The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisen Review

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Book One of the Broken Earth

The Fifth Season is the first in The Broken Earth series. The setting is on Earth but it is long past our time, many civilizations have flourished and been destroyed. The Earth is unstable. Large earthquakes, tsunamis and volcano eruptions that can darken the sky for years happen. Sometimes sending the world into a Season, a period of ruin, some survive some do not. The world is littered with deadciv artifacts. In the first few pages, an unnamed character does breaks the Earth to bring about the beginning of a new Season.

The basically enslaved orogenes are people born with the ability to affect the geological. There are Guardians, they have the ability to control orogenes. The main characters are all orogenes. We meet one as she loses a child, one as a child who has just learned what she can do, and another as she embarks on a mission for the Guardian controlled Fulcrum.

I enjoyed the layout of the book and the weaving of the characters. I had an inkling of a twist, but wasn’t sure how the author could pull it off. She did it and after I thought of course, very satisfying. The characters are the heart of the story. I worried for them all. And hoped. I was angry at some of the choices they made but understood them.

While I did enjoy this book, I mainly read it on my lunch break. It wasn’t till over half way through that I couldn’t wait to take it home and read. By the time I finished the book I was hooked, if the second one was near I would have started it immediately.

One thing I would have liked a little more time on were the node maintainers. I don’t know if that will be possible in the next book. I get enough of it to understand the horror but still have some questions. I also want to know more about the mysterious Stone-eaters and the obelisks. Hopefully, book two The Obelisk Gate will be come in on hold for me today.

Amazon Description:

 THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS... FOR THE LAST TIME.

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

This book is available for checkout through the Lake County Library System.