Stories about every day life bore me. I need characters with magical powers and a mystery to unravel. And when the world is on the brink of disaster the stakes to solves this mystery couldn't be higher.
The Fifth Season was recommended to me by a friend of my mom's when I mentioned how much I enjoyed reading the Lilith's Brood Series by Octavia Butler. When I flipped open the cover and saw a map of the world I was about to enter, I knew this was a good fit for me. I love a good map!
The Fifth Season is the first in the Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. The story follows three different characters moving through a world that just barely makes sense. As you read you get the idea that things will make sense if only you continue on. And, it does, but, like with any good fantastical world, the more you understand the more questions arise.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot, this is a spoiler free book review, after all! The story starts out at the end of the world, or rather, another end to another era. We see this world through the eyes of our three main characters, each chapter is seen through the view of these three women, living through different moments surrounding a cataclysm. Within a couple of chapters we learn that cataclysms are fairly routine, something that happens every few hundred years or so and that everything about society revolves around these periodic cataclysms which they call the Fifth Season.
Society is all about survival of these seasons. Communities are more or less equipped to deal with periodic seismic activity of the blocking out of the sun. Those communities less equipped do the best they can to survive weeks, months, sometimes years of upheaval. Communities better equipped have safety and stores to outlast the others and have become rulers of this continent.
Then there is the human culture. Everyone is grouped into different castes based on their skills, some are politicians, others makes, some brute force. And then there are the Orgenes, a rare type of human with an innate ability to control Earth's energy. With training they have the power to prevent and postpone the periodic cataclysms but, their powers are feared and distrusted by society. As the book goes on we begin to wonder: if they can prevent the Fifth Season, could they also cause it?
Thank you!!!