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.
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.
Spectacular!
Liquid Hot Magma!
This is a read that does not disappoint. It's got some peculiarities and some rather off timed vulgarities but overall I found the entire beginning to this epic fascinating.
The prose is well done. I can feel rocks now. I want to be a geologist. I want to reach into the earth and.. wait.. I can't do that? Bah.. The way this is written makes you ache with the lost knowledge of many deadcivs and that really fascinates me. How many eons are at work here, how long has this never ending death (or near death) of Earth life gone on? What was forgotten? Why is it happening? Glimpse? Glimpse? No? Little crack? Ooh.. What? TELL ME MORE DAMNIT.
The classic ache of knowledge heretofore is a constant string pulling us forward. Then you have the chapter setup which has no time until you progress and …
Liquid Hot Magma!
This is a read that does not disappoint. It's got some peculiarities and some rather off timed vulgarities but overall I found the entire beginning to this epic fascinating.
The prose is well done. I can feel rocks now. I want to be a geologist. I want to reach into the earth and.. wait.. I can't do that? Bah.. The way this is written makes you ache with the lost knowledge of many deadcivs and that really fascinates me. How many eons are at work here, how long has this never ending death (or near death) of Earth life gone on? What was forgotten? Why is it happening? Glimpse? Glimpse? No? Little crack? Ooh.. What? TELL ME MORE DAMNIT.
The classic ache of knowledge heretofore is a constant string pulling us forward. Then you have the chapter setup which has no time until you progress and you start wondering how the threads are tied together. Wow. I started hazarding the way it unfolds would be the way it did but it still threw me a bit. I take issue with the Intermissions because they only Intermit one voice and that's hard to track. Then the be-bopping between timelines gets a little sordid; while I guess the author wants us surprised a chapter starting with the year would have been beneficial to keep my brains continuity map right.
Anyhow. Small things. Small things. Grit.
The world is built solid as rock, the characters and their stonelore are great concepts. This new function of humanity and what it can tap is marvelous and stone eaters. Really? I feel like I got a little Dr. Whovian twist in all of this.
The lives you follow are diversified and well built. As mentioned earlier there is some oddly placed vulgarity and sexuality which feels off because it's perfunctory. It could have been utilized more but it's deadpanned in a few places which take this from something PG13 to something I'd have to wait for a youngling to read. I like the passions though and understand the undercurrents.. sometimes. There is a lot of hidden facets in these people and I don't always want to shake them for understanding but sometimes I do. lol.
Much to learn, much to be curious about. At the end of the book I turned around and read the beginning again because it made so much more sense. Did you?
Digging into book 2 now. Once again finding out the last book isn't slated till the Summer. Bah!
Awesome start to what is looking like a great series. I loved the characters and the "3 stories at the same time" buildup to the conclusion.
Go out and grab a copy of this and the sequel and prepare for an adventure in The Stillness with all your favourite fantasy tropes like: magic, murder, vengeance, backstabbing, and, of course, confusing story lines and relations.
Death was always here. Death is you.
Prior to starting The Fifth Season I was in a fantasy rut. The last few books I read in that genre were uninteresting and dull. I began to worry I had burnt out on the genre, or I could only read the likes of Sanderson and Hobb.
From the opening page of this book I knew I was going to like it. It started at an unusual spot in the tale, and even though the beginning of fantasy stories are filled with uncertainty and confusion, The Fifth Season never felt like it was intentionally withholding details.
This is stonelore: Honor in safety, survival under threat. Better a living coward than a dead hero.
As the story unfolded Jemisin created a unique magic system that was a blessing and a curse for those who had it. The world and introduction to the Orogenes, their …
Death was always here. Death is you.
Prior to starting The Fifth Season I was in a fantasy rut. The last few books I read in that genre were uninteresting and dull. I began to worry I had burnt out on the genre, or I could only read the likes of Sanderson and Hobb.
From the opening page of this book I knew I was going to like it. It started at an unusual spot in the tale, and even though the beginning of fantasy stories are filled with uncertainty and confusion, The Fifth Season never felt like it was intentionally withholding details.
This is stonelore: Honor in safety, survival under threat. Better a living coward than a dead hero.
As the story unfolded Jemisin created a unique magic system that was a blessing and a curse for those who had it. The world and introduction to the Orogenes, their Guardians and the treatment from the Stillheads was excellent.
The multiple threads of story telling encouraged the reader to connect the dots and kept me burning through the pages.
This story is deserving of the Hugo Award it received in August 2016 and I’m eager to read the second book in the series.
3 1/2 stars because of the world building
Fantasy is not a genre I am familiar with. In general I am more drawn to "real life" kinds of stories, literary fiction, classics but I will occasionally delve into sci-fi or fantasy if the right book strikes my fancy. One of the groups I belong to here on goodreads read The Fifth Season last month and everyone raved about it so when I saw the book while browsing the shelves at the library I thought "why not?"
I, alas, wasn't as blown away by this book as everyone else it seems. I'm a little bit confused by all the 5 star reviews, honestly. Yeah, it was enjoyable enough, it had some very imaginative storytelling, with the world building and stone-lore and all but I was not blown away. It was entertaining but I'm not even sure if I will bother reading …
3 1/2 stars because of the world building
Fantasy is not a genre I am familiar with. In general I am more drawn to "real life" kinds of stories, literary fiction, classics but I will occasionally delve into sci-fi or fantasy if the right book strikes my fancy. One of the groups I belong to here on goodreads read The Fifth Season last month and everyone raved about it so when I saw the book while browsing the shelves at the library I thought "why not?"
I, alas, wasn't as blown away by this book as everyone else it seems. I'm a little bit confused by all the 5 star reviews, honestly. Yeah, it was enjoyable enough, it had some very imaginative storytelling, with the world building and stone-lore and all but I was not blown away. It was entertaining but I'm not even sure if I will bother reading the next installment in the story. I feel zero emotional involvement with the characters. And that's one of the biggest problems with the book as a whole. I feel the character development was weak and I felt absolutely nothing about them. They were cardboard cutouts at best. I don't necessarily need likable characters but they should at least be interesting. And the big reveal wasn't a surprise at all, I guessed way in advance because Jemisin provided the clues to put two and two together if you were paying attention. So big whoop. If I DO continue with the series it will be to see where she takes the story what happened to the moon? What about the obilisks?
The way Jemisin threw some gay (or rather bi-sexual) characters in the mix and also a transsexual did absolutely NOTHING for the story. It kind of came out of left field to suddenly be reading about cocks and threesomes. Like wtf? It was like she was proving how hip she was by adding these personality traits to the characters. It made no difference to the story whatsoever so why even go there? Unless maybe, in later installments sexuality comes more into the story? IDK Whatever, it seemed pointless to me and completely kind of fell flat and took me out of the story because I was too busy scratching my head. I don't consider myself to be a prude and I don't mind that kind of thing, (exploring the sexuality of the characters if it serves the story, and you know, sometimes it is the story ;) ) only here it seemed just shoehorned in there for no reason other than "oh look polyamorous people in dystopia".
Also, I'm not a big fan of following different storylines. It seems a lot of authors are using this devise and for me, personally, it doesn't work. It pulls me out of one story and forces me to start all over again. It ruins my emotional involvement in the characters not to mention is jarring and makes me lose my train of thought and interest in the constant back and forth of stories. Personal preference.
So all in all this was an imaginative read. It was different. It wasn't the best thing I ever read. It's worth a read if you are looking for something different. It's definitely worth a read if fantasy is your thing. Who knows maybe you too will be blown away like everyone else.
It is easy to see why this novel was the 2016 Hugo Award winner. The story is just incredible, with plot, setting, and characters all being creative and engaging. It's the sort of story that leaves you wondering what do you want to be and do with life. And then confronts you with what to do when you realize you can't be what you want, but must instead struggle to survive.
For my full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2016/09/book-review-fifth-season-by-nk-jemisin.html
I'm normally not a big fantasy reader, but I heard this won the Hugo so I gave it a try. It's so good! Such a great world she's imagined and characters that feel three dimensional and complex, the cool way the story lines interconnect as the book proceeds, I'm hooked. And I'm heading right into book #2, which just came out. I think there's a book #3? And I fear it'll be long away? I have a suspicion I will be sad about that once I've finished book #2.
In some sense, this is a post-apocalyptic novel. The apocalypses happen over and over again, and society is organized around surviving them.
Overall loved it and can't wait to read the next book - a few minor things didn't work for me which is why I gave 4 stars instead of 5
I think this book broke my brain. I equal parts loved it and hated reading it. But I loved it. I am out of words to begin to describe this book. It's...amazing.
Highly enjoyed. The writing style was unique (and engaging!). The different story lines came together elegantly. I was audibly mad when I turned a page and found the book over.
God damn. I was NOT expecting the number and severity of gut punches this book delivered. Awesomely done.
I wasn't in love with her first trilogy, but this was amazing and I can't wait for the followup.
