The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemsin, Review

Amazon Link to the book

The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemsin, is the first book of a trilogy, and it has jumped, despite us only being six months into 2019, directly in the top five of the best books I read this year. I absolutely loved, loved, loved it. It is original, it is gripping, it is full of twists and beautifully written. Here I say it and here I deny it, but I can smell a movie coming out soon. Nevertheless, here is the plot and what I think of this book.

Where are we?

We are in a fantasy world where the planet is made of one single, massive ocean, and one single, great continent, called Stillness. Now, the name Stillness really is a joke, because this continent is everything but still. It is moved by consistent earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunami, and different world cataclysm, which really have brought the world close to an end more than once. In this world, there are not four season, but five. The fifth season is the one which usually comes after a massive cataclysm, bringing with it fumes, mists of ashes, temperature dropping and death.

Who are we?

We are a bunch of miserables who try, in the best way possible, to survive in this hell. But as humanity is what it is even in the worst and more difficult situations, we managed to create a system of castes and privileges even here. So there are small towns made of normal people who try to live their everyday life honestly, and there are rich people who can afford everything. There are extremely poor people dying because the Stillness brought everything away from them. And there is an organisation called Fulcrum made of the most powerful Orogenes.

Who are the Orogenes? They are individuals born with the ability to manipulate thermal, kinetic and related forms of energy to address seismic events. Now, how cool is that? It is amazing. But for the fact that these people are hated by everyone, avoided like the worst stigma, and basically used like weapons by the Fulcrum. There also are people called Guardians, who, in short, can control and null the power of an Orogen (in case they become too strong or uncontrollable).

The Fifth Season follows the story of three characters: Essun, an Orogen who lost everything when her husband finds out their children have inherited her power, killing their youngest son. She will take a move to find and kill him. Then we have Damaya, a little child who has just discovered she is an Orogen, and her parents do what any lovely and caring parent would do in such a situation: they sell her to the Fulcrum. Here Damaya will learn to control and empower her abilities. Finally, we have Syenite, a member of the Fulcrum who is asked to check the harbour issues in a nearby town together with a colleague, Alabaster, the most powerful living Orogen.

Why reading this book?

Because it is original, beautifully written, and will keep you stuck to the pages until you reach the final one. Nothing is what it seems in this world, so pay attention as you read the book, because you will find so many surprises as you approach to the end.

The world created by N. K. Jemsin is so detailed and feels so “real”. She created different ethnicities, each with their distinctive traits; different languages, and detailed seismic seasons. Her characters are complex and well characterised, they grow up as the book proceeds and become the result of their experiences (mostly traumatising experiences). I can't wait to read the second volume of the trilogy, and I hope its level is as high as the first one!

Hope you might find this interesting, sorry I didn't give too many details, but I didn't want to spoil the reading of this beautiful book. Let me know if you read it and what you think about it! Talk to you soon, take care

M.