The Fifth Season

The Broken Earth, Book 1

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Listen to the first book in the critically acclaimed, three-time Hugo award-winning trilogy by NYT best-selling author N. K. Jemisin.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2015 N.K. Jemisin (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Let's start with the end of the world

“After all, a person is herself, and others. Relationships chisel the final shape of one's being. I am me, and you.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

This year, I'm trying to read more women, more minority voices. One advantage of this book was N.K. Jemisin presents the ability for a twofer. I had heard amazing things. With all things fantasy (or even the fantasy side of scifi, I am always a bit hesitant. I do have biases against fantasy). Reading Jemisin, for me, was like discovering Ursula K. Le Guin for the first time. Jemisin is a genius at world-making and characters. Her set-up is amazing and the reader only grasps what she is carefully unfolding with the three primary protagonists when you are about 4/5 done with the book. She is careful. She is at times beautiful. Her prose, for me, is almost there. She is wholly original. That doesn't mean there is no heredity to these books, but it doesn't mean she isn't confident to make big ideas hers; to bend and fold the genre to include issues on race, sex, gender, sexuality, family, class, community.

This is a book about power and control. Like all good scifi writing, it tells us, through scifi, hard things about ourselves. I am going to assume since this book (and her next two) won the Hugo that she is able to maintain her control over the next two novels. This amazes me. She is basically writing 400+ page novels in about a year. She is like Vollmann or King. She can write well, while writing BIG. I'm excited to see how the next installment plays out.

👍🏽👍🏽

I don’t know about some of the reviews I read which made me a little skeptical to start the series , as the book is solid and well rounded from world building , character development, and plot line. Maybe some people like a little more “simple” and straight forward of a story.

The book has a unique feel in the fantasy genre with still that old world journey. I have fully enjoyed this first installment and will continue ~

Emotional

This is a sad story. The main character checked into Heart Break Hotel and never left. I may need to borrow some tissues, have a long cry and call my mother.

spectacular

wonderful world building, compelling story and characters, amazing voice performance. a truly unique fantasy world.

slow and boring

Just kept going nowhere and I had to stop before it bored me to death.

Definitely worth it

Best science fiction book I've read in a long time. Definitely got my mind thinking about all the different possibilities in the plot, just to find out I was wrong each time. Wonderful narration too. Anyone else might have gotten it wrong.

It starts slow but blooms into a real page turner.

I am looking forward to the rest of the series. a world perilously balanced by powers and deceptions is slowly unveiled as a child grows into a powerful force. Forged stronger by a lifetime of abuse a hero finds their way to the stark realities of the world. Though I find many parts of the story easily telegraphed I am still left wanting more.

So DAMN good

I never noticed how uncomfortably comfortable I’d gotten with botched or clumsy depictions of LGBT characters and stories in media until I read this book. This book made LGBT people exist so naturally in the space that it felt seamless. The identity of these characters was neither ignored nor the core of their motivations, it was a noteworthy aspect that informed a more well rounded set of drives. That is to say - they were PEOPLE. It’s so simple but it’s something I literally never knew I had been longing for until I had it. A fully fleshed out queer characters?! WHAT! I cannot say enough about this book. It breaks your heart in all the right ways and manages to express something profound without laying it bare for the lazy reader. GOD I LOVE THIS BOOK AND AUTHOR.

Captivating!!

I LOVED the book and the narration! it kept me on the edge of me seat and wrapped up in this world.

Stunning!

Not what I expected. Loved every minute. I first judge a book by the way the Author writes and secondly by content. A+ for both!