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Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, masquerading as an ordinary schoolteacher in a quiet small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Mighty Sanze, the empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years, collapses as its greatest city is destroyed by a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heartland of the world's sole continent, a great red rift has been torn which spews show more ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. But this is the Stillness, a land long familiar with struggle, and where orogenes -- those who wield the power of the earth as a weapon -- are feared far more than the long cold night. Essun has remembered herself, and she will have her daughter back. She does not care if the world falls apart around her. Essun will break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter. show lessTags
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msemmag Both series explore the intersection of 'troubled, powerful female protagonist', radical community, climate apocalypse/breakdown of established society, and racism/oppression of marginalized communities. Both have queer themes centered around women and family.
Member Reviews
This was one of the most original fantasy novels I've encountered of late and while it took me a good while to get into it (and I had to re-read a few early portions), The Fifth Season was well worth the effort. Parts of this book horrified me, parts creeped me out, parts frustrated, and others intrigued - few books have evoked such a range of emotions and reactions, so the author deserves praise for crafting a novel that does so much. After finishing this book I did something I rarely do - I grabbed the next book and started reading.
Hi, hello. This book shattered any expectation I had when I first picked it up. I immediately want more. It's described as intricate, but I feel like it might go even deeper than that. Each sentence is connected, somehow, to a past, present, a future - I can't even fathom what's going to happen next.
The narrative itself is deceptively simple and I think it takes a masterful hand - and mind - to hide that complexity as well as Jemisin did. Just wow! The last chapter just pops it all into focus and leaves you stunned for a moment. I am in love.
Highly recommend. Gunna grab book 2 soon. :D
The narrative itself is deceptively simple and I think it takes a masterful hand - and mind - to hide that complexity as well as Jemisin did. Just wow! The last chapter just pops it all into focus and leaves you stunned for a moment. I am in love.
Highly recommend. Gunna grab book 2 soon. :D
Great. SO great. Where-is-the-sixth-star great. A brutal and ruthless story about a brutal and ruthless world, but with such a human, engaging voice to its telling that one can't help but fall helplessly into it, even as one knows it's going to hurt like a monster, because nothing - NOTHING - about this world is kind. It is big and wondrous, a story about epic powers and huge cataclysms. But it's also intimate and gripping, a story about humanity and fear. It is an absolutely phenomenal story, and though it was really damn difficult to read as a new mother, it was worth every spasm of panic.
This was a fantastic book. It was disorienting in a way that made me want to go on and discover what's coming next. The concept is interesting, and execution is masterful. Most importantly, the writing is fantastic. The writing is down to earth, but at various times poetic. The characters are extremely well-developed, complex, and interesting human beings. Fantasy books usually have a problem with lionizing their heroic characters, with only trivial, tangential flaws that don't affect their heroic tasks. Jemisin introduces believable flaws that actually affect the characters and their tasks. The characters have personal motivations that produce conflict both internally and externally. Instantly one of my favorite books.
I read the first two books of Jemisin’s Inheritance series a few years ago – I liked them okay but I wasn’t blown away, so I was in no hurry to read more of her work. However, when I received The Killing Moon for a recent LibraryThing Christmas swap I participated in, I remembered that I had a review copy of The Fifth Season on my shelf, and it also won the Hugo this year, so I figured I should read it. I’m glad I did, because it’s fantastic!
The Fifth Season is set on a world where people are used to dealing with apocalypses, they happen every couple of centuries. A new cataclysm has just started though, and this one may not be survivable despite the widespread disaster preparation. We follow three viewpoints – Essun, show more Damaya, and Syenite, and it’s not immediately clear how they are all connected, or even if they take place at the same time. I thought of Essun’s viewpoint as the main one though, since it’s clearly taking place after the cataclysm. Essun is an orogene (born with the feared earth magic), whose husband has just murdered her young son for possessing magic and taken off with her daughter in tow. As she tracks him, we see the world starting to fall apart around her.
I loved this book. The characters are fantastic – Essun’s grief is raw and visceral and scary, and it’s rare that I’ve seen those depths explored in fantasy, the only comparison I can think of is Robin Hobb. Damaya and Syenite also leap off the page, and when you finally find out how the three viewpoint characters are connected, it packs a huge emotional punch. That doesn’t even count the secondary characters, who are three-dimensional and haunting.
I keep using the word fantastic, but I’m not sure how else I can describe this book! The world is unique and completely immersive, Jemisin has thought through every little detail of how a society that has to deal with apocalypses frequently would do things. It is a harsh world with harsh people, but there’s also kindness when it can be afforded. And there is a good explanation (or the beginning of one) for why the world ended up the way it is – the Stillness is not a world without science.
I kept hearing The Fifth Season described as both apocalyptic and magical, and I wasn’t sure exactly how those two separate genres would work together. Everything just falls into place, though! Highly recommended, and I can’t wait to read The Obelisk Gate. show less
The Fifth Season is set on a world where people are used to dealing with apocalypses, they happen every couple of centuries. A new cataclysm has just started though, and this one may not be survivable despite the widespread disaster preparation. We follow three viewpoints – Essun, show more Damaya, and Syenite, and it’s not immediately clear how they are all connected, or even if they take place at the same time. I thought of Essun’s viewpoint as the main one though, since it’s clearly taking place after the cataclysm. Essun is an orogene (born with the feared earth magic), whose husband has just murdered her young son for possessing magic and taken off with her daughter in tow. As she tracks him, we see the world starting to fall apart around her.
I loved this book. The characters are fantastic – Essun’s grief is raw and visceral and scary, and it’s rare that I’ve seen those depths explored in fantasy, the only comparison I can think of is Robin Hobb. Damaya and Syenite also leap off the page, and when you finally find out how the three viewpoint characters are connected, it packs a huge emotional punch. That doesn’t even count the secondary characters, who are three-dimensional and haunting.
I keep using the word fantastic, but I’m not sure how else I can describe this book! The world is unique and completely immersive, Jemisin has thought through every little detail of how a society that has to deal with apocalypses frequently would do things. It is a harsh world with harsh people, but there’s also kindness when it can be afforded. And there is a good explanation (or the beginning of one) for why the world ended up the way it is – the Stillness is not a world without science.
I kept hearing The Fifth Season described as both apocalyptic and magical, and I wasn’t sure exactly how those two separate genres would work together. Everything just falls into place, though! Highly recommended, and I can’t wait to read The Obelisk Gate. show less
The Hugo Award is a big deal. So, they are usually safe bets. and N.K. Jemisin has three to her name, in consecutive years between 2016-2018. [The Fifth Season], in the Broken Earth trilogy, was the first. The concept is wildly creative from a world-building standpoint - the earth itself has revolted, leaving a morphing single continent populated, in part, by humans who can manipulate stone. But the delivery on the concept grew tired about halfway through the book. Jemisin works too hard, beating on the same stone with the same blunt and scuffed hammer. There's only so many times her characters can formulate some new curse with some variation on the word 'earth' before it loses its sheen. And the reveal, that the three perspectives the show more narrative switches between are actually the same person in different times, is telegraphed too clearly to be much of a reveal. Maybe the series gets better in the sequels, but its not worth the patience required. Jemisin has a creative mind, but her creations need more substance, more grounding, if you'll forgive the pun, in the human condition. show less
There are valid reasons why this booked earned Jemisin a best novel Hugo and nominations for a Nebula and a Locus Award. The world-building is extraordinary. She creates a dark, gritty world that has endured such an endless string of tectonic apocalypses that they are simply dubbed "Fifth Seasons." In this world, those rare people who wield earth magic are reviled and enslaved, even as mundane people rely on them for salvation. It makes for a complex, original mix of science fiction and fantasy, and wow is this a fast read. Since my own recent series is about geomancy, I was utterly fascinated by Jemisin's totally different take.
The book follows the viewpoints of three women; it was quite a surprise to see 2nd person utilized show more throughout. I found each of these voices engaging, but I was confused throughout by when their lives were taking place. Gradually the hints emerge that no, these women's experiences do not overlap, and when the explanation finally came, I was perturbed. The points-of-view were set up in an experimental way but to me it felt... manipulative? Which seems odd, since authors actively intend to manipulate the readers' experience (I sure do), but here the big secret around the POVs just rubbed me the wrong way.
That's my one quibble, though. The Fifth Season is a masterful work with its strong world-building and diverse cast, and I don't think it's a stretch to say that this will be regarded as a classic from here on. show less
The book follows the viewpoints of three women; it was quite a surprise to see 2nd person utilized show more throughout. I found each of these voices engaging, but I was confused throughout by when their lives were taking place. Gradually the hints emerge that no, these women's experiences do not overlap, and when the explanation finally came, I was perturbed. The points-of-view were set up in an experimental way but to me it felt... manipulative? Which seems odd, since authors actively intend to manipulate the readers' experience (I sure do), but here the big secret around the POVs just rubbed me the wrong way.
That's my one quibble, though. The Fifth Season is a masterful work with its strong world-building and diverse cast, and I don't think it's a stretch to say that this will be regarded as a classic from here on. show less
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The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin - CURIOUS KING LE 2024 in Fine Press Forum (June 2024)
Author Information
68+ Works 45,640 Members
N. K. Jemisin is an American author and blogger, born in 1972, and based in Brooklyn, New York. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from Tulane University and her Masters of Education from the University of Maryland College Park. Her work includes numerous short stories, a novella, a triptych, The Inheritance trilogy, Dreamblood series, and The Broken show more Earth trilogy. The Fifth Season is a book in The Inheritance trilogy for which she won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Her other awards include Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice, Fantasy (for The Shadowed Sun); Sense of Gender Award, 2011 (for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Japanese version); Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice, Fantasy (for The Broken Kingdoms); and the Locus Award, 2010 (First Novel, for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms). She won the 2017 Nebula Award and the 2018 Hugo Award, Best Novel category for The Stone Sky. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
N. K. Jemisin is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Fifth Season
- Original title
- The Fifth Season
- Original publication date
- 2015-08-04
- People/Characters
- Essun; Syenite; Damaya; Alabaster; Hoa; Schaffa (show all 10); Tonkee; Ykka; Innon; Lerna
- Important places
- the Stillness
- Epigraph*
- Elk tijdperk moet tot een einde komen.
- Dedication
- For all those who have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question
- First words
- Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.
- Quotations
- This is what you must remember: the end of one story is just the beginning of another. This has happened before, after all. People die. Old orders pass. New societies are born. When we say "the world has ended," it's usually ... (show all)a lie, because the planet is doing just fine.
But this is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
For the last time. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Tell me," he says, "have you ever heard of something called a moon?"
- Publisher's editor
- Pillai, Devi
- Blurbers
- Scalzi, John; Leckie, Ann; Day, Felicia
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.6
- Canonical LCC
- PS3610.E46
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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