief in the story - and abruptly ends the suspension of disbelief.

For instance - stone eater travel could have resolved all tribulations of the stillness and the characters in the story. As it finally does in the end of the third book. So it finally takes place after two books full of unnecessary ordeals.

The Broken Earth world is a fascinating one. The author has a lot of potential. Her ideas are strong and enjoyable.

I hope she and her editor will avoid stretching her material next time.

4 people found this helpful

If my job wasn't so dull I might not have finished

Brace yourselves with this one, nothing really happens. The story would have been more interesting from Alabaster's perspective because he is an active and enthusiastic protagonist. Essun seems to need steering from point to point by other more engaging characters.

Half of this story follows Essun getting lessons from Alabaster who follows the Albus Dumbledore style of teaching in little chunks where you don't tell your pupils what they need to know. It is written off as him being a terrible teacher but no-one could teach as badly as he seems to.

The other half follows her kid, Nassun who is quite annoying and slow to realise that her father is a waste of space. This is fairly dull as it is mostly a travel tale and similar to book 1.

I'm still quite interested in the overall story and what will happen to the Earth. I think I'll even read book 3 as the ending should be more interesting. I think this series was planned as a trilogy from the outset and so this book is mostly irrelevant filler to pad it enough to warrant a third book. You could probably fit all the relevant plot details into a couple of tweets though.

Narration was as good as book one. Better on 1.1x speed.

3 people found this helpful

loved it

loved it. I wasn't expecting to; given that a lot of reviews claimed it was difficult to follow. I'm not sure I agree with that. Strange names and terms to deal with, maybe, but the story and flow is beautifully told.

2 people found this helpful

Incredible!

Loved the continuation of the story, so very gripping. I hate when I need to stop listening.

2 people found this helpful

Couldn’t stop listening

This series is so good. It’s easy to listen to and simultaneously a very interesting story

1 person found this helpful

Keeps getting better!

Enjoyed this as much as the first one if not more! Moves at a good pace and love all the twists and changes. Struggled following the voices once or twice but otherwise great.

Starting the next one immediately.

1 person found this helpful

lost momentum!

whilst I loved the first book, this one stalled badly. i felt it got bogged down in meandering details about life in Coms, too many pointless conversations and dreary details, making it a drudge to get through. I will try the last book for completeness sake and hopefully it'll pick up the pace again.

Too fast progression

Mostly loved the first book and liked this 2nd one, but can't help being irritated by the cheek flapping speed of everyones powers getting ridiculous (and mostly without training). Feels like the author uses the ever increasing newly found powers as a way to hook the reader. For me it works the opposite unfortunately. Probably won't read the third.

Improvement. Good, not great.

Certainly better than the first one, the pacing is slightly higher and more interesting things happen. I totally fail to see what's supposed to be so great about these books though. I get the feeling the people who awarded the series the Hugo awards have never read any Fantasy outside of perhaps the most obligatory ones like Tolkien.

The world building is ok, but nothing compared to say Ericsson. The characters have depth, but compared with something like Abercrombie...no. The story and magic is interesting enough but can't hold a candle to ANY of Sandersons.

So yes, good book, but far from great. I think the main thing I am missing is ANY kind of humour. There are no jokes, no witty conversation, no reason to ever smile. And also, these books have yet to make me cry. And I cry watching childrens shows on TV with my children, I'm as sentimental as they come.

It DOES gain momentum in the last third of the book, so much so that I'm looking forward to the next book.

Well, not giving up now, so on to the third.