I review N.K. Jemisin’s brilliant The Fifth Season, the first book in The Broken Earth epic fantasy series
from Orbit Books, published in August 2015 and currently available to buy in
the UK and the US.
This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
N.K. Jemisin is one of those authors who I’ve
heard a lot about but never actually read, and The Fifth Season presented me with the perfect opportunity to check
out her latest release as it was the first entry in the series, and I was
looking for something to read whilst I was in France, and as it turned out, I
was really glad I snapped up this book, because it blew me away and may well
have just turned out to be the best fantasy novel of 2015 so far, offering up
an imaginative, risky approach to the narrative, with some wonderful world
building and pacing that makes this book pretty much a required read for
fantasy fans.
The Stillness sounds like it would be a safe
place to live, right? Well, guess again, because due to its geology, it’s
incredibly unstable, and the Stillness has gone through several apocalyptic,
end of the world-esque events each called “Seasons”, that provide an incredible
backdrop for this novel, which has an astounding amount of depth in terms of
world building and creativity. It manages to feel refreshingly unique in terms
of the many epic fantasy novels available on the market today, offering an
interesting perspective, spotlighting a flawed, well developed and interesting
character called Essun, whose day goes from bad to worse when she learns her
own husband has kidnapped their daughter and killed their son, and as the Sanze
Empire falls around her, she must journey through the end of the world to find
her family as an intense battle for survival draws near.
And Essun is not the only character who we meet
in this novel. She herself is an Orogene, people who do their best to make a
world a better place despite being shunned by the populace due to their
unstable powers, and have to go through extreme measures to keep them under
control. One of these characters that we meet is called Damaya, who goes on
such a journey to control her powers, and another is Syenite, who is slightly
more experienced but still requires a mentor to ensure that there will be more
Orogones in the future. It’s an interesting, diverse cast with distinct
narrative voices of their own. This book manages to accomplish something
incredibly rare that I’ve seen in epic fantasy and actually makes the second
person pronoun, you, work, and work
well, offering a powerful perspective into the world through the eyes of the
character.
So many fantasy novels use the typical medieval
Europe setting as a backdrop but what’s incredibly refreshing is that The Fifth Season breaks from the norm,
with an interesting mix of characters that come from all sorts of background
and culture, making all the more unique. This only helps add to the incredible
layer of detail put into the novel that make it a very compelling read, using a
fantastic fantasy backdrop that never feels dull or overly drawn out, with
Jemisin not only crafting a great world, but also weaving a fantastic story.
If you’re a fan of fantasy fiction, The Fifth Season is an absolute must
read. Powerful, engaging and utterly compelling from start to finish, this is
something that will easily finish in the Top 10, if not my Top 5, selection of
best novels of the year come its end. Excellent stuff.
VERDICT:
9.75/10
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