The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin has been sitting on my shelf since oh, I don't know 2017, maybe. It's one of those books that everyone recommends, that you know you'll like, and you just never get in the mood for. To be fair, I'm rarely in the mood for Sci-fi. I don't know why the literary world constantly clumps sci-fi and fantasy readers together, because they are often not the same readers. Anyhow, based off recommendations, I knew I would like this book despite my slight aversion to the genre (I've taught myself to ignore most of my aversions to books, except poetry. I still have yet to this day have never, of my own free will, picked up a poetry collection).
For Black History Month, I collected the books on my shelf written by black authors to read for the month, and for some reason, I didn't get much reading done in the short month, though the three that I did read were great. The Fifth Season was the fourth on my list, and I just couldn't abandon it, even though a new month had turned. And I'm very glad I didn't.
The story is hard to explain without giving away the major plot twist, so I'll do the best I can. Basically, this story is set in an earthen world in which Father Earth, a god in his own right, is angry at the way human kind has treated its home (sound familiar?), so it has decided to strike back at humanity with these seasons of punishment. At this story, the fifth season is about to begin, with an earthquake that sends ash falling from the sky.
However, in this world, not everyone is human. There are also the mythological stone eaters, Guardians, and the all dangerous orogenes, which have a deep seeded connection to the earth that no one else trusts. The world thinks they must be controlled, so they can be used, so everyone can be safe.
In The Fifth Season, we follow three characters, young Damaya, an untrained orogene, Syenite--a trained orogene with four rings to her name, and Essun, a secret orogene who has just lost her son after her husband realizes what they are. All three are on paths, traveling, searching for answers, searching for revenge and truth.
A good portion of the book is world building, creating this alternate universe with Father Earth and all the mythological creatures that come with it. But the world building is added well into the characters' stories and how they work into the universe.
We see the harsh reality of their world, the cruelty and mistrust that these orogenes go through on a daily basis. The alternative chapters are a bit disconcerting at first, though you quickly become adjusted to the pattern of the narrative.
I thoroughly enjoyed this first sci-fi in several years, so much in fact that I have already ordered the second in the Broken Earth trilogy. It's completely different than anything I've read, and the way that the main plot twist revealed is really masterful and done in a way that makes you, the reader, feel like you can figure it out before the actual reveal comes--I did :)
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