TheBookishSock

This is the twenty-third blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

22: Syenite, fractured

Cannibals, the Sanzeds are/were cannibals. That’s why Misalem went to Yumenes to kill the emperor – they took and ate his family and he wanted payback. After Alabaster tells the full story of Shemshena to Syenite and she tells him of the guardian, he swears that he’ll break the world if the guardians hurt him or Syenite or Corundum anymore. (And now I’m guessing that he’s the one who caused the rend at Yumenes.)

Oh snap now a few weeks later burgundy guardians have found Meov; and the story is very intense, and we finally learn who the narrator is. (AHAH I thought the narrator would play a part in this story!)

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
nothing new here

Important Things:
or here

Important People:
or here

Personal Point of Interest

I need more explanations on Hoa.

This is the twenty-second blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

21: you’re getting the band back together

(AHHHHHHHH OMGOMGOMG I WASN’T SURE IT COULD BE TRUE BUT IT ISSSSSSSSS!!!!!) Tonkee is Binof Leadership Yumenes!!! (but wait, if Essun/Syen/Damaya has already met a stone eater in the past that saved her life then why does she get so confused when she meets Hoa? WAIIIITTTTTTT is Hoa the same stone eater she met before?!? They can change forms.) Tonkee/Binof and some of her “friends” have been tracking Essun all these years by watching the obelisks since the obelisks are drawn towards people who can wield them. (This is a fun mechanic – but she references the amethyst obelisk and not the garnet obelisk soooo is the garnet one definitely gone then?)

While Essun is trying to figure things out now she asks Hoa a bit about himself because he doesn’t act at all like a typical stone eater and looks much closer to human than stone. He pulls out the napsack of different rocks he’s been carrying around and eating all this time, eats one, and says the rock is him; Essun (and I) don’t understand this, but Hoa reassures us that he likes us and won’t hurt us (well I would most certainly hope not at this point). Then while Essun tries to relax by getting a hot bath she runs into the doctor from Tirimo, Learna. They talk for a while then go back to her apartment so she can introduce him to her new group. When they get there Hoa comes back in (apparently he went out exploring) and says she needs to meet with a man because she owes him for Corundum (it’s Alabaster and he’s dying).

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
nothing new here

Important Things:
nothing new here

Important People:
Learna (Makenba’s boy) – the doctor from Tirimo who delivered Uche

Personal Point of Interest

Ooooo I really like where all of this is going!!!

This is the twenty-first blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

INTERLUDE

(OOOOooooo we have have another one of these things! I wonder what little hints we’ll get this time!) There’s a war coming while Essun’s resting. (hmmmm I’m pretty sure we already had a good idea of that, but ok.)

20: Syenite, stretched and snapped back

(woohoo here we go! There’s another time skip of about 2 years.) Syenite has had her child and they’ve named him Corundum. During a bit of an argument between Syen and Alabaster we learn that Corundum has been quelling even microshakes from far away for about a year. (That is definitely one super powerful baby.) Syenite finally gets to go on a pirate raid. (She’s been super duper bored the past 2 years, and I don’t blame her.)

On the way back from raiding Syen convinces Innon to go by Allia. There’s a huge volcano with tons of fissures opening up, so Syenite decides to move a bunch of rock to make the area and the surrounding areas much safer. She also forgets how moving rock under water is so much different and causes the beginning of a tsunami, but thankfully Alabaster’s range is far enough that he can quell it. As they begin sailing back to the island Syen thinks she sees a figure clad in burgundy running down a road in Allia. (Oh boy when is she going to get murdered?)

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
nothing new here

Important Things:
or here

Important People:
Corundum – Syenite and Alabaster’s baby boy (or should I say toddler boy because he’s 2 now?)

Personal Point of Interest

I wonder how long it will take Fulcrum folks to get out to that island now.

This is the twentieth blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

19: Syenite on the lookout

Early on in the chapter Syen ruminates on the fate of Allia, which is now being attributed to a freak volcanic eruption. (Wait what? Are we seriously not going to get more info on that crystal/obelisk thing?) It seems to be tied to where the obelisk once was.

Two days into their stay on the island the giant raider ship comes back to port with their charismatic, orogene, queer leader Innon. Innon takes a liking to both Syen and Alabaster and they both take a liking to him as well. (This could get very interesting!!!) And one night Syen wakes up in the early hours and vomits – because she’s pregnant. (Yep, we knew that was coming.)

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
nothing new here

Important Things:
Eturpic – the language of the Meov people (or at least the language they’re using)

Important People:
Innon Resistant Meov – the real leader of Meov but he spends so much time away on his big ship that he’s technically the second

Personal Point of Interest

a massive pot of spiced shrimp, rice, and smoked sea-bubble

This is the nineteenth blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

18: you discover wonders down below

Ykka takes them on a tour down beneath Castrima. There’s an absolutely enormous geode that people are living in down in a tunnel/cave system. People even carved houses into individual crystals it’s that big. And the way the air filtration system works is by being in the presence of orogeny – no one knows how it actually works though because that’s been lost to civilizations long gone. (I want to live in a giant crystal!!! It sounds really pretty.)

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
nothing new here

Important Things:
or here

Important People:
or here

Personal Point of Interest

I wonder if it’s actually plausible to find a geode that big in the real world.

This is the eighteenth blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

17: Damaya, in finality

(What even is this chapter title?!? Don’t kill her!!! Also the passage of time in this book still confuses me – there’s been a year time skip since the last time we saw Damaya.) Damaya now has a bit of free time and she uses it to to explore the Fulcrum complex. There are lots of rooms with lots of things – some of which seemingly forgotten. Then one day a girl Damaya has never seen before slips into her group of grits. Binof is from the leadership caste and is known for getting herself into trouble and now she’s convinced Damaya to help her find a hexagonal room in the center complex.

They find a sort of harsh pit in it right before they’re caught by a guardian. (What on earth is Yumenes trying to cover up so badly???) When Damaya is being interrogated by the guardian that caught them in the socket room the implant in the guardian goes wrong and she begins speaking of a thing down there that speaks and is angry. Schaffa comes in and removes the implant which kills the guardian and Damaya begins to cry because it’s all so wrong. (That’s a lot a weird stuff to try to take in all at once; I think I’d cry too.) Then Schaffa tells her that she now has to take the first ring tests and tells her not to die, and we learn that the rogga name she’s chosen for herself is Syenite. (YAY she’s not dead and now these time skips are making more sense!)

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
haxagonal room in the center of the Fulcrum – it’s home to a socket and Father Earth is mad

Important Things:
Father Earth is an angry boi

Important People:
Binof Leadership Yumenes – the girl who sneaks into the line of grits in front of Damaya

Personal Point of Interest

AHAH now the time skips make more sense and I’m glad I’ve actually been getting the background info for one of the characters this entire time!

This is the seventeenth blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

16: Syen in the hidden land

There still isn’t an explanation for what exactly happened back in Allia but another stone eat rescued them and took them to a nearby island with a comm on it called Meov – and it’s a colony of pirates. (I’m both frustrated and intrigued. I like that we’re learning more mechanics of stone eaters but when am I going to get my explanation for the obelisk exploding?)

Island life isn’t too bad though since Meov has been around since before the Sanze Empire, and they don’t need store caches – they just fish and eat seaweed during a Season. (Why no one in Sanze has figured this out is beyond me, but I’m liking the idea of this archipelago more and more.)

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
Meov – a pirate comm on an island off of the coast of Allia who take only what they need to get by

Important Things:
There’s a whole archipelago of comms that aren’t fond of Sanze and are much older than Sanze; and they don’t kill their roggas – they put them in charge

Important People:
Harlas – the leader of the Meov comm

Personal Point of Interest

Why does the stone eater care to keep Alabaster alive? Is there some sort of prophecy involving him? Will Alabaster save Mother Life?

This is the sixteenth blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

15: you’re among friends

Hoa has led them to the place with all the orogenes (or lack of any people – at least in the moment it’s an abandoned mishmash of buildings and none of it makes much sense to them). Tonkee mutters about how the people couldn’t have been gone too long because the gardens only started going bad two months ago. (Ok there definitely have to be a bunch of different timelines happening between these three stories we’re following because there is no what they’re happening concurrently with the way things are being described.)

Eventually they meet three characters – the leader being Ykka, an orogene who claims the class name of rogga. One of the members is another stone eater who has agreed to abide by Ykka’s rules (which is a good thing because it sounded like Hoa and this other stone eater were about to get into a fight). Essun asks Ykka if she’s seen Nassun (she hasn’t and was perplexed at the question) then Essun has a breakdown for a little bit. But hey, at least they have found a town with 22 orogenes in it and several stone eaters!

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
Castrima – an unofficial town that is filled with roggas

Important Things:
there’s a whole comm of orogenes now

Important People:
Ykka Rogga Castrima – the first person to speak to the group in the mishmashed town

Personal Point of Interest

I want to know more about what Hoa and ‘his kind’ are really up to.

This is the fifteenth blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

14: Syenite breaks her toys

Syenite is still pondering how she woke the obelisk and the two orogenes have received a telegram from Yumenes telling them to both stay put. (Yes, the two of them can definitely tap into the obelisks; but Alabaster is trying to cover up that fact.) As the two are talking about orogene things a Guardian shows up. (For some reason Alabaster doesn’t want either of them to be touched by the Guardian’s bare skin – weird but alright? What does bare skin have to do with it?)

Apparently Edki is there to kill them both. Alabaster sacrifices himself to some degree to push Syen out of the way of the short dagger that Edki wields, but he in turn gets stabbed and Edki continues after Syen. Syen is blocked from reaching into the earth but she is able to reach into the obelisk. (Somehow she kind of has an out of body experience and talks to the stone eater and then the obelisk explodes? Whattttttttttt????? Why does this chapter have to end here – and without a fancy little lore quote thing at the end to boot!)

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
nothing new here

Important Things:
well the obelisk is still really important

Important People:
Edki Guardian Warrant – an assassin grade Guardian

Personal Point of Interest

I’m really mad that this chapter ends on a cliff hanger!

This is the fourteenth blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.

13: you’re on the trail

The lady from the pump house’s name is Tonkee. She confirms that at one point she was a university student, but now she’s lives in a bit of cave in the middle of a forest not far from the pump house. They all rest up at her house then, as a group, set out on the road again with Hoa giving instructions on how to follow Nassun, but eventually he loses the trail since a lot of orogenes seem to be meeting up at a place they’re approaching. (I like this little group and I wonder how Hoa’s powers work since they’re so different from orogenes’.)

IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
Alebid – a mid-sized city south of Yumenes known for its arts scene affected by the rend

Important Things:
currency gets weird as this new Season develops

Important People:
Tonkee – the UC pump house lady

Personal Point of Interest

cachebread and sweet nut paste – sustenance traded for old knapping hammers