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nate_meyers 's review for:
The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin
This book is a very solid 3.5 stars...I just don't like it quite enough to round up to 4 stars.
The best things going for it are incredible world-building and story-telling. Jemisin tells her story from the alternating and varied perspectives of 3 characters, each a woman and an orogene--i.e., someone gifted at tapping into earth's powers to quell or create earthquakes. These characters are: 1) a young student Damaya exiled from her hometown and brought to the school for orogenes, 2) an older student Syenite leaving the school on a mission, and 3) an older woman Essun on a quest to track down her husband and daughter. Each character is in unique environments, and this allows Jemisin to build an impressive world, layered with numerous cities, cultures, and social classes. For the most part, Jemisin doesn't just "exposition dump" all these facts, but ties them in only as they become critical for her story. In this way, your knowledge of the story's world (named "The Stillness") grows naturally with the story arc. The story itself is excellent, but also heart-breaking. Jemisin is a very gifted-story teller and her writing is engrossing.
The worst things going for this book are uneven dialogue and a hurried ending. Essun is written from the second person perspective, which is hard to adapt to. It took me ~100 pages to get used to this POV but I think it was a great artistic choice. My actual problem was with the dialogue between Syenite and her mentor, Alabaster. Their early dialogue is full of fits-and-starts as if each is a constantly angry child with ADHD. It's hard to read. My biggest disappointment with the book, however, is its last 100 pages (~3 chapters). To this point, Jemisin has wonderfully tied two of her character's narratives together. She then rushes to tie in the third narrative. The antepenultimate chapter is straight exposition with a reveal simply for the sake of it (i.e., Tonkee) and the penultimate chapter is beautiful but rushed. I wished Jemisin had slowed down with the book's ending, and maybe even waited to tie all the narratives together until the sequel.
All that said, "The Fifth Season" is a good book and I look forward to the sequel.
The best things going for it are incredible world-building and story-telling. Jemisin tells her story from the alternating and varied perspectives of 3 characters, each a woman and an orogene--i.e., someone gifted at tapping into earth's powers to quell or create earthquakes. These characters are: 1) a young student Damaya exiled from her hometown and brought to the school for orogenes, 2) an older student Syenite leaving the school on a mission, and 3) an older woman Essun on a quest to track down her husband and daughter. Each character is in unique environments, and this allows Jemisin to build an impressive world, layered with numerous cities, cultures, and social classes. For the most part, Jemisin doesn't just "exposition dump" all these facts, but ties them in only as they become critical for her story. In this way, your knowledge of the story's world (named "The Stillness") grows naturally with the story arc. The story itself is excellent, but also heart-breaking. Jemisin is a very gifted-story teller and her writing is engrossing.
The worst things going for this book are uneven dialogue and a hurried ending. Essun is written from the second person perspective, which is hard to adapt to. It took me ~100 pages to get used to this POV but I think it was a great artistic choice. My actual problem was with the dialogue between Syenite and her mentor, Alabaster. Their early dialogue is full of fits-and-starts as if each is a constantly angry child with ADHD. It's hard to read. My biggest disappointment with the book, however, is its last 100 pages (~3 chapters). To this point, Jemisin has wonderfully tied two of her character's narratives together. She then rushes to tie in the third narrative. The antepenultimate chapter is straight exposition with a reveal simply for the sake of it (i.e., Tonkee) and the penultimate chapter is beautiful but rushed. I wished Jemisin had slowed down with the book's ending, and maybe even waited to tie all the narratives together until the sequel.
All that said, "The Fifth Season" is a good book and I look forward to the sequel.