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  • The Stone Sky

  • Written by: N. K. Jemisin
  • Narrated by: Robin Miles
  • Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (515 ratings)

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The Stone Sky

Written by: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Robin Miles
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Publisher's Summary

Humanity will finally be saved or destroyed in the shattering conclusion to the post-apocalyptic and highly acclaimed NYT best-selling trilogy that won the Hugo Award three years in a row.

The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women.

Essun has inherited the power of Alabaster Tenring. With it, she hopes to find her daughter Nassun and forge a world in which every orogene child can grow up safe. For Nassun, her mother's mastery of the Obelisk Gate comes too late. She has seen the evil of the world, and accepted what her mother will not admit: That sometimes what is corrupt cannot be cleansed, only destroyed.

©2017 N. K. Jemisin (P)2017 Hachette Audio

What the critics say

"Narrator Robin Miles keeps up the suspense throughout this dramatic conclusion to the Broken Earth Trilogy... Miles perfectly embodies the voices of the many characters... Listen and be transported to a meticulously built world that serves as a dire warning about the dangers of prejudice and power." (AudioFile)

Featured Article: The Best Female Narrators You Can Listen To All Day


When considering a new audiobook, one of the biggest questions listeners have is whether they’ll enjoy the narration style. This is understandable as audiobooks span at least a few hours, and sticking with one person’s voice for that period can feel like a big commitment. Luckily, there are so many excellent voice actors performing audiobooks that you might just find yourself gravitating to certain audiobooks based solely on the narrator’s strength.

What listeners say about The Stone Sky

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

A real grind to get through

Great narrator, but the story just gets far to complex with characters that are hard to follow. Jumps all over the place without a solid storyline.

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3 people found this helpful

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Eh, the author seemed tired at the end

I read the first two books in this series and mostly enjoyed them. The author's apparent obsession with the appearance and breeding and cultural identity of every single darn character got really trying after a while. I want to know what hard choices people make, not things they can't choose. If I want that stuff I'll read the horrific day to day news coming out of the new yellow journalism.
Here in the third book I felt like Jemisin was kinda phoning in the story and stretching it out to fill pages. To be fair the fantastical ideas and descriptions were nice and entertaining, but it didn't carry the story for me. There was some really nice pay off with repeated motifs in the story and strong world building, but that's not enough for me.
In the end I can't recommend this and I won't be returning to this series or any other of N. K. Jemisin's books.

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3 people found this helpful

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awesome, so glad I bought the first one.

loved this book. Original and interesting, all three books done and I didn't even realize .

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sticking the landing

loved book 3 less than 1, but more than 2. A fitting end to the trilogy.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Everything Sci Fi and Fantasy SHOULD be!

This series offers up a compelling adventure with memorable characters. There are genuine ethical dilemmas that engage with some of the deepest social issues out there, but not in a way that feels trite or cliché. The author successfully experiments with narrative perspective in a way that places the reader in the position of detective attempting to piece it all together without sacrificing the 'readability' of the text. There is an actual blending of the languages of lore and science.

Jemisin is a master of her craft.

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Just Brilliant

A captivating, touching, and thought provoking conclusion to one of the best sci fi sagas of all time.

Wonderful narration by Robin Miles for this and the other books in the series.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful Read!

Great fantastical world, full of characters just trying to save the world! Would definitely recommend this series!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Satisfying Conclusion!

What a satisfying conclusion! We learned a lot more about the world here that I kinda wish had been in the previous books, which is the only reason it's not a 5 star read. There are so many parallels to the world we see today, the writing is spectacular, and I love the "magic" system in place. It's a perfect blend of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

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Excellent.

Creativity is mind blowing. Listened twice all three books. I might start all over again soon. Bravo N.K. Jemisin

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Amaze

Jemisin and Miles deliver again. They’re both geniuses in their craft! This book is the perfect conclusion to the trilogy.

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  • Jesslyn H
  • 2017-09-05

This review is for the entire series

(Review added to all books in series)
This was so good, I'll probably re-read the entire series again by the end of this year. This was truly a 5-course meal of a trilogy. Jemisin never hesitated staring an ugly truth right in the eye and it really paid off. Nothing came easy and there wasn't a hint of a Mary Sue moment.

It was refreshing to be offered a series where the main character was over 40, had kids and had already lived a full range of experiences. This is the second series that I've read by Jemisin and as much as I loved the 1st one (The Inheritance Trilogy), this was even better. I hope it doesn't sound pompous, but you can see more maturity in both the writing and the story-line.

The audio-book narrator, Robin Miles, is headed to the top of my narrator list. She can add everything from an African to a Gaelic? to a Slavic accent without sounding fake. It really brings the characters to life in a nice way.

I'm sure I'll still be re-reading this series decades from now. It's easy to see why Jemisin won the Hugo back to back on this one.

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54 people found this helpful

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  • Audra Lorton
  • 2019-07-29

Dragged Out

N. K. Jeminsin has a great way of unfolding a story and creating twists and turns. However, you have to endure so many mundane details and chapters to get to what people are doing and why. Additionally, I listened to this book on 2.45x speed just to get through the mundane details and the long, slow, awkward pauses of the narrator.

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25 people found this helpful

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  • Nickolai P.
  • 2017-10-18

Powerful and satisfying conclusion

Excellent narrator really captures the emotional undercurrent of each scene. Like the previous two books, major plot points can be seen approaching from some distance off but the upside to this is that the plot is resolved in a very satisfying and neat conclusion. The whole narrative just comes off as very cohesive and focused.

Personally I find some of the premises underpinning the main themes to be questionable but it does not prove difficult to suspend my disbelief and imagine that thy might hold true in a world that is fundamentally different from our own.

A very enjoyable experience overall bolstered by good pacing and a narrative focus on critical characters and events. Some of the tension was significantly undercut by the predictability of certain events but the writing style, choice of point of view, and the performance of the narrator combine to consistently and powerfully capture the complex emotional forces ravaging the critical characters.

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21 people found this helpful

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  • Nick
  • 2018-10-06

this book was a slog

I really enjoyed the first book. the second two were just incredibly slow. I wanted to finish because of how much I enjoyed the first, but I would not recommend them.

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16 people found this helpful

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  • Veenray
  • 2017-10-31

Ends weakly

Generally a good trilogy, though the story seems to run out if gas in book 3. I was confused most of the way through this meandering wrap up. I was left unsatisfied.

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  • Darwin8u
  • 2020-02-01

Mother Earth vs Earth Mother

"But for a society built on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress."
- N.K. Jemisin, The Stone Sky

Book three in the Broken Earth series turns solid what the earlier books hinted at. You could tell this was a series about race, culture, power, slavery, greed, family, etc., earlier in the series but The Stone Sky hammers Jemisin's themes home. This book had some serious Earth Mother energy to it. And while I was VERY impressed with the series, and I loved it, I still prefer the poetic writing of Ursula LeGuin. I feel like N.K. Jemisin has incredible (10 Ring) potential and while it appears these books came out like they were fired from a 9mm (fast and hard) in 2015, 2016, 2017. Perhaps, it took her longer than a year to write them. If THIS is what she can do in a bit over a year, I wonder what she could do if she refined her prose just a bit. But don't mistake my criticism as being heavy. It is a piece of sand on an eyelash. It is a mouches volantes. And, it may just be something I ate.

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15 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2017-11-01

An incredible imagination. Totally original.

Don't think I've ever read a set of books with such a unique "world" view. The resolution of the narratives is awe inspiring. I think we can all agree that making a better world is a universal necessity and desire. The framework in which she makes this simple point is complex and challenging and worth every minute.

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Richard Bennett
  • 2018-01-22

Fizzled out

I wanted to like it more but I felt like the ending fizzled out. Not sure what I wanted though

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7 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2020-10-06

meh.

I heard good things about this series so I got all three. I had to drag myself through it...

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6 people found this helpful

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  • David Wellman
  • 2018-08-06

The new gold standard for Fantasy.

After reading the Broken Earth trilogy, and then reading something by Feist, or Martin, or even Sanderson, I feel let down. The most recent of these men's works feel quaint, old-fashioned, compared to what NK Jemisin has achieved. The Stone Sky brings the trilogy to an emotional and awe-inspiring ending, in which the fate of humanity comes down to, and in fact is a microcosm of, a mother's turbulent relationship with her daughter. The real villains of the story are our own worst drives and desires, and it feels that the heroes are every one of us. The prose is like nothing I've ever read, and is still striking after having had the first two books to get used to it. Anyone who is unsure about this series, pick up "The Fifth Season," the first volume, and dig in. Just be prepared to have the rest of the fantasy canon slightly ruined forever more.

Oh yes, and Robin Miles is just plain awesome. Holy cow is she awesome.

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5 people found this helpful

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