The Fifth Season

, #1

Trade paperback, 449 pages

English language

Published Sept. 10, 2015 by Orbit.

ISBN:
978-0-316-22929-6
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OCLC Number:
906028586
Goodreads:
34314712

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4 stars (21 reviews)

A SEASON OF ENDINGS HAS BEGUN.

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 familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

This description comes from the publisher.

12 editions

reviewed The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth, #1)

Cool page turner

5 stars

I came upon a list of queer books and thought I'd give a try to the Fifth season. I haven't Heroic fantasy for more than a decad (apart from a book by Damasio). The book is good : well written, the way the narration is built is brilliant. In terms of representations it is very good as well, compared from what I read in the past. I enjoyed the female characters and the fact that heterosexuality or being cis isn't the norm. Yet the book is definitely speciesist : eating other animals or exploiting them is not questionned. A total page turner. I read it in four sittings, which means I spent a lot of time reading in bed haha. Personnally, I'm both grateful for this page turning effect and uneasy. For me it's totally addictive, I have no motivation to do anything else than reading what comes next. This …

reviewed The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth, #1)

Review of 'The Fifth Season' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Took me a bit to get into it, and the changing of character names over time confused me a bit, but once I got past those two issues, it was a really fun read. Looking forward to the next two books to see what happens on Earth in a possible distant future where earth magic is common and nothing is stable.

Review of 'The fifth season' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Good worldbuilding, although pretty grim at this point. Lots of hate in this world for people who are different (by various metrics). The plot also developed very well, I was surprised a few times. I wish I'd known there was a dictionary at the back though. Most of it is obvious, mind.

reviewed The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth, book 1)

Review of 'The Fifth Season' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is the first book in a while where I've ordered the next book before finishing the current one (I think the last time was the Shades of Magic trilogy). It's good, solid fantasy, but with enough original elements that you don't think it's just a rehash of something you've read before. Unlike older fantasy novels, there are plenty of female characters who exist in their own right - rather than as an appendage to or a love interest for a male character - and relationships which don't involve a man and a women falling in love, getting married, and living Happily Ever After.

Oh, and I didn't see how the various strands of the novel were connected until about two thirds of the way through, which was a nice surprise.

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Subjects

  • Fiction
  • Fantasy

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