Book Review: The Fifth Season
Earth magic, the end of the world, and people trying to find their place in it? If that sounds like something you’d love, N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is the book for you.
What’s it about?
First, some important bits of information regarding the world building: The Stillness is not your average fantasy setting; it’s a world where the earth itself is an active force, with powerful quakes and volcanic eruptions always looming. Orogeny—a form of earth-based magic that some people, known as orogenes, possess—is a source of fear, both for those who are “cursed” with it, and those who are not. Orogenes have the power to sense and manipulate tectonic forces, which sounds like an incredible gift, but not in this world. Orogenes are feared, oppressed, and often treated as less than human.
And now, for the actual plot: The prologue shows a powerful person ripping the earth apart, kicking off the literal end of the world. I’m not even exaggerating. Then, the rest of the book follows three main characters—Essun, Syenite, and Damaya—each of whom is an orogene living in different circumstances across the Stillness. Essun is a mother on a mission, searching for her missing daughter in a world that’s quite literally falling apart, with ash filling the skies and people fleeing for their lives. Syenite, meanwhile, is an orogene working within the Fulcrum, a powerful organization that claims to train and “protect” orogenes but really uses them as tools. And then there’s Damaya, a young girl who’s been given to the Fulcrum upon discovery of her power, as she learns what it means to be an orogene (and all the horrors that come with it). Each of their perspectives and journeys offer another lens for viewing the world N. K. Jemisin has created.
What I Loved
The entire premise is immediately compelling… it’s the literal end of the world. But beyond that, I love how N. K. Jemisin manages to draw us deeply into her characters, allowing us to feel like we are there with them. Even aside from the main characters I mentioned above, I really enjoyed meeting the others. Hoa is a young boy who accompanies Essun on her journey to find her daughter, but he's mysterious and most definitely not human. His relationship with Essun is fascinating and heartwarming, even though he’s scary at times. Tonkee is a trained geomest (someone who studies the earth) traveling with Hoa and Essun, and she no longer has access to her medication. As a result, she's showing male features again. This is a minor plot detail, but I love the trans inclusion, and the fact that it's just a normal, accepted part of their world. I also enjoyed Alabaster and learning why he’s become the way he is.
Aside from the interesting characters themselves, I absolutely loved how The Fifth Season subverts expectations in terms of storytelling. Jemisin employs a 2nd person POV for one of the characters—a bold choice that’s rarely used. It’s a risky move, but Jemisin pulls it off, making us feel like we’re living in Essun’s shoes, feeling her heartbreak and desperation firsthand. This point of view makes the story even more immersive, giving us full access to her emotional landscape and allowing us to feel her pain, fear, and anger on a visceral level. It’s a brilliant technique that adds an extra layer of depth to an already complex story. When I first saw that Essun’s perspective was in 2nd, I certainly had doubts that it would be as engaging as the other two. This feeling is largely personal preference, and due to the fact that it’s such a difficult perspective to write well. Jemisin accomplished it, though!
It’s also worth mentioning Jemisin’s prose, which is simply gorgeous. Her writing is both sharp and poetic, managing to convey a wealth of emotions without ever feeling overwrought. Every sentence feels intentional, loaded with meaning, and the imagery she creates is vivid without bogging down the narrative. Jemisin has a way of showing rather than telling, letting us piece things together for ourselves. It’s a refreshing style that treats the reader with respect, trusting us to pick up on the nuances without excessive hand-holding. And it’s no small feat! Info-dumping is easy to fall into when there’s such a richly-imagined world.
What I Didn’t Love
It’s hard to find things I didn’t like about this one. I suppose if I were to get nitpicky, I did initially get hung up by some of the terminology, not because it was difficult to understand, but because it felt disruptive at times when I was in the flow of reading. I guess I just didn’t know why we had to change certain terms, but ultimately it’s not a big deal. By the end, it didn’t pull me out of the story anymore.
Bigger Picture Stuff
This isn’t your typical epic fantasy with elves, dragons, and predictable hero’s journeys. It’s a tale that turns familiar genre tropes on their heads, and it does so with originality and grit.
The themes in The Fifth Season are what really take this book to the next level for me, as is the case with most things I enjoy reading. Yes, it’s a story about survival in a world that’s constantly trying to kill its inhabitants, but it’s also a story about resilience, identity, and the importance of self-acceptance in a world that wants you to hate yourself. Jemisin doesn’t shy away from exploring heavy issues like trauma, systemic abuse, and the devastating effects of oppression. In the Stillness, orogenes are taught to view themselves as monsters, a reflection of how societies often instill shame in those they fear or misunderstand. This story is as much about resisting oppression as it is about finding strength in the face of unimaginable hardship. There’s an undercurrent throughout the book that speaks to the importance of embracing one’s identity, even when the world tells you it’s something to be feared.
Honestly, it’s a pretty chilling (and accurate) reflection of societal fears of “the other,” where those who have the power to save or destroy are systematically controlled, dehumanized, and oppressed. Jemisin uses this magical ability not just as a cool plot device but as a way to explore these heavy themes.
And she doesn’t just shoehorn diversity for the sake of it, which is refreshing and super appreciated.
Final Thoughts
The Fifth Season (and the entire Broken Earth Trilogy) came highly recommended to me by several people, including some of my beta readers who drew comparisons between one of my novel manuscripts and this book. I don’t know why I waited so long to read it, but they were right! I can see why they thought of this while reading my work. Even though our writing styles differ, and our worlds contrast one another—my world is a future utopia where we’ve learned to live in harmony with nature, and The Fifth Season is the literal opposite—there are some similar themes and overall structures within the worldbuilding. An easy parallel could be drawn between the Academies in my world and the Fulcrum in Jemisin’s, and the journey of our characters—their focus on self-discovery and acceptance, as well as their drive to protect the people they love—seem to share the same heart. Our magic systems are entirely different, and yet somehow we ended up with main characters trying to hide from the overseeing organization, knowing their power would mean lifelong oversight/control or potential death. Kudos to my beta readers for catching these similarities, despite how fundamentally different the worlds and stories themselves are! After reading The Fifth Season for myself, I’m truly flattered to have been compared to this incredible work, and to its extremely talented author.
In short, The Fifth Season is a phenomenal book that deserves all the praise it’s received—and then some.
I give this book 5/5 stars. Obviously.
I cannot wait to dive into the rest of this series!
Happy reading!
