{"id":5243,"date":"2020-08-03T05:00:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5243"},"modified":"2020-07-27T12:28:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T19:28:17","slug":"mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/08\/mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-chapter-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Obelisk Gate&#8217;: Chapter 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first chapter of <i>The Obelisk Gate<\/i>, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>The Broken Earth<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><b>Trigger Warning: For talk of trauma, grief, death of a child<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Predictions<\/b><\/p>\n<p>So, rather than have a whole separate post on this, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve decided from here on out that predictions will be folded into the first review of a new book or season of a series that I am covering. These posts were generally a placeholder and a break when I was doing five reviews a week per site, so it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make sense to add them in when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a new normal. As a reminder, since I have done predictions on Mark Reads in LITERAL YEARS: Please be wary of spoilers and even hinting at whether I got something right or wrong with these predictions. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be biased about what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve predicted if I look in the comments when this posts. So, please use care and lots of rot13!<\/p>\n<p>Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I think <i>The Obelisk Gate<\/i> will be about.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The moon?<\/li>\n<li>I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find&#8230; a gate? Made of obelisks?<\/li>\n<li>(This is going to be so hard, oh my god.)<\/li>\n<li>Okay, I think Alabaster meant that he wants to see if orogenes can use their orogeny using the moon as a source of power.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I also think Alabaster is going to die in <i>The Obelisk Gate<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Structure-wise, the book will mostly be narrated by Essun with occasional appearances of her past selves to fill in some gaps of the story.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I will also find out the true purpose of Castrima. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just a new home for mostly orogenes.<\/li>\n<li>By the end of the book, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find out that Schaffa survived Syenite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attack on the water.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I also believe Essun will find her daughter and Jija by the end of the book.<\/li>\n<li>I think Essun will kill her husband.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Essun will join forces with Ykka, Tonkee, and many others to begin to dismantle and overthrow the hold of the Fulcrum on the world.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I think there will be a cliffhanger at the end of the book. Good luck getting me to try to guess it because I have no fucking clue what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing with these predictions.<\/li>\n<li>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SCARED.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And with that&#8230;now I am off to read the first chapter of <i>The Obelisk Gate<\/i>!<\/p>\n<p><b>Nassun, on the rocks<\/b><\/p>\n<p>That chapter title&#8230; UGH. I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DO THIS. You know, by the end of this chapter, I was aware of the sheer potential that Jemisin has to tell any sort of story, especially if someone like Hoa is the narrator. I still get the sense that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some greater reason why Hoa is telling this all to Essun. More importantly, though, is the fact that we could jump to <i>any<\/i> character that Hoa has knowledge of. If Essun most know something, then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a chance that person might get a chapter. Will most of this be in this strange first- and second-person narration? Will there be other tenses or POVs? WHO KNOWS?<\/p>\n<p>But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to escape the pure shock of seeing Nassun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name in the chapter title. Holy shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I was both oddly prepared with one prediction, yet completely not ready. So, Nassun and Essun will be reunited! \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a spoiler,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hoa says, since Essun \u00e2\u20ac\u0153knows\u00e2\u20ac\u009d this. (That suggests very heavily that this is being told to Essun in the future for a reason. WHAT REASON IS THAT.) And then we are dropped back into the opening of the previous book, but this time, we see things through Nassun.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard. Heartbreaking. There is so much joy, hope, and kindness on display before Nassun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entire life is changed by the murder of her younger brother. Nassun wanted to be a lorist! And I loved that Jemisin then grounded us in that decision. What did it <i>mean<\/i> to be a lorist? Why was it important that this young orogene, who had hidden her power for years at the urging of her mother, wanted so badly to be someone who studied history? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating to me that the lorists are both respected in some sense\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlook at how Jija treats Renthree\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhile also existing almost on the fringes? No one seems particularly excited for their children to be lorists; lorists are, on the whole, not taken too seriously. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re \u00e2\u20ac\u0153entertainment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They tell stories. Do people <i>believe<\/i> those stories? Perhaps only peripherally. Lorists tend to move around a lot, they often have other professions to make a living, and their role in the world has often been purposely diminished:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>They used to chisel stonelore into mountainsides in tablets as high as the sky, so that all would see and know the wisdom needed to survive. Alas: in the Stillness, destroying mountains is as easy as an orogene toddler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s temper tantrum. Destroying a people takes only a bit more effort.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Regwo, from whom the lorists originated, are now completely gone, and lorists honor them by painting their lips black. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore, then, what Alabaster said of stonelore in the previous book: How many important tablets were destroyed? How many lies have been told to the people of the Stillness? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even that line in this chapter about how the lorists have forgotten all they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve forgotten. What if very little of lorist knowledge is even correct anymore?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I also can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the potential importance of an OROGENE becoming a lorist. What happens when an orogene studies the history of their world? What happens if Nassun <i>does<\/i> somehow train in being a lorist and comes to find out just how many lies they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been taught? Granted, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how Nassun would train in this while the world is also ending? Shit, maybe Tonkee would teach her something? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know if geomests and lorists get along???<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll cross that bridge if it even shows up. For now, though, I want to talk about how Jemisin adds a layer of tragedy to an already tragic story. Because y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Nassun didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize that by giving Renthree that stone with the diamond, her act would be the last straw. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>kindness<\/i> that undoes Jija. It was kindness that guided Nassun to give Renthree such a wonderful and valuable gift, one that would have changed Renthree\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life for a long time. And it was kindness that led to Renthree giving it back, knowing that Nassun had essentially overpaid her; she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cheat these people out of what was theirs.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the confirmation that Jija had been dreading. Jemisin might put us in Jija\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head here, but she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exonerate or excuse him at all. Seriously, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disturbing to see him put two and two together; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even more haunting to know what the precipitating factor was for him to snap and murder his child. (Uche knew that his father had a shiny rock in his pocket.) If anything, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m even <i>more<\/i> fucked up by the death of Uche. How can someone be so calculating and just detach from their own child so quickly? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious later that Jija simply could not see his son as a human once he knew. He struggles with that notion when it comes to Nassun, however:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And of the two of her parents, it is Jija to whom Nassun has always been closer. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his favorite, too: the firstborn, the one he never expected to have, the one with his face and his sense of humor. She likes his favorite foods. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had vague hopes of her following in his footsteps as a knapper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, only because he sees himself in Nassun is Jija able to humanize HIS OWN DAUGHTER. Which is&#8230; so fucked up, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. But this didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t throw me for a loop. It gave me a new understanding of the motivations for this tragedy, but no. It was this line that concerned me:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going somewhere you can be better,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says gently. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Somewhere I heard of, where they can help you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Make her a little girl again, and not&#8230; He turns away from this thought, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>First of all: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153make her a little girl again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d THAT LINE IS SO AWFUL, EVERYTHING HURTS. She is a little girl! But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happens here; stills do not see orogenes as people!!! Just <i>knowing<\/i> Nassun has this ability makes him think she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a little girl. Also: Somewhere she can get <i>better<\/i>? That&#8230; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not possible, is it??? What the fuck is he talking about? What does that mean? Is that why they went towards Castrima? Ugh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get why Hoa took Essun there! WHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S THE CONNECTION?<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m completely not ready for this damn book. NOT AT ALL.<\/p>\n<p><b>NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>oh.<\/li>\n<li>oh so my predictions are all trash, aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they<\/li>\n<li>oh no<\/li>\n<li>this chapter title has already ruined me<\/li>\n<li>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a spoiler\u00e2\u20ac\u009d lmaaaaaooo I love Hoa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narration so much<\/li>\n<li>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whom you will get back\u00e2\u20ac\u009d WHAT WHAT WHAT<\/li>\n<li>A LORIST?????<\/li>\n<li>OMG Will I get to learn more about lorists????<\/li>\n<li>oh, wow, so lorists are not exactly popular.<\/li>\n<li>HELL YES, QUEERNESS AGAIN. hi renthree!!!!<\/li>\n<li>NO. NO HEARTBREAK.<\/li>\n<li>ohhhhhhhh, this is how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s connected to Nassun!<\/li>\n<li>ohhh, she just wants to leave tirimo, my heart is SHATTERING.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153More on this later.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Will there be more Nassun chapters???? please????<\/li>\n<li>oooooh, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a geneer?<\/li>\n<li>oh<\/li>\n<li>oh no<\/li>\n<li>this is how jija found it, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it<\/li>\n<li>NO<\/li>\n<li>NOOOOOOOO OH NO UCHE NOOOOOOOOOOOOO<\/li>\n<li>my heart is broken all over again<\/li>\n<li>oh the gesture<\/li>\n<li>I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in PIECES<\/li>\n<li>make her BETTER??? what?????<\/li>\n<li>what the fuck does that mean??????<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9781250169211\">You can now pre-order my second YA novel, <i>Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211; Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/EachOfUsADesertPreorder\">If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>&#8211; If you&#8217;d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/ey636\">sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the first chapter of The Obelisk Gate, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569,574],"tags":[571,413],"class_list":["post-5243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-broken-earth","category-the-obelisk-gate","tag-mark-reads-the-broken-earth","tag-nk-jemisin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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