#24 in Science fiction
The Obelisk Gate
- 444
- Pages
- about 8 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
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Our view
The middle volume of the Broken Earth trilogy is the one that explains: it deepens the characters and opens up how this dying world works. Some readers find stretches of it slow, though they add that those passages are where the depth comes from, and others find it hard to stop reading. It is dark, and it is no place to start; read “The Fifth Season” first.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Obelisk Gate is a 2016 science fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin and the second volume in the Broken Earth series—following The Fifth Season, and preceding The Stone Sky. The Obelisk Gate was released to strong reviews and, like its predecessor in the series, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Reading order · The Broken Earth
Full order & progress →- The Fifth SeasonStart here
8.78.7 / 10 - The Obelisk GateThis book
8.68.6 / 10 - The Stone Sky
8.88.8 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.6 across 1,327 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 90% of the weight and the score stays at 8.6 — the Science fiction average of 7.8 barely moves it. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.7 | 15 | 1% |
| Hardcover | 8.6 | 1.3K | 99% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Obelisk Gate?
It has 444 pages — shorter than 65% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Science fiction — with scores between 8.5 and 8.8, closest to this book.
