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A review by sgbrux
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
4.0
There passes a time of happiness in your life, which I will not describe to you. It is unimportant. Perhaps you think it wrong that I dwell so much on the horrors, the pain, but pain is what shapes us, after all.
And what pain there is!
I like a dark story, and that's just what I get in Fifth Season. This idea of the world (Stillness, because irony) ending every few years is one I haven't read much of (shorter timeline as compared to millennia like in Wheel of Time), and it creates the type of grim, opportunistic, violent day-to-day you might expect from such a world.
The magic system, orogeny, was quite unique from what I've personally read—this idea of connecting with the earth to manipulate its tectonic shifts (quakes, eruptions), being able to essentially flash-freeze anything in close proximity while performing orogeny, sensing subtle discrepancies in the environment (and from a vast distance by those with more experience), was novel and fresh to me.
I especially enjoyed the Fulcrum academia scenes with Damaya. Reminds me a lot of Kaer Morhen in Witcher, as does the exploitation and treatment of the orogeny, also like the witchers. Side note: I keep wanting to type out progeny in place of orogeny—is this by design, NK??? The use-caste system was really compelling, too.
As a mom myself, I gravitated to the second-person POV with Essun right off the bat with her grief and loss.
Referring to the reader as "you" has never really bothered me. To me, it feels very much like playing your favorite RPG game, D&D or DOS2 and the like. If you can just imagine yourself in the hero's shoes, it's really not that difficult to get used to. Due to the timelines happening in Fifth Season, it actually ends up making a lot of sense to use that POV.
I'm looking forward to seeing the adaptation for this. So many times when I was reading I thought, Wow—this would look freaking amazing on-screen. And it really will, too. The orogeny scenes, especially the epic last battle will be incredible on a visual medium. There's this great combination of magic and science (the hovering, almost sentient obelisks; the matrix-esque "nodes") that will work really well together.
I appreciated the parallels with Essuns "seasons" of starting over and becoming something new, just like the seasons in Stillness. Maybe it's because I recently started dabbling in the Stoics, but I noticed elements of that ideology in this world along with a lot of nihilism. Definitely got my attention for that. As did the underlying social commentary. All about it.
I rated this 4 because there were some parts that honestly tried my patience and had me wondering if Jemisin struggled with writing those same parts of the book. Especially 1/2 to 3/4 through, the story seemed to wear out its welcome (literally) in one place and it just slowed things down so much for me.
I'm indifferent to cliffhangers, which this one ended on, but I am glad the remaining books are readily available. I'm looking forward to seeing the Jija storyline play out, learning about the stone eaters and obelisks, and seeing more Guardian-orogeny battles.
Check out my ebook highlights for more favorites, but here are some quotes I enjoyed:
Hope is irrelevant, as are so many other feelings that he knows will bring him only despair.
There is an art to smiling in a way that others will believe. It is always important to include the eyes; otherwise, people will know you hate them.
This is what you must remember: the ending of one story is just the beginning of another. This has happened before, after all. People die. Old orders pass. New societies are born. When we say “the world has ended,” it’s usually a lie, because the planet is just fine. But this is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. For the last time.
You're still trying to decide who to be. The self you’ve been lately doesn’t make sense anymore.
Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default. Tell them there is a standard for acceptance; that standard is simply perfection. Kill those who scoff at these contradictions, and tell the rest that the dead deserved annihilation for their weakness and doubt. Then they’ll break themselves trying for what they’ll never achieve.
Of course, a man who would beat his own child to death might not still fit the label of sane. And a woman who found that child and stopped thinking for three days… hmm, not you, either. Nothing to do but follow your crazy, though.
I think you hate me because… I’m someone you can hate. I’m here, I’m handy. But what you really hate is the world.
But human beings, too, are ephemeral things in the planetary scale. The number of things that they do not notice are literally astronomical.
Home is people...Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.
And what pain there is!
I like a dark story, and that's just what I get in Fifth Season. This idea of the world (Stillness, because irony) ending every few years is one I haven't read much of (shorter timeline as compared to millennia like in Wheel of Time), and it creates the type of grim, opportunistic, violent day-to-day you might expect from such a world.
The magic system, orogeny, was quite unique from what I've personally read—this idea of connecting with the earth to manipulate its tectonic shifts (quakes, eruptions), being able to essentially flash-freeze anything in close proximity while performing orogeny, sensing subtle discrepancies in the environment (and from a vast distance by those with more experience), was novel and fresh to me.
I especially enjoyed the Fulcrum academia scenes with Damaya. Reminds me a lot of Kaer Morhen in Witcher, as does the exploitation and treatment of the orogeny, also like the witchers. Side note: I keep wanting to type out progeny in place of orogeny—is this by design, NK??? The use-caste system was really compelling, too.
As a mom myself, I gravitated to the second-person POV with Essun right off the bat with her grief and loss.
Referring to the reader as "you" has never really bothered me. To me, it feels very much like playing your favorite RPG game, D&D or DOS2 and the like. If you can just imagine yourself in the hero's shoes, it's really not that difficult to get used to. Due to the timelines happening in Fifth Season, it actually ends up making a lot of sense to use that POV.
I'm looking forward to seeing the adaptation for this. So many times when I was reading I thought, Wow—this would look freaking amazing on-screen. And it really will, too. The orogeny scenes, especially the epic last battle will be incredible on a visual medium. There's this great combination of magic and science (the hovering, almost sentient obelisks; the matrix-esque "nodes") that will work really well together.
I appreciated the parallels with Essuns "seasons" of starting over and becoming something new, just like the seasons in Stillness. Maybe it's because I recently started dabbling in the Stoics, but I noticed elements of that ideology in this world along with a lot of nihilism. Definitely got my attention for that. As did the underlying social commentary. All about it.
I rated this 4 because there were some parts that honestly tried my patience and had me wondering if Jemisin struggled with writing those same parts of the book. Especially 1/2 to 3/4 through, the story seemed to wear out its welcome (literally) in one place and it just slowed things down so much for me.
I'm indifferent to cliffhangers, which this one ended on, but I am glad the remaining books are readily available. I'm looking forward to seeing the Jija storyline play out, learning about the stone eaters and obelisks, and seeing more Guardian-orogeny battles.
Check out my ebook highlights for more favorites, but here are some quotes I enjoyed:
Hope is irrelevant, as are so many other feelings that he knows will bring him only despair.
There is an art to smiling in a way that others will believe. It is always important to include the eyes; otherwise, people will know you hate them.
This is what you must remember: the ending of one story is just the beginning of another. This has happened before, after all. People die. Old orders pass. New societies are born. When we say “the world has ended,” it’s usually a lie, because the planet is just fine. But this is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. For the last time.
You're still trying to decide who to be. The self you’ve been lately doesn’t make sense anymore.
Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default. Tell them there is a standard for acceptance; that standard is simply perfection. Kill those who scoff at these contradictions, and tell the rest that the dead deserved annihilation for their weakness and doubt. Then they’ll break themselves trying for what they’ll never achieve.
Of course, a man who would beat his own child to death might not still fit the label of sane. And a woman who found that child and stopped thinking for three days… hmm, not you, either. Nothing to do but follow your crazy, though.
I think you hate me because… I’m someone you can hate. I’m here, I’m handy. But what you really hate is the world.
But human beings, too, are ephemeral things in the planetary scale. The number of things that they do not notice are literally astronomical.
Home is people...Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.