The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, 1)

I absolutely loved it! At first, I was wary of the fact that the story begins with a murder and a kidnapping but I decided to keep reading and it was so worth it. It is not often that we get a dystopic protagonist who is not only past her teenage years but a mother, it makes for a great change in pace and motivations. The book was a roller-coaster from beginning to end and at first, it may be difficult to get the hang of the storytelling, there's so much happening. In fact, I recommend re-reading the first chapter after finishing the book, it makes so much more sense in hindsight, just a little mind-blowing moment. I really enjoyed all the characters, they are well thought and very different from what I'm used to seeing in popular trilogies. The world and society are also very well presented, even if at times it seems as if its history is much too important to understand what is going on, but little by little you get to discover how everything works and that it may not be as far of reality as you once thought. Before reading this I saw many reviews complaining about the narrative in the second person. This first book is told from the perspective of three different people, which I liked since it marked a good reading pace and allowed me to know that I could actually "stop after this chapter" if need be. Of the three characters presenting the story, however, only one is in the second person and there is a good reason for that, so let it not discourage you. At one point it is not even noticeable, tbh. I would like to talk about the plot and its harsh topics including racism and toxic relationships, but I fear I would say too much. Just know that it is a story of attempting to repair mistakes from the past while making new mistakes, a story of a broken but thriving society in the harshest of conditions, a story of facing the world after your secrets are out, even if those secrets shouldn't have existed in the first place. It is a story of strength and humanity, and it is so good. I'm so happy I gave myself the chance to read it.

On another planet there’s a continent called The Stillness in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, because it’s a highly seismologically active place. Every so often, that activity leads to what is referred to as a Fifth Season, when an earthquake or volcanic eruption creates society-destroying chaos. Over time, civilizations have risen and collapsed, with some Fifth Seasons relatively short-lived and some that kill off all but a few isolated bands who restart the world. There are a group of people in this world called orogenes, born with the ability to connect to the earth’s energy in ways both helpful (stilling earthquakes before they even happen) and destructive (triggering those same quakes, or even just striking out against threats). Those without their powers hate and fear them, and have channeled that fear into the creation of a training center called the Fulcrum where orogenes can be controlled, taught to use their skills for the good of the greater society. This book tells the story of three women in that world: Damaya, a young girl whose family has discovered that she is an orogene and have rejected her, sending her away to the Fulcrum, where she struggles to connect with her peers even as she excels in her training, Syenite, a young adult working her way up the heirarchy in the Fulcrum, who is sent on a mission with Alabaster, one of the center’s most accomplished products, and Essun, a middle-aged woman whose personal world is destroyed on the same day as the wider world: her husband has discovered that she and their children are orogenes and has killed their son, while fleeing with their daughter. At the same time, an orogene has triggered a massive earthquake that sets off a Fifth Season, making Essun’s quest to find her daughter ever-more fraught with peril. I don’t tend to gravitate towards sci-fi/fantasy that spends a lot of time on world building: I can’t “see” scenes play out inside my head when I’m reading so the pleasures of that sort of thing are largely lost on me. But N.K. Jemison balances her intricate world-building with the kind of strong character development that many of these sorts of stories lack, giving me reason to care about all of the details. Each of the women’s stories is compelling, exploring what it means to be “other” and how to interact with an outside world that both needs and resents you. It also explores the power of story itself: the folklore that has been passed down through the years about how to survive a Fifth Season and how people respond to it, the framing of orogenes as inherently dangerous through tales told to children, and how easy it can be to make up a story for yourself in ways that paper over uncomfortable realities. In a bit of a stylistic flourish that she completely earns with her talent, Essun’s chapters are narrated in the second person, something that can be tricky to pull off but works here. Another thing Jemison does that feels refreshing in this genre is incorporate diversity in a way that feels completely natural: The Stillness is home to people of various ethnic backgrounds and has its own racial hierarchies, and people are not always just cisgender and heterosexual. While I was always engaged with it when reading it, the book is a bit on the intellectual side and it was the sort of thing that I didn’t find myself compulsively driven to pick up. That being said, though, this was a very good book and I intend to continue with this series and recommend it!

This book is the first in a trilogy and I have now ready them all. The idea of the plot and the way the story is told and evolves was different from my normal books, but I enjoyed it so much. The different pieces, moving at different paces to give the reader a look at the plot from different ways was so well done. The writing was great, in my opinion. The story was intriguing, and definitely caught me enough to finish the series.

I've been hearing for a while now about N.K. Jemisin's writing, with most recommendations orbiting around her novel The Fifth Season, the first volume in a (blessedly already completed) trilogy named "The Broken Earth." And with an itch to get back into reading fantasy lately, I was hoping that The Fifth Season would rekindle my love for a genre that has been letting me down a bit lately. Man, did it ever work, because I loved this book a lot. From the rich worldbuilding to the compelling characters, from the focus on marginalized and damaged protagonists to the thematic richness of its ideas, The Fifth Season gripped me early and never let go. It doesn't hurt that The Fifth Season has such a bold, unusual structure. Unfolding across three stories that we alternate between, the story opens with its boldest narration structure: a second-person voice that places the reader in the position of Essun, a woman whose husband has murdered her son and run away with their daughter in tow. That this murder becomes almost understandable in the world Jemisin has created doesn't make the crime any less horrifying, or the emotions any less powerful, and Jemisin's unusual second-person narration has a way of making the book hit home in a way that's hard to pin down. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that this story begins with the ending of the world - the unleashing of another Fifth Season across the globe: a catastrophe that may wipe out all life on The Stillness, a mass continent wracked by constant tremors and instability. (Jemisin's small but subtle implications that this is not fantasy, but distant science-fiction set in a far-off future, make the world all the more fascinating.) This is a quest for justice set against the collapse of society, and that makes it all the more haunting to watch unfold. That would be enough story for most authors. But Jemisin mixes in two other stories, each set in what appears to be a time before this apocalypse has been unleashed. In one, we meet a young girl named Damaya, whose magical powers - known as "orogeny" in the novel - lead her parents to give her to a man who can keep her safe. It's the flip side of what happened to Essun's son; in the world of The Stillness, orogenes - who can both control and unleash the destructive powers of the earth - are both needed and feared, and often killed as soon as their powers begin to manifest in uncontrollable ways. That Jemisin so neatly intertwines power and control, safety and destruction, makes for compelling reading; that we become so invested in Damaya's survival, training, and learning who she is makes the story all the richer. And then there's Syenite, a grown orogene sent on a mission with Alabaster, one of the most powerful male orogenes alive, both to train and to provide him a chance to procreate. It's this relationship that's most fascinating and complex in the book; with the mixture of Alabaster's anger and rage at the ways in which he's forced to use his powers, Syen's desire to prove herself and establish who she is, and the way this third of the novel finds Jemisin diving into the nuance of her world and peeling away the simple rules that Damaya is learning, it's by far the most complex part of the book, and maybe the most satisfying. Any of these three stories could be a great book on their own, but Jemisin's gift for interweaving them is what makes them truly fascinating, as each story comments on the others in small ways and enriches the text we're reading, giving the reader more information than the characters and allowing us to see what's going on beyond the surface. Add to that Jemisin's desire to focus on diverse, complex characters beyond the basic archetypes (I can't think offhand of a fantasy novel that's more diverse in terms of gender and race, much less one that incorporates those aspects so well), and you have a knockout voice in fantasy that's giving me a fresh love for the genre that means so much to me. It won't be long until I'm jumping into volume two, and I really can't wait to get there.

There are moments when you pick up a book and you’re immediately captured, in awe with the world building, engrossed by the story and the characters and unable to imagine how you ever lived without ever getting to know the characters before you on the printed page. I call that moment ‘the click’, that magical moment when the story comes together and you are at the authors beck and call, devouring every word on the page like some thirsty traveler in the desert devouring water from a refreshing stream. Before penning this review, I wasn’t sure what to really say about N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, that has not already been said before. I mean Jemisin is already recognized as one of the rising stars in the Fantasy genre, infusing diversity and innovation in her work, turning the norms of the franchise on their head with every book. And this was before she won the Hugo. If only we all could be so lucky. That being said, I’ll try and I'll start by saying I thoroughly enjoyed The Fifth Season. I mean who wouldn’t like a novel who’s novel begins with the sentence, “Lets start with the end of the World”, a sentence that immediately had me hooked. End of the world, you can’t start with stakes higher than that for crying out loud. That being said, welcome to the Land known as the Stillness, a world that is anything but. You see this world is marked by seasons, cataclysmic geological events where the Earth in its anger tries to wipe out all human life on the planet for some unknown transgression. The magic of this world is also tied heavily to the Earth as well, orogeny it’s called, the ability of certain people orogenes to sense and manipulate tectonic activity, drawing their power from their environment to quiet quakes and manipulating other geological events such as closing volcanoes, clearing reefs etc. Naturally one would thing that such beings of power in a world of geological uncertainty would be worshiped our even revered but NK Jemisin flips this idea on its head and places orogenes in a position of discrimination and oppression. These individuals are feared for their abilities, labeled as a curse on the planet by Father Earth, slaughtered for their powers. Think more X-men rather than say Avengers, feared rather than loved for their powers. As such Orogenes are rounded up and taken to a school known as the Fulcrum where they can learn to use their abilities, ostensibly for their own protection but primarily so they can be controlled and used as weapons for the Totalitarian state that governs the majority of the Stillness. Orogenes are considered less than human feared and mistreated as such, while also policed by the mysterious Guardians who have the amazing ability to negate their powers. The beauty of this story lies not only in the characters N.K. Jemisin creates but the themes she intricately weaves throughout the story. True this is a story about life on a hellish world with seasonal apocalypses, but it is also a deeply personal story, a story about family, the nature of both love and identity in the shadow of racial and cultural oppression. The idea of history itself being used as a weapon against the oppressed, a tool to justify the rightness of those in power is explored in the novel, juxtaposed against the idea that the truth if only known would set the world free, if only it were known. There is a strong undercurrent in the novel that Orogeny and orogenes in particular, if they were just allowed to live their lives, love whom they will and take a more active and dynamic role in society that all of humanity would be better off and perhaps even find a way to thrive on this planet who’s desperately trying to kill everyone. It is instead racial discrimination, fear of the other and human nature that keeps this from happening. I ’m not sure a better allegory could be written for our deeply troubled times where isms of all kind divide us in the real world. Likewise, the story is told through three different narratives which is normal for a fantasy work, but all three narratives come together beautifully. I won’t ruin it for you, but when these narratives come together its magical. One of the narratives is also written in 2nd person POV which was a wonderful surprise and Jemisin pulls it off beautifully. For years to come, her use of 2nd person will be a wonderful example of how to work with this tough, seldom used perspective. That she pulled this off speaks volumes of Jemisin’s talent, pulling this experimental POV off, yet still telling her story, melding seemingly disparate perspectives from the narratives together without a hitch. Bravo. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the beauty of Jemisin’s prose and style, conversational, taut yet full of purpose with each word. Jemisin’s prose is loaded with meaning, showing rather than telling, the characters interacting and taking cues from each other in the way one would in everyday life. In other words, not everything is spelled out to the reader, you like the character have to read between the lines to catch everything that’s implied on the page. Some may find this annoying, but I found the lack of handholding in some parts to be the true mark of the mature author, trusting their audience while also adding to the wonder of the world she’s created. In short, I loved The Fifth Season. It’s a fantasy novel that destroys common fantasy tropes but still tells a story that is rich, deep and more importantly feels like it has something to say. The book won the Hugo, so I’m not sure what more needs to be said to convince you that this is one you need to read. Run don’t walk to this book.

Over the nearly 40 years I've been writing book reviews (on and off, but mostly on these days), an author has never ticked me off. Ever. I've been unhappy with any number of novels I've read, but I've never been upset with a writer up until now (By the way before all of you get yourself into a potential tizzy over that statement and may be reading into it, please keep reading the review. Please.). N.K. Jemisin has succeeded in ticking me off. Why? Oh, a couple of reasons. First (and this statement comes with me not yet having finished reading SEVENEVES, but I'm not even halfway through that beast and I think I can make the following statement with much certainty), I think that for the first time in all the years that I've voted for the Hugos, I will be placing a book that's not clearly science fiction in the top spot on my ballot. To be fair, it's not clear this book is fantasy either, so maybe I'm cheating with that statement a bit. In fact, come to think of it, I'm looking at the top two spots on my ballot not being clear cut science fiction, but I digress. The second reason is that as THE FIFTH SEASON is the first book in a series that may not be science fiction, I'm anxiously awaiting book two. The last thing I need is yet another series in which to get behind. I mean really: Cixin Liu, John Scalzi, Mira Grant, Charles Stross, and (yes, I know but you all know how I am by now) Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson all have books out that I'm waiting to read. Oh, I forgot Lois McMaster Bujold. So now I add Jemisin to the list. She's in good company. The thing about reviewing this book is that it's, well, *difficult* to review this book without giving away too much - but I'll try anyway. The story takes place on a planet that has one very large continent, the Stillness. The continent is unstable in that there is an abundance of faults which cause earthquakes, or shakes as they are called, to happen frequently. Periodically, a major disaster occurs which sends the planet into what is called a "season", which is difficult to describe other than they send the planet and its inhabitants into a long period of suffering of one form or another. There is a class of people called orogenes, who have the ability to control the power of the earth and stone and other things. They are powerful people, who if not trained can cause severe damage all around them. Thus, training is held in the Fulcrum, where orogenes learn to use and focus their power. Orogenes are generally shunned because of what they can do; they frighten people. There is another class of folks called the Guardians, who watch over, guide, and in fact can control orogenes. An orogene never says "no" to his or her Guardian. They are supposed to be protectors, but they do frighten the orogenes. The story follows the timelines of three female characters: the young Damaya, who is taken from the family that shuns her because she is an orogene by a Guardian to the Fulcrum for her education; Syenite, a "four ringer" (think of the rings as levels in your favorite role playing game) who goes on an assignment with ten ringer (the maximum you can be) Alabaster whose baby she is ordered to have in an attempt to generate another high powered orogene; and Essun, a mysterious woman who is trying to find her husband who has stolen their daughter and run away after killing their son. Each of them discover things about themselves and the world they live in that disturbs them, and their stories converge in a way that is surprising and, I think, satisfying. In addition to Jemisin allowing her characters to go on a journey of discovery via terrific storytelling and characterization, she allows the reader to go on a similar journey of discovery about the Stillness and the planet it exists on. As the story develops, it's very clear that the society we are reading about at one point was advanced to some degree; there is talk of electricity and concrete roads, for example. There is, in fact, evidence of technology all through the story, including the mechanism by which the orogenes use their power and how the Guardians are created. There are universities which all types of sciences. And yet, there seems to be evidence of magic; just what are the stone eaters and how do they fit in to the overall story? What are those strange obelisks that the orogenes seem to attract? This is without question one of the best books of 2015, and in my opinion the best novel that is on the Hugo ballot. And if you ever wanted to read a killer sentence that ends a book, read this one. But please, please, please read the rest of the book first, as reading the last sentence without reading the rest of the book will spoil everything (I will admit to having deduced, in an "ah hah" moment, what was implied by the last sentence sometime before I got to it, but the impact was still tremendous). Robin Miles was an absolutely fantastic narrator. While she isn't the best at voicing different characters, her reading style, inserting emotion, inflection, and tonality (that may not make sense here, but I can't think of another word to convey what I'm thinking) were outstanding. I look forward to her reading the next book in the series. That second book? THE OBELISK GATE? Yeah, that will be out at MidAmericon 2 in Kansas City next month. Thanks, Ms. Jemisin. Now I'm even more behind in my reading.

The Fifth Season is the first book in The Broken Earth trilogy. It won the Hugo Award for 2016 and the sequel, The Obelisk Gate, just took the 2017 Hugo Award. The third book in the series, The Stone Sky is due out in a few days (August 15, 2017) and seems to have a lot of buzz around the anticipated release. Being such a critically acclaimed darling and widely read already, there's not much my review can add, but I'll throw my few cents in anyhow. For me this was a 4.5 star book. This is the second N.K. Jemisin book I've read (the other was The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms). I liked this book appreciably more, but there are definitely a few commonalities that I'll just chalk up to the authors style. She seems to favor chopping her narrative up chronologically, and not really explaining to the reader what's earlier or later in the timeline, you just get to piece it together as you go. She also seems to favor some tougher to read perspectives (one of the POV storylines in The Fifth Season uses 2nd person, which is not so common, but I thought it worked well in this context). Lastly, she's not an author that spells out all the twists and turns of the plot, again, the reader is left to infer and piece things together. I thought this was much more effective in The Fifth Season than in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. This book did have fair amount of made up words. You will pretty much catch on to all of it by context, but it's a little disorienting at the start of the book when they come in fast and furious. For those reading the ebook edition (like I did), it may be helpful to know there's an index at the back of the book. As usual, I only found it when I was done. One day I'll learn to check. Quick plot overview without getting into spoilers - this is a dystopian novel, set on a far future Earth. The continents have been smashed together again and the world is menaced by extremely active tectonic shifts and the resulting hot spots/volcanoes. The titular "Fifth Seasons" happen when a massive natural disaster occurs (volcano/earthquake) that impacts life over most or all of the continent for a long period of time (anywhere from six months to hundreds of years) - impacts can be acidic rain, famine, fungal blooms, crop extinction, etc. There's an index of the various Fifth Seasons at the back of the book as well. The narrative revolves around people in this world with an extra ability to control the earth (specifically seismically, in quelling or causing earthquakes/tsunamis/volcanic erruptions). These people are called orogenes (politely) or roggas (informally/derogatorily). In the current timeline, an empire called Sanze controls most of the continent. At the capital of Sanze, there's a school/training facility called the Fulcrum. The Fulcrum is designed to train/control orogenes. In philosophical themes, the book gives you a lot to chew over and think about in regard to the true meaning and results of slavery and freedom and the intention of actions and the results. The book also touches on race (a lot of comments will note the description of most of the population reads as African or Asian) and sexuality (there is a gender fluid character as well as some bisexuality and a three-way, sort of, relationship). The book is most certainly dark, but worthy of reading. There are several instances of abuse centered on children which always seems harder to read and a few grisly deaths as well as some mass death events. The world of The Fifth Season is a harsh one. There was not a lot of humor to lighten this book up but it was nonetheless an engaging read that left you with something to ponder. Edit: I finished this book several months ago but I'm still thinking about it. Added an extra star for the narrative's lasting power.

I am conflicted about how to rate this book. On the one hand, I can truly appreciate the absolute epic story that this book is, encompassing the story of 3 women as they struggle to survive and thrive in a world that, by all rights, should kill everyone on the surface nearly every day. On the other hand, the story never grabbed me. I continued with it only because I needed to finish it for a Bingo card and I had no other options readily available. That's not to say that I didn't like it, because I did. Rather, it was a book that I probably would have put down to return to at a later point in time if I'd had another option for my bingo square. As a result, I know I didn't get nearly as much enjoyment from the book as I likely would have otherwise. I also know that if I were to read it again, when I'm in a different frame of mind, I know that I would enjoy it - Jemisin is a fantastic writer and her skill with word and story are on full display in this book. But I don't know if I will reread it. And that's what has me conflicted about the rating. I can't even really tell you much about what the book is about beyond what I stated simply above because, though I experienced the entire book, it didn't stick with me. I listened to it and appreciated it in the moment, but then let it go. Nothing seemed to really stick, to grab me and make me remember. There wasn't anything actually wrong with the story. It was a great story, and I've read other books of a similar style that I enjoyed. So the fact that I can't remember details from this one, that it didn't stick with me, annoys me. I will say that the narrator, Robin Miles, did a fantastic job with the narration. I definitely enjoyed listening to her tell me the story, even if I didn't remember the details later.

I’m in awe 🤩. Surprising, unforeseen and mind-blowing structure and writing. Pure art. I understand why it won Hugo Award. Thank you.

This is truly state-of-the-art fiction. It's highly political and on the progressive/left end of the spectrum (race, gender, sex, post-colonialism, environmentalism, even in terms of economics), it blends fantasy, dystopian fiction and post-apocalyptic sci-fi into new and unpredictable worldbuilding (as in: I'm in the middle of the trilogy right now and I'm still not certain whether this is fantasy at all), it's got one of the best female protagonists I've ever seen and she's not a teenager, it's beautifully written and a page-turner, and it does something very fun and unexpected with narrative perspective. Thoroughly-deserved Hugo Awards, and highly recommended if you liked for example the Ancillary Justice series or the Mistborn books.

Got me engaged in the first chapter. Keeps you interested all the way and the story is outstanding.

Una cavalcata di situazioni al limite, in cui l'Avventura con la A maiuscola va a toccare in profondità la bruttura dell'animo umano. Non è narrativa per le teste vuote, né per chi desidera facili escapismi nel fantastico. Questo è il genere di letteratura speculativa che non ti fa sentire meglio dicendoti che tutto andrà bene, è una tragedia in cui esorcizzare il dolore e il sentimento d'alienazione nei confronti di una società che tradisce le tue aspettative. The Fifth Season è l'esatto opposto del "wish fulfillment" facilone e immaturo, e si capisce bene perché ha vinto il premio Hugo. Chiunque abbia mai letto le storie premiate in passato sa perfettamente quanto fossero feroci e rilevanti per la società del proprio tempo. Questo libro, purtroppo per noi, si riferisce alle prime decadi del 21° secolo senza bisogno di andare a forzare alcun parallelismo. Buona lettura.

The Fifth Season is a beautifully produced paperback in the Stable Act edition. The paper quality is excellent, the font is clear and comfortable to read, and the cover design is elegant. The story introduces a unique and immersive world with rich world-building and intriguing characters, making it an engaging read from the start. This edition feels premium and well-made, and it’s a great way to begin the trilogy.