This week was one of my busiest so far this second year of university. I had to take two (online) exams and I'm currently in the midst of writing an essay on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was hard for me to finish this novel just because I was so busy doing other things. However, I really liked taking the time for this one, The Fifth Season of N. K. Jemisin is a gem! I found this book via one of my favourite authortubers (YT for writers) and since then it has been on my tbr. I finished the book yesterday afternoon (30/10/2020) and I am already 100+ pages into the sequel. Yesterday evening I took some time for myself to read, after an entire day of staring at my screen looking at a word document, struggling to get words onto the page. Me-time was needed afterwards. I cannot wait to tell you about this novel! By the way, follow me on Goodreads to see all the books I read.
This fact that this book has won different prizes doesn't surprise me. Before I started it I heard of many people that this book was very original and very different from 'standard' fantasy/sci-fi. And I 100% agree on that. The worldbuilding in this novel was so extremely well done, you just go onto a journey with the character and experience it all. In the first chapter of the novel the most important things about the world are explained and the rest you just figure out along the way. There are still things that I don't fully understand yet, but I expect to find that out in the other books of the trilogy.
In this world there exist people capable of orogeny, think of Avatar's Earthbenders but then more powerful. These orogenes or roggas, as they are called, are seen as 'monsters' because they can do things normal people cannot. That is why they need to be trained and guarded by Guardians. They protect the orogenes from people and people from them. Orogenes without training can be very dangerous when strong emotions come to play. The thing is though, that there is a Season that destroys the world, where many people die. This is a reason why the history of the world is vague, besides that it is controlled. This is one of the reasons orogenes are treated badly.
When the novel starts we read in second person, which is different and took me a while to truly get into it. However, eventually, I really started liking this, it allowed me to even more understand the main character, Essun. During the book, we follow three storylines, it took me a while to figure out which one the present was, but eventually, everything turns into one cohesive story. Jemisin took me on an exploration journey and slowly I started understanding more what was going on.
This is a book that I would recommend to anyone. It was so well written and so well put together. How much thought must have gone into creating this world is incredible. Where other people do not like the second person I really enjoyed it. It made this book even more original because I've never seen it before.
This book really kept me reading, I liked the three storylines a lot and I'm curious to see how it continues in the other books, even though I already have a bit of an idea since I started the second book already. This book really allowed me to step into a new world and image it all. Many things are still so unclear but that leaves it interesting and that makes me even more curious for the other books.
It is a difficult world, and I think that for people that do not read fantasy often it might be hard to grasp or fully understand. So for a first fantasy novel, I would recommend something lighter. However, for anyone that is into fantasy, read this book! It is so refreshing and new and wow, just wow.
I hope you liked this review, I will now be going back to my essay that is due Monday. Have a fun weekend and I will see you soon!
Love,
Julia
Interested in reading The Fifth Season or the entire Broken Earth trilogy? Click the links to find them on Amazon! (these are affiliate links, without extra costs for you I earn a small commission on your purchase)
Comments