The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

The Fifth Season (Broken Earth Trilogy, #1)

by N. K. Jemisin

Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel
Book 1 in the double Hugo-Award-winning trilogy

*A New York Times Notable Book*
*Shortlisted for the World Fantasy, Nebula, Kitschies, Audie and Locus Awards*
*The inaugural Wired.com book club pick*

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS . . . FOR THE LAST TIME.
IT STARTS WITH THE GREAT RED RIFT across the heart of the world, spewing ash that blots out the sun.
IT STARTS WITH DEATH, with a murdered son and a missing daughter.
IT STARTS WITH BETRAYAL, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.
This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

'Astounding' NPR
'Amazing' Ann Leckie
'Breaks uncharted ground' Library Journal
'Powerful' io9
'Elegiac, complex, and intriguing' Publishers Weekly
'Intricate and extraordinary' New York Times
'Brilliant' Washington Post

The Broken Earth trilogy is complete - beginning with The Fifth Season, continuing in The Obelisk Gate (Winner of the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel) and concluding with The Stone Sky (Shortlisted for the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novel).

Reviewed by viking2917 on

3 of 5 stars

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Liked it. Wasn't enthralled by it. The world building was very fun and the characters interesting, but that's certainly not unprecedented in fantasy books. The author's style of writing is often oblique or makes it hard to understand what's happening - not in the macro sense - rather in the conversational details. It often seemed to me the author had a very clear visual sense in her head, but wasn't letting me see the details, or was omitting them, so that I was confused rather than intrigued... Some very interesting twists toward the end.

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  • 20 August, 2018: Finished reading
  • 20 August, 2018: Reviewed
  • Started reading
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  • 20 August, 2018: Reviewed