The scene in the control room of Castrima is one of the best scenes I've ever read in SFF. I don't have the words to properly explain the sense of awe and dread it evokes in me. This is the moment when everything Alabastar has been telling Essun finally becomes real to her—and, by extension, to us.

The plinth with dark metal shards; iron, like the core of the Earth, flecked with some rust. Ancient warnings that label the shards as the enemy. Then Tonkee grabs one, and it attacks her. Burrows into her flesh, swims up an artery toward her sessapinae. Essun makes contact with the thing using her orogeny and senses hate and anger and a presence that speaks into her mind:

Hello, little enemy.

Gods, can you imagine? Your people accidentally fling the Moon away from the Earth, setting into motion a cataclysm that will kill your civilization and set your species back thousands of years in development. And as if that's not bad enough, you suddenly discover that the planet you live on is alive and angry and it hates you for what you've done. That it will work for ages to exterminate you all.

The curses that have peppered this story thus far—"rusting" and "Evil Earth"—take on a different feel after this scene. We know now why the people of the Stillness use these words as curses, even though they've long forgotten the real reasons.

Absolutely brilliant worldbuilding here. Gives me goosebumps.

Fuck 😳

@bookstodon@fedigroups.social #Books #Reading #SFF #SciFi #Fantasy #Fiction #BrokenEarth

(comment on The Obelisk Gate)