A review by dalinora
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

 

The fifth season is now one of my favorite intros to any series ever. Ima fiend for the Sci-Fi, fantasy, post apocalyptic genres, and N.K Jemisin managed to mix these genres in a very well done manner. Not only is there incredible world building, beautiful writing, but also really good characterization. This a work of art, a terrifying dramatization of systematic oppression. 

 

The fifth season is set on an alternative Earth called the Stillness. Every century or so an apocalypse level even occurs which leads to the destruction of the inhabitants to near extinction. It is constantly faced with earthquakes and volcanoes. The civilization inhabiting the Stillness are the Sanze Empire. They believe the Earth to hate them, and have a very unfair system, as any society does, with a hierarchy. There those called the Orogenes, who have the power to start these Earthquakes, and to stop them. They are the most hated and feared. Even with all that fear and hatred they harbor, the empire uses any means to exploit the Orogenes for their powers, while also having them at the very bottom of society.