Engrossing and a fantastic page turner, but had some short comings as the middle book in the trilogy. The Obelisk Gate suffers because The Fifth Season was so good and any faults of this story are only visible when you compare it to the book that preceded it.

Narration that worked in the first story felt repetitive here and lacking a genuine hook. The first instalment covered so much time and story that it was hard to top, and that could be why the pace felt a little slow here. All of those nitpicks aside, The Obelisk Gate expanded the scope of this series and revealed there is a lot of history and depth at play here.

The introduction of Nassun was great and she helped continue to build on an already fascinating world. Her story helped carry the weight as Essun's story in Castrima was a little slow...but then it picked up and was almost moving too fast to follow along with what was happening.

Orogeny as a system of magic is so unique and interesting to read about that I'm glad there are more tricks to it than just causing tremors. Designating Orogeny as "magic" doesn't seem fair either which is a nice change too. However, when Orogeny connects to Obelisks's and the powers that arise is straight up magic and its fantastic.

I have really enjoyed that instead of heralding Orogenes as saviours they are treated as lower class because of their abilities and this delicately walks around sensitive race topics that you wouldn't expect from a story like this.

I'm glad I picked up this series but my only regret is that the finale is still nine months away and any momentum I've gained in the last few weeks will come to a grinding halt.