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...

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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