4.5 stars

It's hard to put into words my exact feelings. The short answer is that I enjoyed it. In equal parts bleak and brilliant, vague and original, you have a very intriguing world and premise.

Told across three perspectives (one in the uncommon second-person) the story unfolds steadily, if a little slowly at points.

This is a character-led story but worldbuilding is front and centre here. Set likely tens of thousands of years into the future, the themes of oppression, discrimination, people's hubris and cruelty, were so culturally significant.

As I mentioned, there are three POVs but they are not all created the same. Essun "you" starts out well but loses steam little in the middle, Damaya starts out slow but gains traction, while Syenite's is the consistent height of the book, with my favourite parts involving her and her companion Alabaster. One other criticism is that it is I think needlessly vague in points. There is a lure early on, a mystery about the world and characters that cleverly unravels but there is a lot that is revealed to you strangely, especially towards the end.

I understand that this likely means that I will have my answers in the following books and hopefully they are negated as we expand on the mysteries of the Stillness.

But boy, what an intriguing book.