A potential title for your Black History Month reading

It's February which means it's Black History Month. (It really is, even if this makes some people unhappy.) Every February, I try to read a book written by a Black author. (Actually, I try very hard to read books from a wide variety of different viewpoints and cultures throughout the year. How do we learn and grow if we aren't stretched by hearing ideas from people different from ourselves?) This February it just happened that I finished the Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin, closing The Stone Sky last night. It seemed fitting that I finished Ms. Jemisin's book as February began. I highly recommend all three books. While each book is self-contained, there are not many answers at the end of the first and second books. They are more a comma for what is to come than a period. I was relieved and satisfied to having a lot of the questions I had answered. 

At the surface, the books seem like really interesting fantasy with a unique world that is well described. They are more than just a good story, though they are a good story. There are some big ideas to wrestle with, particularly the question of what makes someone human and who gets to decide those parameters. Who gets to live, who decides who has self-volition, how does seeing a fellow human as non-human affect those who see a difference are all questions that arise time and again while not interrupting the flow and pacing of the general story line. Each of the parts of the trilogy individually won a Hugo Award and it is very clear why. Every so often you come across paragraphs such as this:

" Life is sacred in Syl Anagist [an ancient civilization in the world in which the story is set] -- as it should be, for the city burns life as the fuel for its glory. The Niess [an ancient people] were not the first people chewed up in its maw, just the latest and cruelest extermination of many. But for a society built on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress. And now, if nothing else is done, Syl Anagist must again find a way to fission its people into subgroupings and create reasons for conflict among them. There's not enough magic to be had just from plants and genegineered fauna; someone must suffer, if the rest are to enjoy luxury." (p. 334)

Ponder that, won't you?
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And just a blog owner related notice: If you choose to comment, "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE, etc" under the cloak of anonymity... 1. You're a coward and 2. I will just delete the comment. If you happen to attach your name to it, I will file a police report. Just sayin'... 

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