The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, 1)
At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times) This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, 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. Read the first book in the critically acclaimed, three-time Hugo award-winning trilogy by NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.
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Community Reviews
F**k around with mistreatment of orogenes and you gonna find out. And by finding out, they mean the apocalypse.
I'm ready to review this book.
For prospective readers, here are things to note:
This book is LGBTQ+ friendly
This book has BIPOC characters
This book is written by a black author
This book has characters who are empowered women
Support these communities by reading this book. Also the book is incredible. Which I'll get into next.
I have never read a book like this. I recommend utilizing the glossary of terms while reading this book, and I recommend stepping back to the prologue a few times while reading. It helped me to understand this book better, I think.
This book had one of my favorite themes in a fantasy- mystery and intrigue. What were past civilizations like? What are the role of the stone-eaters? What's the deal with the obelisks? I love fantasy novels where I HAVE to read more and delve deeper into the overall world to get answers to questions. There's also nothing in this book that I found, for lack of a better word, stupid. Some of the books I've read this year had me asking questions, not about the world, but about the character's actions, like "WHY would this character do that?". Every character had depth, and personality, and motives, and purpose.
Identity is a large theme in this book. Essun is frequently questioning who she is. Alabaster is constantly having to cope with what's expected of him, how to cope with the pressures of being a ten-ringer, while wanting to just settle down and explore his sexuality. Damaya has to accept abandoning the life she's known and how to become a new person on her new journey. All three character perspectives are having to deal with prejudice.
The narrative is so unique. Not just because one of the perspectives is in second-person (which took some time to adjust to). It's unique in that it almost reads like an outside person is telling a story in their own voice while watching it unfold. It doesn't stick to simply chronologically relaying the story. I don't even know if that makes sense, but the point is that it's definitely not told in a typical fashion.
It's just amazing how this book displays very REAL people in a very UNREAL world. People who are subjected to prejudices and hardships, people who explore their sexuality, people who have virtues embedded in family-life... all of these realistic people living in a world where there's other sentient beings, where people have inhuman abilities, and where there's evidence of past intelligent civilizations.
A. M. A. Z. I. N. G.
Read it.
For prospective readers, here are things to note:
This book is LGBTQ+ friendly
This book has BIPOC characters
This book is written by a black author
This book has characters who are empowered women
Support these communities by reading this book. Also the book is incredible. Which I'll get into next.
I have never read a book like this. I recommend utilizing the glossary of terms while reading this book, and I recommend stepping back to the prologue a few times while reading. It helped me to understand this book better, I think.
This book had one of my favorite themes in a fantasy- mystery and intrigue. What were past civilizations like? What are the role of the stone-eaters? What's the deal with the obelisks? I love fantasy novels where I HAVE to read more and delve deeper into the overall world to get answers to questions. There's also nothing in this book that I found, for lack of a better word, stupid. Some of the books I've read this year had me asking questions, not about the world, but about the character's actions, like "WHY would this character do that?". Every character had depth, and personality, and motives, and purpose.
Identity is a large theme in this book. Essun is frequently questioning who she is. Alabaster is constantly having to cope with what's expected of him, how to cope with the pressures of being a ten-ringer, while wanting to just settle down and explore his sexuality. Damaya has to accept abandoning the life she's known and how to become a new person on her new journey. All three character perspectives are having to deal with prejudice.
The narrative is so unique. Not just because one of the perspectives is in second-person (which took some time to adjust to). It's unique in that it almost reads like an outside person is telling a story in their own voice while watching it unfold. It doesn't stick to simply chronologically relaying the story. I don't even know if that makes sense, but the point is that it's definitely not told in a typical fashion.
It's just amazing how this book displays very REAL people in a very UNREAL world. People who are subjected to prejudices and hardships, people who explore their sexuality, people who have virtues embedded in family-life... all of these realistic people living in a world where there's other sentient beings, where people have inhuman abilities, and where there's evidence of past intelligent civilizations.
A. M. A. Z. I. N. G.
Read it.
I see why N.K. Jemisin gets the praise she gets SO WELL DESERVED. The world building!!! The ability to build a world so detailed but not be beyond comprehension wow! I am blown away!!! So glad I’ve read this book!
Best science fiction/fantasy book I've read in a long time. Definitely a book you have to pay attention to and ending was surprisingly satisfying considering its the first of a series. Be prepared to flip back and forth to the glossary at the back
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