Broken Earth could make an amazing anime, though I’m not sure I actually want one made because I don’t trust anime creators not to whitewash the hell out of it lmao
I wonder what use-caste lorists belong to? Innovators? Leaders? Or is that an additional vocation?
Oh, okay. They are their own caste, just not one of the seven common ones. I can’t believe Nassun’s parents were okay with her training to be a Lorist, to wander far from her birth comm.
Asdggldjdgs at the literally groundbreaking revelations so far. A detail that I can fix my mind on, however: of all the outcomes of Tonkee’s stunt, gaining a suitor was dead last on my list of possibilities. So let me get this straight, Hjarka took a look at Tonkee losing her arm and nearly dying (and, lbr, I totally understand Ykka on this and Tonkee is one of my favorite characters) by acting on a dangerous obsession beyond all reason, and decided this woman was a keeper? Run, Tonkee. She’s even crazier than you are.
Well there are worse uses for a reattached bum hand than sticking it in the crazy. Go at it, you two, take each other out of the dating pool.
(I am very happy for them, btw. I just express it in an assy way.)
Speaking of crazy, Breeders are actually selecting for orogeny in offspring now? That didn’t take long. Just one comm where orogeny was normalized within the past generation, and already Breeders–and no doubt others–are seeing it as a valuable trait.
“It means that then Schaffa can be her father. He is in every way that matters already.”
I wonder what use-caste lorists belong to? Innovators? Leaders? Or is that an additional vocation?
Oh, okay. They are their own caste, just not one of the seven common ones. I can’t believe Nassun’s parents were okay with her training to be a Lorist, to wander far from her birth comm.
Asdggldjdgs at the literally groundbreaking revelations so far. A detail that I can fix my mind on, however: of all the outcomes of Tonkee’s stunt, gaining a suitor was dead last on my list of possibilities. So let me get this straight, Hjarka took a look at Tonkee losing her arm and nearly dying (and, lbr, I totally understand Ykka on this and Tonkee is one of my favorite characters) by acting on a dangerous obsession beyond all reason, and decided this woman was a keeper? Run, Tonkee. She’s even crazier than you are.
Well there are worse uses for a reattached bum hand than sticking it in the crazy. Go at it, you two, take each other out of the dating pool.
(I am very happy for them, btw. I just express it in an assy way.)
Speaking of crazy, Breeders are actually selecting for orogeny in offspring now? That didn’t take long. Just one comm where orogeny was normalized within the past generation, and already Breeders–and no doubt others–are seeing it as a valuable trait.
Aaand it didn’t take long for that to fall apart. Just press on the fault line and crack. I don’t think Essun is being entirely fair, though. The stills in Meov didn’t turn on their orogene comm members, but trauma doesn’t speak the language of fairness and she doesn’t have to be fair to be right.
Also a rather belated reaction but of all the people I expected to get a redemption arc Schaffa was dead last. It’s more of a Revan situation, I guess, in that much of who he used to be was cut away by brain damage.
Because this is Broken Earth, I fully expect his newfound humanity to have even worse results than his former callousness. Arguably that’s already started with letting Nassun live and what she did to Eitz and the Antarctic Fulcrum. That girl’s shaping up to be quite the mass murderer like her mom.
I wonder what use-caste lorists belong to? Innovators? Leaders? Or is that an additional vocation?
Oh, okay. They are their own caste, just not one of the seven common ones. I can’t believe Nassun’s parents were okay with her training to be a Lorist, to wander far from her birth comm.
Asdggldjdgs at the literally groundbreaking revelations so far. A detail that I can fix my mind on, however: of all the outcomes of Tonkee’s stunt, gaining a suitor was dead last on my list of possibilities. So let me get this straight, Hjarka took a look at Tonkee losing her arm and nearly dying (and, lbr, I totally understand Ykka on this and Tonkee is one of my favorite characters) by acting on a dangerous obsession beyond all reason, and decided this woman was a keeper? Run, Tonkee. She’s even crazier than you are.
Well there are worse uses for a reattached bum hand than sticking it in the crazy. Go at it, you two, take each other out of the dating pool.
(I am very happy for them, btw. I just express it in an assy way.)
Speaking of crazy, Breeders are actually selecting for orogeny in offspring now? That didn’t take long. Just one comm where orogeny was normalized within the past generation, and already Breeders–and no doubt others–are seeing it as a valuable trait.
I wonder what use-caste lorists belong to? Innovators? Leaders? Or is that an additional vocation?
Oh, okay. They are their own caste, just not one of the seven common ones. I can’t believe Nassun’s parents were okay with her training to be a Lorist, to wander far from her birth comm.
Asdggldjdgs at the literally groundbreaking revelations so far. A detail that I can fix my mind on, however: of all the outcomes of Tonkee’s stunt, gaining a suitor was dead last on my list of possibilities. So let me get this straight, Hjarka took a look at Tonkee losing her arm and nearly dying (and, lbr, I totally understand Ykka on this and Tonkee is one of my favorite characters) by acting on a dangerous obsession beyond all reason, and decided this woman was a keeper? Run, Tonkee. She’s even crazier than you are.
I wonder what use-caste lorists belong to? Innovators? Leaders? Or is that an additional vocation?
Oh, okay. They are their own caste, just not one of the seven common ones. I can’t believe Nassun’s parents were okay with her training to be a Lorist, to wander far from her birth comm.
I wonder what use-caste lorists belong to? Innovators? Leaders? Or is that an additional vocation?
Tonkee’s been taking hormones while commless and living in the wild, alone? While she couldn’t bathe? The dedication. The desperation. What did she do, get estrogen from a pregnant wild animal’s pee? Any wild animal large enough to pee in that amount couldn’t have been safe to approach, either, especially when pregnant. Maybe she traded for mare urine? It’s hard to fathom the effort all this must have taken while she was living on the teetering edge of survival.
The orogenes are banding together, huh? Hopefully they’re not recreating the Fulcrum’s methods. So many people died so they could be free.
And how do the stone eaters tie into all this anyway? Did ‘Baster strike a deal with them? What the rust even are the obelisks? It looks like Baster did a deep molecular dive drawing on their power to get the poison out of his system (SO MANY DUNE FEELS OLD SF GEEKS OF THE WORLD UNITE) so if other orogenes can do that…
Also shoutout for the passages that showed how Yumenes kept the periphery comms dependent, between crippling debt and well-timed “natural” disasters resulting in widespread famine. The depictions of imperialism, racism, and abuse in this novel and the way they all link together is truly masterful.
Holy shit, the node maintainers… Baster’s kids… I want to throw up. Is it because the Fulcrum is afraid of him, the power in his bloodline? Was it afraid they might become a faction, a threat? Was it some punishment for defiance? Those poor, poor kids. No wonder the man is crazy, for this and a million other reasons. Is the Fulcrum that arrogant and foolish? Didn’t they think he had limits to what he was willing to endure? Or was he that good at pretending he didn’t care? My God.
‘Baster feeling safe and loved enough to be petty and clingy and passive-aggressive does my heart a world of good. It’s probably the healthiest way the fallout from his lifelong Trauma Conga can express itself. The way he’s always wrapped around Corundum is both heartwarming and heartbreaking because you can tell he’s partly making up for all his other kids he couldn’t protect, with shades of loving and cherishing the child he himself used to be.
I love his and Syen’s relationship now that they’re no longer being coerced into sex with each other, and their relationship with Innon is makes all sorts of sense. I love this representation of a healthy, loving, and sexy polyamorous relationship. I don’t see enough relationships like Syen and ‘Baster’s, platonic friends and co-parents who mean the world to each other and who have more history and meaning together than the person they actually have sex with. No hate on Innon, I like him and he’s been great for our duo, but ultimately I find Syen and ‘Baster’s relationship more compelling. Unfortunately I dread that this state of happiness won’t last.
Also the way this comm is run, with orogenes protecting and leading it instead of being hated, feared, and carted off to be abused?
The fear of orogenes is, indeed, culturally instilled and is part of a giant scam to keep communities weak and dependent on Yumenes. Orogenes are the key to survival and independence, and by controlling memory, history, and culture the Sanzed were tricking the comms in their power to serve its interests, not their own. The author didn’t make this hard to figure out or anything–she writes with the kind of clarity that rewards engagement with insight, and I respect her for it. I also like that she makes it clear the arrangement isn’t perfect and the island’s orogenes are not as skilled as the Fulcrum-trained ones, even when Syen tries to teach them. So there’s a price, but it’s still a hell of a lot better than the alternative and can be improved upon.
Also ‘Baster’s comment about the world not changing unless one were to destroy it and start over? Really creepy foreshadowing, because I’m 90% certain that he will be the worldbreaker in the opening, much as I am that Syenite will become Essun, and here he explicitly doesn’t want any part of breaking the world. He just wants to hide away and raise his son in peace. He couldn’t have gone from that to the opening scene if he still had Corundum left to protect.
DFIDSJSJSFASLFKJL
LERNA’S ALIVE I’M SO HAPPY
The man from Yumenes is ‘Baster, isn’t it? Please tell me it’s ‘Baster!!!
Tonkee’s been taking hormones while commless and living in the wild, alone? While she couldn’t bathe? The dedication. The desperation. What did she do, get estrogen from a pregnant wild animal’s pee? Any wild animal large enough to pee in that amount couldn’t have been safe to approach, either, especially when pregnant. Maybe she traded for mare urine? It’s hard to fathom the effort all this must have taken while she was living on the teetering edge of survival.
The orogenes are banding together, huh? Hopefully they’re not recreating the Fulcrum’s methods. So many people died so they could be free.
And how do the stone eaters tie into all this anyway? Did ‘Baster strike a deal with them? What the rust even are the obelisks? It looks like Baster did a deep molecular dive drawing on their power to get the poison out of his system (SO MANY DUNE FEELS OLD SF GEEKS OF THE WORLD UNITE) so if other orogenes can do that…
Also shoutout for the passages that showed how Yumenes kept the periphery comms dependent, between crippling debt and well-timed “natural” disasters resulting in widespread famine. The depictions of imperialism, racism, and abuse in this novel and the way they all link together is truly masterful.
Holy shit, the node maintainers… Baster’s kids… I want to throw up. Is it because the Fulcrum is afraid of him, the power in his bloodline? Was it afraid they might become a faction, a threat? Was it some punishment for defiance? Those poor, poor kids. No wonder the man is crazy, for this and a million other reasons. Is the Fulcrum that arrogant and foolish? Didn’t they think he had limits to what he was willing to endure? Or was he that good at pretending he didn’t care? My God.
‘Baster feeling safe and loved enough to be petty and clingy and passive-aggressive does my heart a world of good. It’s probably the healthiest way the fallout from his lifelong Trauma Conga can express itself. The way he’s always wrapped around Corundum is both heartwarming and heartbreaking because you can tell he’s partly making up for all his other kids he couldn’t protect, with shades of loving and cherishing the child he himself used to be.
I love his and Syen’s relationship now that they’re no longer being coerced into sex with each other, and their relationship with Innon is makes all sorts of sense. I love this representation of a healthy, loving, and sexy polyamorous relationship. I don’t see enough relationships like Syen and ‘Baster’s, platonic friends and co-parents who mean the world to each other and who have more history and meaning together than the person they actually have sex with. No hate on Innon, I like him and he’s been great for our duo, but ultimately I find Syen and ‘Baster’s relationship more compelling. Unfortunately I dread that this state of happiness won’t last.
Also the way this comm is run, with orogenes protecting and leading it instead of being hated, feared, and carted off to be abused?
The fear of orogenes is, indeed, culturally instilled and is part of a giant scam to keep communities weak and dependent on Yumenes. Orogenes are the key to survival and independence, and by controlling memory, history, and culture the Sanzed were tricking the comms in their power to serve its interests, not their own. The author didn’t make this hard to figure out or anything–she writes with the kind of clarity that rewards engagement with insight, and I respect her for it. I also like that she makes it clear the arrangement isn’t perfect and the island’s orogenes are not as skilled as the Fulcrum-trained ones, even when Syen tries to teach them. So there’s a price, but it’s still a hell of a lot better than the alternative and can be improved upon.
Also ‘Baster’s comment about the world not changing unless one were to destroy it and start over? Really creepy foreshadowing, because I’m 90% certain that he will be the worldbreaker in the opening, much as I am that Syenite will become Essun, and here he explicitly doesn’t want any part of breaking the world. He just wants to hide away and raise his son in peace. He couldn’t have gone from that to the opening scene if he still had Corundum left to protect.
DFIDSJSJSFASLFKJL
LERNA’S ALIVE I’M SO HAPPY
The man from Yumenes is ‘Baster, isn’t it? Please tell me it’s ‘Baster!!!
Tonkee’s been taking hormones while commless and living in the wild, alone? While she couldn’t bathe? The dedication. The desperation. What did she do, get estrogen from a pregnant wild animal’s pee? Any wild animal large enough to pee in that amount couldn’t have been safe to approach, either, especially when pregnant. Maybe she traded for mare urine? It’s hard to fathom the effort all this must have taken while she was living on the teetering edge of survival.
The orogenes are banding together, huh? Hopefully they’re not recreating the Fulcrum’s methods. So many people died so they could be free.
And how do the stone eaters tie into all this anyway? Did ‘Baster strike a deal with them? What the rust even are the obelisks? It looks like Baster did a deep molecular dive drawing on their power to get the poison out of his system (SO MANY DUNE FEELS OLD SF GEEKS OF THE WORLD UNITE) so if other orogenes can do that…
Also shoutout for the passages that showed how Yumenes kept the periphery comms dependent, between crippling debt and well-timed “natural” disasters resulting in widespread famine. The depictions of imperialism, racism, and abuse in this novel and the way they all link together is truly masterful.
Holy shit, the node maintainers… Baster’s kids… I want to throw up. Is it because the Fulcrum is afraid of him, the power in his bloodline? Was it afraid they might become a faction, a threat? Was it some punishment for defiance? Those poor, poor kids. No wonder the man is crazy, for this and a million other reasons. Is the Fulcrum that arrogant and foolish? Didn’t they think he had limits to what he was willing to endure? Or was he that good at pretending he didn’t care? My God.
‘Baster feeling safe and loved enough to be petty and clingy and passive-aggressive does my heart a world of good. It’s probably the healthiest way the fallout from his lifelong Trauma Conga can express itself. The way he’s always wrapped around Corundum is both heartwarming and heartbreaking because you can tell he’s partly making up for all his other kids he couldn’t protect, with shades of loving and cherishing the child he himself used to be.
I love his and Syen’s relationship now that they’re no longer being coerced into sex with each other, and their relationship with Innon is makes all sorts of sense. I love this representation of a healthy, loving, and sexy polyamorous relationship. I don’t see enough relationships like Syen and ‘Baster’s, platonic friends and co-parents who mean the world to each other and who have more history and meaning together than the person they actually have sex with. No hate on Innon, I like him and he’s been great for our duo, but ultimately I find Syen and ‘Baster’s relationship more compelling. Unfortunately I dread that this state of happiness won’t last.
Also the way this comm is run, with orogenes protecting and leading it instead of being hated, feared, and carted off to be abused?
The fear of orogenes is, indeed, culturally instilled and is part of a giant scam to keep communities weak and dependent on Yumenes. Orogenes are the key to survival and independence, and by controlling memory, history, and culture the Sanzed were tricking the comms in their power to serve its interests, not their own. The author didn’t make this hard to figure out or anything–she writes with the kind of clarity that rewards engagement with insight, and I respect her for it. I also like that she makes it clear the arrangement isn’t perfect and the island’s orogenes are not as skilled as the Fulcrum-trained ones, even when Syen tries to teach them. So there’s a price, but it’s still a hell of a lot better than the alternative and can be improved upon.
Also ‘Baster’s comment about the world not changing unless one were to destroy it and start over? Really creepy foreshadowing, because I’m 90% certain that he will be the worldbreaker in the opening, much as I am that Syenite will become Essun, and here he explicitly doesn’t want any part of breaking the world. He just wants to hide away and raise his son in peace. He couldn’t have gone from that to the opening scene if he still had Corundum left to protect.
L.J.'s Obsessions 