I liked Obelisk Gate a lot, even if it wasn't quite as strong as Fifth Season.

Part of the difficulty for me was the amount of exposition, however I more or less see this as unavoidable. Fifth Season was able to maintain its velocity in part by shunting off all explanation for another book, and that narrative debt comes due midway through OG. It's not, bad - I feel like Alabaster explains quickly to Syen/Essun, and her reactions are completely believable, it's just a lot of volume.

I think a second difficulty is the scope of the plot, which has become more complicated and with more stakeholders. The strength of FS was the very personal story against the backdrop of the global catastrophe. In the pull back to reveal more of the history of the stoneeaters and the guardians there feels like a change of scale of the story and something is lost.

The shift from just orogeny to actual magic was a bit of a jolt, but I came around to really liking how they talked about magic.

I have mixed feelings about Nassun - it breaks my immersion a little that she's so talented so quickly. It makes sense (and is emphasized) that orogeny is inherited and that Essun is also extraordinary, but I never really connected to Nassun in the same way. It felt too easy for her.

Anyway, the book is great even if I had some quibbles. Very excited to conclude the trilogy.