{"id":5264,"date":"2020-09-02T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5264"},"modified":"2020-08-24T06:40:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:40:53","slug":"mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-interlude-chapter-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/09\/mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-interlude-chapter-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Obelisk Gate’: Interlude \/ Chapter 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourteenth chapter of The Obelisk Gate<\/i>, I am once more ruined. Just add it to the list. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna start this off by saying that as intense as this series has been, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got the BEST sense of humor about itself, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. There were so many laugh-out-loud parts in this chapter, and let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point to that chapter title as one example of it. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s both terror and humor in the same story, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! In this chapter in particular, I even commented on how much I loved the growing dynamic between Essun, Ykka, and Hjarka. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting to see them as… well, shit. Friends! Like, they might actually<\/i> become friends! I do love that trope of people who have zero interest in one another, but are shoved together due to circumstance, coming to respect and enjoy those they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re with. And I feel like that might be happening here? Maybe? Oh, I should probably not come to like anyone in this book because BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO THEM. But still!<\/p>\n

I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also due to what Jemisin does with the narrative at this point. The six month time jump is necessary to help give us this sense that both Tonkee and Essun have found their place within Castrima. (Gotta shout out that brilliant line where Essun discovers her purpose, and it just says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Congratulations.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I just imagine it being said in the most deadpan matter of all time.) Because of that, what we see on the page isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily a slow development after Tonkee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arm is severed and then reattached. There was<\/i> growth prior to this! So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like Jemisin is skipping over the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153important\u00e2\u20ac\u009d parts either. We needed to get to a point of relative \u00e2\u20ac\u0153comfort\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (not that this situation is comfortable<\/i>, per se) so that the huge change would hit even harder. So, how is that comfort represented? Tonkee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arm is reattached and she begins to actually contribute to the comm, even though she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still thorny as hell. (NEVER CHANGE.) Hjarka and Tonkee begin to see one another!!! A WONDERFUL AND VERY QUEER DEVELOPMENT! I just… oh my god, this is one of those pairings that makes so much SENSE once it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the page. They are… weirdly perfect for one another? EXCELLENT. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because of this that Tonkee tries to help in her own way, which is… unnerving? Necessary, though! Ykka needed to know that the comm was running out of meat and that the ill-effects of this would soon begin to show. But she also tells Ykka this for a very<\/i> Tonkee reason:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be able to continue my studies if we all start killing and each other, so.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just… it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a Tonkee display of logic, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other things change. Essun stops training orogene children, passes it along to Temell, and starts training Cutter. (While, hilariously, Ykka refuses training or exchange of skills.) A trading party heads out and never comes out. A baby is born; the future of Castrima and procreation is discussed. A Breeder tries to get Essun to have another child. Alabaster slides ever closer to death.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then Hoa returns.<\/p>\n

I realize now just how important that interlude was for this chapter. I have to wonder if the stone eater who eventually shows up is the one that Hoa speaks of, the ancient one who is utterly opposed to what Hoa is doing. I feel like the greater mythology is (excuse the pun) solidifying here, that we know by now that Hoa opposes the stone eaters who want humans gone. (Well, maybe just orogenes?) Still, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot left to be revealed here, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on top of the immense, nerve-wracking threat that Rennanis poses to Castrima. Honestly, I initially did not think this was as<\/i> bad as it actually is. And I get why! Yes, there were parts of this that put Castrima at a disadvantage. As I said down below, there was so much unknown here! How many people were in Rennanis? How did they figure out there were people in Castrima? Did they know that the comm was underground? Were they fully intending to assume control over Castrima and make it their own? Were they planning an imminent invasion? And how the fuck were they going to survive any attack? Well, at least Castrima had a number of orogenes, right? And no one from Rennanis had ever been inside<\/i> Castrima\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s geode, so that put Castrima at an advantage. Right?<\/p>\n

Ha. Well, I had some<\/i> optimism.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An army. Not only is there an army<\/i> in the forest basin, but Jemisin drops one HELL of a plot twist into this chapter. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, just in terms of building dread and suspense, I LOVE HOW SHE DOES IT. It is so terrifying bold that this unnamed stone eater just appears<\/i> in the crowd discussing Rennanis, and he does so by LETTING ESSUN SEE HIM MOVING. Oh, and then he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just casually holding HOA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SEVERED ARM. It speaks so much to the threat: look what they did to Hoa. Look what they can<\/i> do. Look at what is possible. So when he says that they wish no harm on Rennanis, we know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a platitude. Or maybe he meant that he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to harm them right there<\/i>. The chapter title comes to fruition: the people of Castrima are invited to become a part of Rennanis.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, not all of them:<\/p>\n

Then he drops the other boot. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But we have no use for orogenes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah. I HATE THAT. And right there, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when I knew how absolutely disadvantaged Castrima was. First, SOMEONE HAS NOW SEEN INSIDE THE GEODE. While I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure the stone eaters knew about it and could \u00e2\u20ac\u0153see\u00e2\u20ac\u009d inside it, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the absolute confirmation for the WHOLE COMM that the stone eaters of Rennanis can infiltrate their home without any hesitation. And who can stop them? Apparently, Hoa had been keeping them away. What of Antimony? Did she care about anything or anyone other than Alabaster? On top of that, Essun does an amazing thing by severing the stone eater\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arm effortlessly. Except now she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revealed just how fine-tuned her orogeny is, so the Rennanis comm will certainly know that. Right?<\/p>\n

Now there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a new threat. A genuinely frightening one. And guess what? Because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reading The Broken Earth<\/i> trilogy, that means THIS ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN THE BIGGEST THING IN THIS CHAPTER. I can barely<\/i> fathom what we see in the final scene of this chapter. Using Hoa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arm and the magic emanating from it, Essun makes her way back to her apartment to find the rest of Hoa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body, split into numerous pieces, his body literally<\/i> consumed by other stone eaters. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gory and terrifying, but I WAS COMPLETELY NOT READY FOR WHAT THIS BOOK WAS ABOUT TO DO. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something so vulnerable and intimate about Essun feeding Hoa rocks so that he can \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heal.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Not even sure that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the right word, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. What is this process even called???) After she does so\u00e2\u20ac\u201din a scene that calls back to multiple moments in The Fifth Season<\/i>, such as Hoa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first appearance and the garnet obelisk\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand absolutely haunting and gorgeous thing occurs. Jemisin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prose really shines here as she describes the magical frenzy that leads to Essun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s furniture floating in the air and a weird substance encasing Hoa. What we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re watching is one of those massive geode-like things forming. Chalcedony, the book calls it. We saw one before, right? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Hoa came out<\/i> of in the beginning of The Fifth Season<\/i>. And then the text tells us this in an absolutely stunning moment where we switch to first person in just one<\/i> sentence, then back to second, and I LOVE THAT PART SO, SO MUCH. But not as much as the surprise that Jemisin leaves waiting for us inside the geode:<\/p>\n

Because what rises from the split in the geode, moving too human-smoothly at first but rapidly readjusting to a familiar sort of punctuated stillness… is the stone eater from the garnet obelisk.<\/p>\n

Hello, again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I actually guess that this was Hoa the whole time? Or maybe I said it was another think like<\/i> Hoa. Either way: Fuck. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. FUCK. That was<\/i> Hoa???? Why? Why was he stuck in that first obelisk? Why is his appearance different? WHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GOING ON????<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n

Interlude<\/p>\n