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 clementine on

3 of 5 stars

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3.5 stars

Very interesting fantasy world that avoids a lot of the annoying tropes and pitfalls that the male-dominated fantasy canon often falls into. I really enjoyed how Jemison normalizes same-sex relationships, trans people, and non-normative family structures. It took me a while to get my bearings in this world, and this definitely felt like the first book in a series - setting the tone for more interesting action, with a lot of necessary exposition to situate readers in a completely different world. While this book is well-written and fully developed, I'm just not sure this series is for me, so I probably won't continue with it. I'd definitely recommend it to fantasy fans, but I don't tend to read much in the genre and with so many things on my to-read list I'm going to move on to things I'm more excited about.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 6 April, 2019: Finished reading
  • 6 April, 2019: Reviewed