The Fifth Season is a captivating blend of fantasy and science fiction set in a geologically unstable future Earth. The story follows individuals with the magical ability to control the earth's structures, known as orogenes, who are feared and oppressed by society. Through multiple perspectives, the book weaves together a tale of survival, discrimination, and the impending end of the world. N.K. Jemisin's unique writing style, intricate world-building, and complex characters create an immersive and thought-provoking narrative that explores themes of power, oppression, and resilience.
Genres:
Tropes/Plot Devices:
Topics:
Notes:
Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Triggers include violence against children, murder, and themes of slavery and oppression.
From The Publisher:
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.
Ratings (305)
Incredible (61) | |
Loved It (96) | |
Liked It (76) | |
It Was OK (36) | |
Did Not Like (31) | |
Hated It (5) |
Reader Stats (767):
Read It (299) | |
Currently Reading (8) | |
Want To Read (342) | |
Did Not Finish (26) | |
Not Interested (92) |
7 comment(s)
The premise is fascinating and the world building is superb, but I didn't care for the second-person perspective, especially combined with the other two third-person view points. Mostly, though, I was disappointed by the lack of veils around the sex scenes. Few were plot-significant, and even those that were could have been done more tastefully and with less voyeurism. I won't be reading more by Jemisin.
Slow pacing, unnecessarily convoluted language, preachy
One of the most unique fantasies I've ever read, with some of the most fascinating worldbuilding I've ever encountered. Loved it, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time. Can't wait to pick up the next one
Como otra gente menciona, el mundo es original e interesante.
Pero mas o menos ahi acaba el interes del libro.
Otros comentarios mencionan como de inclusivo es que haya un personaje gay, otro bi, otro transgenero. Precisamente, uno de cada tipo, me parece muy artificial, casi como si estuviera coleccionando cromos o marcando casillas de un formulario.
Ademas inclusividad no es calidad, sobre todo cuando estos caracteres inclusivos son de carton piedra.
Las mujeres del libro muy bien pero los personajes masculinos o son los padres de alguien, o sus hijos o sus amantes. Lo que no ayuda a la diversidad.
Y casi lo peor es el final. El libro acaba en medio de una conversacion!! Si ese libro no se puede comprender solo, no lo vendan solo!
El primer libro que haya ganado un Hugo que me decepciona.
grimdark fantasy with purpose
Writing characters plot
It's compelling, on a scene-level. But on a whole-book-level, everything feels like setup with no payoff.
What can you read after
The Fifth Season?
About the Author:
N. K. Jemisin was raised in Mobile, Alabama and New York City. Uprooted in two places, her childhood anchor was fiction; she spent hours at the local library, and “self published” her own handwritten books with cardboard covers and yarn binding.
Despite writing since childhood, she considered it to be just a hobby until her early thirties. After attending the Viable Paradise writing workshop, she began seeking publication in earnest. Although she acquired an agent in 2005, her first novel (THE KILLING MOON, eventually published in 2012) did not initially sell, as the genre at the time was significantly less welcoming to inclusive fantasy. Instead she rewrote from scratch an old “trunked” novel — which sold at six-figure auction to become THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS (2010) and its sequels. In 2016, her novel THE FIFTH SEASON (2015) won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, making Jemisin the first Black person to have won in this category. In 2017 she won again for THE OBELISK GATE (2016), and then a third time in 2018 for THE STONE SKY, making her the first author in genre history to have won the Best Novel Hugo three consecutive times. In all, her short fiction and novels have won Hugos, a Nebula, and two Locus Awards, and have been translated into more than 20 languages. Her current Great Cities trilogy is ongoing, beginning with the New York Times bestselling THE CITY WE BECAME. She is a 2020 recipient of the MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship.
Jemisin’s most frequent themes include resistance to oppression, the inseverability of the liminal, and the coolness of Stuff Blowing Up. She has been an advocate for the long tradition of science fiction and fantasy as political resistance, and previously championed genre as a New York Times Book reviewer. She lives in Brooklyn.
When you click the Amazon link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commision, at no cost to you.
