N. K. Jemisin

Like Jemisin herself, I couldn’t quite be bothered to write this review; and yet, we have a task to finish, and finish it we must. I lost track of writing this not because of a lack of love for this book - it was a fantastic read, and delved so much deeper into the mythos of the Great Cities than I ever expected - but because life got away from me, and August became somewhat of a shitshow. Seems fitting, when paired with a book about the awakening of a city gone awry, and the hard work show more that one has to do to dig oneself out of said mess. And yet, we kept reading, and kept exploring, because what is one to do when the world runs amok but choose an alternate reality for a moment or two before turning back to face the music. We’ll never know the alternate reality book that Jemisin planned to write instead of this one that we hold in our hands, but I, for one, came out the other side of New York’s rising with a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment - even if I will probably always crave more of the story. show less

I am very late to the party when it comes to reading N. K. Jemisin's multi-Hugo Award-winning Broken Earth trilogy, especially considering how much I've enjoyed the other stuff of hers that I've read. But I'm very glad to have finally started on it now!

This is set in a world that is hugely, disastrously geologically active and experiences irregular Fifth Seasons: years-long periods of earthquakes and persistent winter, thanks to volcanoes or other geologic upheavals. In this world, there are show more people who can sense and control the movement of the earth, and these people are in turn controlled by others, used by them but never trusted, respected, or allowed their freedom.

It's a really interesting setting, and I like the way Jemisin just sort of drops us into it and lets us figure it all out as we go along. At the beginning, I was intrigued but definitely having to work to get a sense of this world, but by the end I'd become quite... Well, I was going to say "quite comfortable in it," but that's really not the phrase for it. It's not remotely a comfortable world, and certainly not a happy story. And there are still plenty of things that are mysterious by the end of this first volume. Enough things, indeed, that I'm very much looking forward to exploring them in the rest of the series. There is a certain extent to which this one feels like setup for things to come, but it's also a good story in its own right, and one that does some cool things, not just with worldbuilding, but with character and structure, too. show less

I totally get the buzz about Jemisin now. This is one of the most complex and interesting fantasies, especially contemporary fantasies, I’ve read in a good while, right up there with Middlegame. It’s fun and layered and hard-hitting and beautiful, and I don’t know how much hype this is getting yet, but it deserves so much. So. So. Much.

So on the surface, this is a really cool modern fantasy, with an awesome magic system and some great characters and a lot of diversity. There are some show more really great action scenes, a lot of quippy dialogue, strong twists and turns, the whole bit. You see New York at its best and worst, and it’s truly a love letter to the city. I was caught up right away and even though I knew what the ending had to be, I seriously had no idea how Jemisin and her characters were going to achieve it right until it happened.

Even this side of the novel is way more complex than it looks, though, because of all the ways the protagonists embody and interact with New York, and the many, many facets of the city that we see over the course of the story. Everything has meaning, many things have multiple meanings, everything has been thought through, and I’m saying that as someone who’s only familiar with New York through media. I’m probably missing so, so much.

On a deeper level, this is an incredibly topical book about racism, bigotry, and gentrification, and it’s not pulling its punches either. The protagonists are largely minorities who deal with bigotry every day. The antagonists would very much like a clean, orderly, safe, white city, and don’t care who knows it. Gentrification and Lovecraftian ideas play important roles in the story, and if there’s something awful or systemic that white people do to minorities, it probably gets at least name-dropped. The conflict in the book is as much about the survival of diversity as it is about the city itself.

My biggest complaint is minor, that a character we’re introduced to near the start of the book doesn’t come back despite being very cool. My other bit of grump is the fate of one of the characters, like I get why it happens like it does from a narrative and allegorical standpoint, but also I really, really wanted them to have better. I’m still conflicted about what point Jemisin was making with the end of that subplot.

And that’s about as far as I get digging for negatives because this book. Is. Amazing. I don’t know how Jemisin pulled this off. It shouldn’t work. It’s terrifying. It’s angry. It’s uncomfortable. It’s fantastic. It’s necessary and you should read it.
9.5/10

Contains: Racism, homophobia, and misogyny directed at the protagonists, including but not limited to slurs, some incredibly offensive artwork, and a woman living with abuse. White people, you will get called out and feel uncomfortable. show less

The centrepiece of this heartstopping book is some breathtakingly savage and brutal worldbuilding - a land constantly on the edge of catastrophe, constantly in waiting for the next apocalypse as geological instability leads to massive eruptions and quakes with attendant disastrous aftereffects - tsunamis, endless winters, famines etcetera. Civilisations and societies routinely break down and humanity struggles to survive and rebuild while trying to prepare for the next big blow. The Sanzed show more Empire has survived for several cycles now, largely because it has corralled and controlled the Orogenes, individuals with the ability to control kinetic and seismic energy, who can quell or cause quakes and whose full range of powers and abilities remain mysterious and untapped, largely through systematic demonisation and indoctrination. Imperial Orogenes are policed by a ruthless and powerful group called the Guardians.

The set-up is brutal, the society it creates is functional, thriving, even admirable, filled as it is with practices and norms that seem appalling (and yet not completely unfamiliar) to us. The book opens just as it all comes to an end, and in a terrible act of destruction, a massive rift is opened, triggering the downfall of the Empire and the start of a possibly final Fifth Season. It also starts with a smaller act of horror, as Essun, an Orogene in hiding in a small rural town, mourns the murder of her son by his father, and the taking of her daughter. While ash starts to fall, she pursues her husband and daughter through the slowly building chaos of a society starting to break down.

There is very little about this book that is not compelling, awe-inspiring, epic and jaw-dropping. It is also terrifying, horrifying and filled with pain, tragedy, guilt and injustice, yet it is told in a uniquely readable and engaging voice - people cope, adapt, survive, move on as best they can. It is not so much about the triumph of hope, too early in the trilogy to say that and it seems unlikely to be about anything so facile, but it is about bullishly continuing to exist in the face of a world that is constantly trying to wipe you out, and the cost of that survival. show less