{"id":5270,"date":"2020-09-14T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5270"},"modified":"2020-09-07T12:53:15","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T19:53:15","slug":"mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-interlude-chapter-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/09\/mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate-interlude-chapter-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Obelisk Gate’: Interlude \/ Chapter 19"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the nineteenth and penultimate chapter of The Obelisk Gate<\/i>, Essun prepares for the attack on Castrima. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Holy shit. AND THIS ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN THE LAST CHAPTER.<\/p>\n

The Meeting<\/b><\/p>\n

This chapter opens with such a haunting, disturbing image: Essun walking through the now-occupied Castrima-over while the people who came to kill her and the comm watch her. One thing that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so striking as I read this back a second time is how confident<\/i> the Rennanis people are. They operate without any doubt that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll win, that they are going to conquer this comm and delight from the spoils of said conquest. And then, in a very literal sense, Essun stands out. Not just because of where she is, but what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wearing, how she looks. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a powerful visualization of Essun not belonging amongst these people, accented by her orogeny. Because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the real<\/i> reason she would never belong to this comm, right?<\/p>\n

I remarked in the notes below that I also found the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153justification\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the Rennanis comm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s violent raid was so… mundane. But it has to be, right? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all survival, nothing more. Danel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s explanation to Essun never feels lofty; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not terribly philosophical; and she has no interest in right or wrong. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just what her and her people need to survive the Season, right? Everything increases their odds, from the supposed storecaches that Castrima has to the limiting of their population… every choice is measured against this. Will it help them survive? Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no other morality but that, no other way to make a decision.<\/p>\n

It might be mundane or simple, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also scary as fuck<\/i>. As soon as it was revealed they had a Guardian? GOOD. BYE. I was done, I knew this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to go the way they all thought, and I started getting worried<\/i>. N.K. Jemisin cares not for my feelings! How many absolutely wild fucking twists have I been dealt in these two books? This is just preparation<\/i>, friends.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was right, though. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready for what was to come.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Regrouping<\/b><\/p>\n

Thankfully, Essun is saved by Hoa. (And while Essun won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever get used to being pulled through the Earth, I also will not get used to reading about it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so disorienting!) Essun, however, returns largely unscathed (though dealing with immense pain from that terrible Guardian knife) but with the worst news: this attack is basically guaranteed. There was no reasoning with Danel or her people. At this point, we learn of multiple plans to protect Castrima or<\/i> to escape from it in case things get bad. (It looked like things were already<\/i> getting bad, for the record.) And look, I thought any of them were possible at that point! I kind of assumed that the Rennanis army would get inside, so the escape plan was feasible. Tonkee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan… lord. Effective? Yes. Incredibly nightmarish? OH, ABSOLUTELY. Note that this is finally brought to light after<\/i> the brief freak-out over a potential spy. THEY DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN RESOLVE THAT. The strongbacks breaking through completely upstage this, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not forgetting. Who the fuck<\/i> might be a spy? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing if this is true, then they were offered something lucrative in Rennanis?<\/p>\n

Whatever, BECAUSE BOILBUGS. That horrifying bit from earlier is turned into a weapon<\/i> here through \u00e2\u20ac\u0153controlled orogeny.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And while it is one of the most disturbing things in the whole damn book, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly not the most interesting. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the controlled orogeny part that makes this such a monumental chapter. One thing that I enjoyed about what Jemisin does here is that Essun is just wrong<\/i>. Understandably so; she comes from the training and the mindset of the Fulcrum. It makes so much sense to me that she would interpret Ykka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s orogeny through that framework. But because of that\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand the accompanying arrogance\u00e2\u20ac\u201dEssun is unable to see the full portrait of Ykka the orogene. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tough realization, especially because what a hell of a time for her to realize that the answer to Alabaster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s puzzle was RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF HER. But it also speaks to something kind of beautiful. Look how often Ykka and Essun have butted heads over this comm. We see that in this chapter<\/i>! Ykka tells Essun not to threaten other people. And this conflict between stems from their vastly different experiences. Essun is used to having to wield power in a specific way, one which Ykka has not<\/i> needed. Essun struggled with parallel scaling for a long time, but it turns out that Ykka and many of the other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153feral\u00e2\u20ac\u009d orogenes have been doing it. JUST CASUALLY.<\/p>\n

I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because their mindsets are so different. Even Ykka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s orogeny is literally different in almost every way. The Fulcrum teaches orogenes a precise form of control. As Essun puts it, she can move pebbles, but Ykka can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. But why would Ykka even need to do that?<\/i> Her precision is exact in ways that Essun can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even imagine, and instead of thinking of her that way, Essun discounted her.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Ykka can form a network with other orogenes, and the prose describing this? Gorgeous. Both that and the obelisk network passages are some of the best writing in the whole damn series: detailed and evocative and fiercely emotional, too, because Essun is realizing what she is truly<\/i> capable of, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beautiful thing. I loved this part in particular:<\/p>\n

It is a dance, of sorts. Her orogeny is like… a river with eddies, curling and flowing in patterns and at a pace. Yours is faster, deeper, more straightforward, more forceful, but she modulates you so efficiently that the two flows come together. You flow slower and more loosely. She flows faster, using your depth to boost her force.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kinda intimate, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? And that makes sense, too. In order to properly create a network, you have<\/i> to be vulnerable with another orogene. You have to trust them and let them into the magic you possess! I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reason why Ykka invites Essun to get drunk together. They actually connected in this meaningful way, and I bet Ykka understands Essun better now that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen Essun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s orogeny and magic at that level. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about this damn connection!<\/p>\n

AND LOOK WHAT IT UNLOCKS. Essun is able to see the entire network of silver threads and magic that inhabit literally everything<\/i> in the whole world, and it allows Essun to enact Tonkee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan. Which is every bit as horrible as I thought it would be AND MORE. Holy shit??? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so violent? And way worse than Terteis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death by one<\/i> boilbug?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But this act is interrupted by the incursion of the Rennanis army. WHICH IS UPSETTING. I know a lot of people died, since later, Essun will note that she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t connect to certain orogenes anymore. Jemisin gives the sequence such a terrifying chaos, as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re ripped from one act to another, including the AMAZING moment where Hoa destroys another stone eater. Stone eaters fight in such a strange manner, but I loved<\/i> how all that was communicated to the reader.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then… shit. The onyx obelisk. It unlocks it all, which is exactly what we were told!!!<\/p>\n

Which allows you to finally remember: The onyx is the key<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alabaster didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want her to create a network of orogenes; he was trying to tell her to create a network of obelisks<\/i>. Using one<\/i> obelisk unlocked potential in Essun that she previously couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t conceive of. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been the case multiple times over these books. But what happens if you access all<\/i> of them? So Essun uses the key\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe black onyx\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe unlock the Obelisk Gate, and holy<\/p>\n

shit<\/p>\n

She crystalizes multiple stone eaters. (But not Gray Man, unfortunately.) She travels to Rennanis and turns LITERALLY EVERY FUCKING RESIDENT OF IT TO STONE. She then does something that made me almost burst in to tears:\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She finds Nassun.<\/p>\n

SHE FINDS NASSUN. Oh my god, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been trying to find her for so long, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d mostly had to give up! She had to stop looking, and then, when she possessed the greatest power of her life, SHE FOUND HER.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, question: Will Nassun be able to sense<\/i> that? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing so. But she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to be too excited about that, will she?<\/p>\n

One last thing, and y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the BIGGEST THING. Antimony shows up, and there is a new stone eater next to her:<\/p>\n

Only its eyes are black, and though they watch you with only faint recognition, with a puzzled flicker of something that might be (but should not be) memory… something about those eyes is familiar.<\/p>\n

How ironic. This is the first time you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen a stone eater made of alabaster.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

NO. NO.<\/i> THERE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NO WAY. Except??? Stone eaters used<\/i> to be human, so maybe…? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even how that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible, but was that actually<\/i> Alabaster????<\/p>\n

HOW WAS THIS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER.<\/p>\n

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

INTERLUDE<\/p>\n