“The Stone Sky” closes the Broken Earth trilogy with unusual assurance. Its strongest move is the backstory, woven into the main plot until the whole tale feels far larger than it did at the start. The social and racial parallels hit as hard as the invention does. It cannot be read alone: anyone new to the series should begin with the first volume, and those already in it will want to finish.

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 Stone Sky is a 2017 science fantasy novel by American writer N. K. Jemisin. It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2018. Reviews of the book upon its release were highly positive. It is the third volume in the Broken Earth series, following The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate, both of which also won the Hugo Award.

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Reading order · The Broken Earth

Full order & progress →

8.59.09.5

8.7

8.6

8.8

201520162017

8.59.09.5

201520162017

8.7

8.6

8.8

Score per volume3 volumes on a timeline, 2015 to 2017 · Best-rated volume: The Stone Sky

The Fifth Season2015 · 1,971 ratingsStart here
8.78.7 / 10
The Obelisk Gate2016 · 1,327 ratings
8.68.6 / 10
The Stone Sky2017 · 1,184 ratingsThis book
8.88.8 / 10

Where the score comes from

The sources average 8.7 across 1,184 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 89% of the weight and the score stays at 8.8 — the Science fiction average of 7.8 barely moves it. A further +0.20 comes from the small bonus for major awards.