In The Stone Sky, the final installment of her Broken Earth series, N.K. Jemisin digs even further into the foundations of the trilogy’s catastrophe-stricken world, and excavates the origins of its fault lines. The critically lauded book—in which characters grapple with, among other issues, the question of whether it is just to prevent worlds built on structural oppression from toppling—made Jemisin the first writer ever to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel. In Jemisin’s acceptance speech for the prestigious award, she described science fiction and fantasy as “the aspirational drive of the zeitgeist,” a mission statement of sorts for both the genre and for one of the most respected authors working within it. With the Broken Earth trilogy—and the attention it brought to her work more broadly—Jemisin has continued to push forward the genre and publishing as a whole. —Cate Matthews