If the way Essun and Nassun’s choices hinge on tectonics, obelisks, and the fate of the Moon gripped you, you’ll love how Dune makes deserts, water, and sandworms the real levers of empire. Like Hoa’s revelations about Syl Anagist’s exploitation of the planet, Herbert shows how controlling ecology means controlling people—and how that reshapes faith, rebellion, and destiny.

You followed Essun, Nassun, and Hoa from very different angles and watched the truth of Father Earth and Syl Anagist snap into focus. The Way of Kings does the same, weaving Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar’s storylines into revelations about a world scarred by ancient cataclysms—each viewpoint unlocking new stakes the way Hoa’s chapters recontextualize the Season.

If Essun’s final, world-bending choice—and Nassun’s struggle over whether to end or mend—hit you hard, A Wizard of Earthsea will resonate. Ged’s journey is a stark lesson in hubris, restraint, and making amends for harm done, echoing the Broken Earth’s insistence that power’s use (from node stations to obelisk work) is always an ethical act with lasting consequences.

Hoa’s account of Syl Anagist’s conquest of the Niess and the Fulcrum’s brutal control of orogenes echoes through Who Fears Death. Onyesonwu’s fight against a colonizing order and the rewriting of a people’s story mirrors the way Essun and Nassun challenge systems that weaponize their very bodies—intimate, harrowing, and ultimately transformative.

If the obelisks, stone eaters, and Syl Anagist’s ancient tech felt like awe-inspiring, reality-warping “magic,” Ninefox Gambit channels that same vibe. Calendrical mathematics alter physics the way orogeny channels seismic force; like Essun learning to mesh with obelisks, Cheris must master a lethal logic system to rewrite the battlefield—and reckon with the costs.