The Obelisk Gate

What a fantastic followup to Fifth Season. Really exciting book. The prose crackles with intense emotion. The story is great. I love the characters, and the increasing nuance.

And the huge strength is the author's slow reveal of the world she's built. She doesn't just outright tell you what stone eaters are or how orogeny is like magic. Those insights come out slowly, as the characters themselves learn them, and there's a lot of depth and enjoyment in the process.

My one caveat with the book is it involves a lot of violence to children. Not in a creepy way: the children are primary characters in the book, and entirely sympathetic. But I have some friends who are parents who got turned off by the first book because the very early plot involves a dead child. This second book is also difficult in the same way, albeit in a more Ender's Game fashion. I was fine with it, but it is painful at times.