paperback, 512 pages
English language
Published Sept. 7, 2016 by Orbit.
This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle …
This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
Superb fantasy book. I enjoyed the world and characters in the book. I also like the fact that the book has a non-cliffhanger end.
I liked it and enjoyed it, but found somehow annoying the pace, the way in which things are explained to the reader (or "never quite explained", more accurately). Everything is stated as if we had to understand it and I didn't get much of it until further on. I'm not saying this is a defect of the book, or the writer, I know it's probably my fault. I got a feeling of impatience many times.
I found really impressive how the coldness of the characters can affect me. They are angry, they are hard, they just hate, and it taught me, or showed me, how it must feel to live in a world that hates you, ignores you, despises you but uses you and never stops trying to change you, constantly, eternally, in a way I had never thought about before. I really loved that about the book although it …
I liked it and enjoyed it, but found somehow annoying the pace, the way in which things are explained to the reader (or "never quite explained", more accurately). Everything is stated as if we had to understand it and I didn't get much of it until further on. I'm not saying this is a defect of the book, or the writer, I know it's probably my fault. I got a feeling of impatience many times.
I found really impressive how the coldness of the characters can affect me. They are angry, they are hard, they just hate, and it taught me, or showed me, how it must feel to live in a world that hates you, ignores you, despises you but uses you and never stops trying to change you, constantly, eternally, in a way I had never thought about before. I really loved that about the book although it made me feel uncomfortable and restless.
I love the environment, the way the world is constructed, and I adore the women protagonist, even though they are in personality so far, far away from me and make me feel weird with myself. Or, who knows, maybe just because of that.
I regret not having picked up Jemisin sooner.
What a book. Such good world building. And good writing to boot.
Best book I've read all year, no contest.
I normally don't read fantasy, preferring science fiction for my escapist literature. But, I will make an exception for a series that manages to win Hugos for all three entries, while also having a subtle underpinning of science under the fantasy. The narrative structure of the stories regarding the three women in The Fifth Season could be a little confusing at the very beginning, but as I got carried along in the stories, and as each section illuminated another, it all became clear. Well, the parts that are meant to be clear became clear anyway. The other mysteries, one assumes, will be revealed in the next books.
Highly recommended, great dialog, and great world-building.
Believe the hype. This book is amazing.
This book won the 2016 Hugo Award, and is the first in a trilogy (all now published, if you dislike cliffhangers - although the endings aren't really nail-biting cliffhangers, just lots of unresolved questions and stories).
This first book starts out telling three different stories: Essun, a middle aged woman who has just discovered her son has been murdered and her daughter is missing; Damaya, a young girl whose parents have locked her in a barn and are selling her to someone she thinks may be a child slaver; and Syenite, a young woman studying to be an Orogene and about to go on her first official mission. All three have in common the ability of Orogeny, which is the main form of magic in this world: the ability some people have to manipulate heat and life force into geological activity. Untrained orogenes can cause earthquakes and worse when hurt …
This book won the 2016 Hugo Award, and is the first in a trilogy (all now published, if you dislike cliffhangers - although the endings aren't really nail-biting cliffhangers, just lots of unresolved questions and stories).
This first book starts out telling three different stories: Essun, a middle aged woman who has just discovered her son has been murdered and her daughter is missing; Damaya, a young girl whose parents have locked her in a barn and are selling her to someone she thinks may be a child slaver; and Syenite, a young woman studying to be an Orogene and about to go on her first official mission. All three have in common the ability of Orogeny, which is the main form of magic in this world: the ability some people have to manipulate heat and life force into geological activity. Untrained orogenes can cause earthquakes and worse when hurt or angry, and are feared by non-orogenes.
The world itself is racked by natural disasters, and regularly suffers from "Seasons", lengthy periods of time (years long) where natural disasters make survival a challenge for all life forms and violent cataclysms may reshape the world. Tsunamis likely wipe out all coastal cities during Seasons, many people starve or turn to cannibalism to survive, wildlife hibernates or adopts other odd defense mechanisms, etc. This is not a friendly world, and the people's relationship with the world reflects this. They talk about how father earth is angry with them, though he once loved them, but exactly why it changed is lost in myth. In fact, the world clearly could once have been something very similar to our earth before human influence triggered climate change and natural disasters - hence the series title I assume (I haven't read the end of the trilogy yet, so I don't know if any more details about the history will be revealed).
Anyway, interesting setting, great characters, and although they start entirely separately, over time you slowly begin to piece together how they are related to each other until you finally start to see the bigger picture by the end of this book. I enjoyed the characters a lot, and the world is very unique and well described. However, I had a really hard time getting into the book at first. I can't put my finger on why but I just didn't find her writing gripping my attention the way some other authors do. Maybe just the complexity of the world and characters? At any rate it was still a good book and I picked up the sequel and plan to finish the trilogy for sure.
Best thing I've read in a while - reminds me of nothing else, structured and paced perfectly, beautifully imagined and fully realized. Almost makes me think series fiction is worthwhile.
If Goodreads allowed half stars, I'd give this book 3.5. The characters and situations were all interesting to read about, but I've got two issues with the book that keep it from a higher rating.
1. Too much of the book feels like setup for future books, making this one feel a bit unfinished.
2. The book hops around in the timeline but never tells you that what's happening.
Mind. Blown.
You like your fiction post-apocalyptic? How about post-MULTIPLE-apocalypses? Jemisin crafts an emotionally intense read, and a thoroughly detailed and believable fantasy world filled with complicated and relatable characters. Reads a bit like a focused memoir, and a bit like an over-arching look at humanities' cruelty and resilience.
And, excitingly for Jemisin fans, it looks like this might be her first series that continues some of the same characters from one book to the next? Just a guess based on the ending: it will be fascinating to see what comes next!
The Fifth Season is the best fantasy I've read in a long time, it's just outstanding. If you're interested in geology and seismic activity as well as epic fantasy, this is the series for you! I had only really heard about N.K. Jemisin in relation to the Hugos, an award I generally haven't had much faith in, so I don't really run out and buy the shortlists. I'd noticed a few more people on bookstagram reading this trilogy, especially with the recent release of the final instalment, so I bit the bullet and gave it a go. I'm so glad I did!
This is a world in constant preparation for a major ecological event. Called the Stillness, the earth is never still for long. There is a huge amount of seismic activity causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. The people live in secure walled comms, easier to defend when the …
The Fifth Season is the best fantasy I've read in a long time, it's just outstanding. If you're interested in geology and seismic activity as well as epic fantasy, this is the series for you! I had only really heard about N.K. Jemisin in relation to the Hugos, an award I generally haven't had much faith in, so I don't really run out and buy the shortlists. I'd noticed a few more people on bookstagram reading this trilogy, especially with the recent release of the final instalment, so I bit the bullet and gave it a go. I'm so glad I did!
This is a world in constant preparation for a major ecological event. Called the Stillness, the earth is never still for long. There is a huge amount of seismic activity causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. The people live in secure walled comms, easier to defend when the season comes. They stockpile food and everyone has a use caste which determines their use when the end of the world happens. Only, this time, this will be the last time the world ends.
The story is told from three perspectives, Essen, Syenite and Damaya. They all have something in common, they are oregenes. This means they can sense activity in the earth and control rocks and minerals. In such an unstill world, they are a useful tool, and in Yumenes, they are enslaved to serve the stills. In the comms, people have been taught to fear them and free oregenes hide their power or risk death or capture.
It is a story of prejudice. In this world, the majority of peeople have dark skin, which would make sense in such a unpredictable climate, so it's not based on skin colour. Parallels can be drawn between the treatment of the oregenes and slavery, but it is never heavy handed. Oregenes are called, roggas, a derogatory term, but one which some claim for themselves. They are treated as less than human, bred for power and exploited time and time again.
The people live by something called stone law. I loved how this was incorporated, the sense of something being written in stone both literally and figuratively. The laws aren't questioned, they are assumed to be complete and unchanged. They are written in stone to survive the seasons and pass on knowledge to survivors after all.
Essen's chapters are written in second person present tense, which sounds horrific but it just goes to show how good this book is that I was sucked in enough to barely notice. The other narratives are also present tense, but it just works. When a character talks of something in the past, it makes it so much more final. It is gone.
There are also mysterious obelisks in the sky, stone eaters who can move through stone, cruel Guardians and a whole bunch of threads that are coming together already. Fortunately, I don't have to wait for the next book!
This is a rich and fully imagined world, but it is not an easy read.
This is a world of casual cruelties piled one on top of the other. Those cruelties pass, for the most part, without comment or, worse, a welcomed with gratitude. This is a world where the way things are goes unquestioned, even by those who are treated abominably. It is a world of where grim and heartbreaking decisions are all too common.
But there is also hope here. This is the story of a few people who have found a place where they can imagine a new and different world.
Although I found it hard to read at times, I found both the world and the characters that inhabit it compelling. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next books in this series.
Brilliant on multiple levels.
Start it slow to savor the prose and begin to understand the world, then devour it.
I liked this book a lot.
The author does a good job jumping between three different stories which all have different feels. The world is vibrant, and is shown, not told, so there's all sorts of little mysteries constantly being resolved as you figure out how this world works. There's some pretty interesting stuff in here about history, in two senses. One, history as a sequence of events that have consequences in the present and into the future. And two, history as a received record and its influence on society and individuals. There's a lot of stuff about colonialism, slavery, etc., also, which is not particularly subtle but not distractingly heavy-handed either.
It's not particularly spoiler-y to mention that this book deals with 'how a society works when sometimes, unpredictably, everything goes very bad and the species' survival is at stake'. Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem has a similar theme, …
I liked this book a lot.
The author does a good job jumping between three different stories which all have different feels. The world is vibrant, and is shown, not told, so there's all sorts of little mysteries constantly being resolved as you figure out how this world works. There's some pretty interesting stuff in here about history, in two senses. One, history as a sequence of events that have consequences in the present and into the future. And two, history as a received record and its influence on society and individuals. There's a lot of stuff about colonialism, slavery, etc., also, which is not particularly subtle but not distractingly heavy-handed either.
It's not particularly spoiler-y to mention that this book deals with 'how a society works when sometimes, unpredictably, everything goes very bad and the species' survival is at stake'. Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem has a similar theme, though this book spends a lot more time on it. So you spend a lot of time in this weird society which bears a lot of resemblance to our own, but also has a lot of contortions because of the aforementioned threat of doom. And I guess the central conflict of this book is how to fix this society, or alternate ways of living under this threat. Blah blah, in some sense this all applies to real life, how will we real humans adjust in response to great shocks, this book helps us think about such questions.
