 Hey guys, it's Leanna. I'm here today to talk about Broken Earth by NK Jemisin. I did post a review for the fifth season, the first book, when I read it, and then since then I've been wanting to finish the series and to discuss the series because this is the kind of story that necessitates discussion and analysis in its entirety, I think. I could have posted a review for Obelisk Gate when I finished it, but I feel like, I mean, I'm actually, I'm planning individual reviews for all of Joe Abercrombie's books, but that's mainly because I just want to talk about Joe Abercrombie all the time, so I'm like, sure, let's split it up. But similarly to the first law, it's kind of, it is a story in three parts, and so it's kind of unfair to discuss it individually. I didn't want to talk about it the fifth season just because as an introduction to this new thing, I was just like, whoa. And I mean, wow. But the trilogy as a whole. I have never, in my life, read anything like it. It is simultaneously extremely complex and difficult to read, while also being so approachable and easy to sink your teeth into and chew your way through. N. King Jemisin's prose is quite straightforward and quite brutally stripped down in a way that it removes any barrier between you and the horror of what she's describing. And that makes it a visceral experience, so that makes it hard to read. But her prose is easy to follow, easy to sink your teeth into, easy to keep reading. It moves along, it clips along at this pace that just keeps you reading. And it's not ornamented in flowery, but that it doesn't mean that it's not beautiful in its own way. It's beautiful in its sparity. And the spareness of the writing is a reflection of and goes very well with the spareness of the landscape that she is describing. To be extremely flowery in your writing when you're describing such a barren landscape would be odd. So what she has done in this series, I mean it kind of defies explanation and review, but I'm going to try anyway. I've talked before again about how Joe Abercrombie's writing, it feels real, partly owing to the fact that he doesn't explain everything. N. King Jemisin takes that to a whole other level. For everything that's explained in The Broken Earth, there are 50 things that are not explained. But it doesn't feel like the author just didn't know how to explain it or explained it badly or forgot to explain it. This is a world that is so complicated that the characters in the world don't know their own world. They're figuring it out themselves. And much like in the real world, we are limited in our ability to understand our own universe. And we operate using the knowledge that we do have. But we know it's imperfect and incomplete, but it's the best we can do. Similarly in The Broken Earth books, the characters, they have knowledge. Some have more knowledge, some have less. Some knowledge is more complete, some less complete. You the reader have more complete knowledge than any of them because you are seeing multiple perspectives. And yet the knowledge is incomplete and it is flawed and it is sometimes incorrect. I was talking about this actually the other day with somebody about the fact that these books, they demand that you be okay with not knowing things. They demand that you be okay with being confused, bewildered, and filled with unending questions. When people say that these books are hard to follow or hard to understand, I not to speak for everyone, but I suspect that some part of that is owed to the fact that there is an expectation that what is being told to you should be understood. And if you don't immediately understand it, well, then it is a difficult book to understand. As opposed to the fact that your lack of understanding is a feature, not a bug. You are meant to not understand. It is not a matter of it being too hidden or complex. It is not a matter of you not being smart enough to, you know, pick up what she's throwing down. You're not meant to get it. You're not meant to know what's going on. You're not meant to understand everything that is referencing. And it's not to say that it's a kind of thing that you can't begin to piece together more the more you read it or upon rereading it or upon deeper investigation. She has glossaries in the back like that's not to say that you couldn't pick it apart. You absolutely can piece things together, discover more upon rereading, discover more upon a close reading. That's not to say that isn't anything there for you to figure out at all, but the discomfort, the aliveness of this world that is familiar and yet not of characters that are human and yet more or less or different. The books play around a lot with otherness and with people's fearful response to otherness. And part of the work of these books is to put you in the headspace of you feeling uncomfortable and uncertain because you also don't know. You also don't understand. You also are unfamiliar with and that discomfort that you feel, it allows you to understand how when that becomes amplified, when your own survival becomes caught up in those feelings of uncertainty, it turns into something hostile and ugly and horrific and genocidal. So that's not to say that you're meant to come away sympathizing with those who would commit genocide. But this world is filled with people who distrust what they do not understand, who distrust what they are not themselves, what they have not experienced themselves, what they have not seen before. Not so different from our own world. But we know our own world too well to truly re-examine the level of discomfort that comes with not knowing something and by creating this alien landscape she's enabled us to experience the fear of the unknown because when you read these books there is so much that you don't know. Even the characters that you are following, even the characters whose heads you are in, there is so much that you still do not know that they still do not know about the world and about themselves and about who they are and how it works. And yet constantly as just a fantasy reader there's this sense of a world, a true real mystery filled world that has so much to discover and so much to pick apart for you to explore. Like it doesn't feel like you know a video game where like here's the part that was built out and you know don't go too far this way because we didn't invent anything over there so the world ends there. This world feels boundless and real and the layer upon layer upon layer of history and meaning and significance and the way that she's had her culture and her society shaped by the ecological factors that have shaped their world is quite anthropological because one of the major factors that has defined the way that societies and cultures have formed has been around their ecology. So from that perspective chef's kiss. The world is innately a part of the people's response to the world. They inform one another and she's made that a feature of these books in a way that I've never seen before, never done to this degree and never done with this level of understanding of how they do affect one another. And even more so by the end of the trilogy when I finally realized where this was going and where the point of it was, it sort of brought home for me that like the fact that I was recognizing that she was having the world be an important factor more so than fantasies will have cool worlds for their people to be in. But here the world itself is what defines the people which is how it works. Cultural practices are a response to the world that you live in. And so having recognized that she was doing that already and then realizing that it wasn't just that she was recognizing that that needs to be how societies and cultures form and then she was building up that way in these books. The fact that it was actually an instrumental part of the story that she is telling the symbiotic or alternatively parasitic relationship between the beings that inhabit in the world and the world that has beings inhabiting it is I have never seen anything like it before in my life. I've never read anything like it before in my life. It is a staggering achievement and when you read it it is humbling and it is meant to be humbling. And if you don't want to feel humbled as a reader if you don't if you want to feel in control like you understand what is happening like you grasp what the writer is saying that the world is understandable that you are able to pick this apart and piece it together and understand it in its entirety if that's what you want and that's what you need out of your books then you will without doubt hate these books because these these books are meant to make you feel uncertain and stupid and fearful and confused and staggered and humbled and wowed and amazed and it is it's dark it's harrowing it's emotional it's culturally and socially significant the points that it's making without being too on the nose about society and prejudice and racism and sexism and every kind of ism. I am gobsmacked and as I said it defies definition it defies explanation it defies summary and review which is why this review is largely saying that it cannot be reviewed but again if you I encourage you to pick it up because it's incredible but I also discourage you from picking it up if the kind of story that I'm telling you that it is does not sound appealing to you because you will hate it if you need to be in control if you need to know if you need to understand what is happening then you will hate it it's not that it's too complicated it's not that it's too hard to understand it's not that you're too dumb for it you have to be okay with feeling dumb you have to be okay with feeling confused it's it's part of the experience on purpose and if you're not if you're not okay with that it's not that you're too dumb it's that you don't like feeling confused and that's fine but this book will not appeal to you because it's not like you need to achieve that level of understanding you're meant to not achieve it so let me know in the comments down below if you've read the broken earth trilogy how you feel about it if you agree or disagree with me about what these books are and what they are trying to do and whether or not they did that thing they're a difficult series to talk about for well for many reasons some of which I've laid out here but I mean the plot itself is so interwoven with the complexities that remain unknowable of this world there is nothing straightforward about the narrative structure the the the nonlinear storytelling the choice to use second person occasionally just the entire thing defies blurbing like when I did actually like I glanced at the backs of the books to see like well how did the publishers decide to even like sum this up to have a reader in a bookstore be like oh that sounds interesting and when you read the description like it sounds simple and it sounds basic and it sounds like everyday average fantasy novel but also when I read this the the description I'm like that's I mean I guess that's technically true I guess that's technically what these books are about but it's not what they're about they're largely about the experience that you are thrown into when reading them and the blurb necessarily can only tell you kind of like cliff notes of events so if you're willing to subject yourself to an experience I would recommend picking them up again let me know in the comments down below if you agree or disagree if I've encouraged you to pick them up if I've scared you off hopefully I've encouraged you because I do think they're incredible and I do think that they're important and I do think that they're the kind of books that demand attention and discussion and they're also the kind of book that you can't discuss with people unless they've also read it because again because as I've said multiple times at this point it defy definition they defy summary they defy explanation so it's they're the kind of books that you absolutely can discuss and pick apart but only the other person has also experienced them yeah again let me know if you agree or disagree with me let me know the things broken earth related I am obsessed with these books they're again such a staggering achievement that they will be with me in my mind in my heart as a person for the rest of my life and I do hope to reread them in the future because I'm sure I will pick up on things and they will hit different and they're they're just in their own class they're in their own genre they're their own thing they're a different level these are these aren't just books there are books on aplenty on my shelves that are great but these aren't books these are something else that's it I think I have us videos on Saturdays other random times as well but definitely Saturdays so like and subscribe or don't whatever I'll see you when I see you bye