Staring Down the Barrel of the Apocalypse - A Review of The Obelisk Gate

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In my review for The Fifth Season, I commented on the popularity of post-apocalyptic fiction. At the time, it was merely an observation of a trend, but I had not really thought to ask why. Since then, I’ve managed to dig up a few interesting articles commenting on the matter, including this 2014 article from Forbes, which comments on the popularity of young-adult books like The Hunger Games trilogy, the Divergent series, and the Maze Runner books. The author of the article, Debra Donston-Miller, quotes author Todd Mitchell (who also writes young-adult post-apocalyptic fiction), who says that the popularity of post-apocalyptic fiction may be attributed to “a deep-seated social need or anxiety” rooted in the fact that the current generation is seeing how the world is changing - and that it is not changing for the better. Social inequality, rapid climate change, and increasing pressure to do better and more in less time are three of the primary reasons why the current generation believes that the future is bleak; in their eyes, if there is a future to be had, it will more closely resemble Suzanne Collins’ Panem than any rosy, technological utopia previous generations may have imagined for themselves.

However, not all writers are equal. Some manage to write dystopian post-apocalyptic fiction extraordinarily well, while others do not. The problem, I think, lies partially in the fact that the genre is currently trendy, and it sells books, and movies, and TV shows. This means that media outlets (including publishers) may be eager to take on mediocre (or even outright bad) works, in the hopes to cash in on the trend before it changes yet again. The result: bookstore shelves are bloated with books that might, or might not, be any good, and it is up to the reader to sift the gold from the dross - something I tend to have very little patience for lately.

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