Review: The Fifth Season

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are really no words for this book, except to say it was stupendous in every way that counts. Really, what follows is basically me just praising the book and everything in it. If you have no stomach for such, just know that I honestly believe it is worth a read for anyone who likes fantasy, but specially character-driven fantasy.

With that out of the way.

From characters to plot to writing to pacing to world-building and every conceivable thing in between, it all shines.

Sure, some things might take a bit of effort to get used to (it might well be the first novel I've ever read written with a second person pov, even though I am familiar with Choose your Own Adventure books written with similar styles) but I honestly did not find them jarring as some others apparently have. Sure, it was unusual, but for me it ended up being another bit of strangeness that effectively added to the story, and the fact that two of the three point of views were written in more conventional pov hinted to the fact there was a point to the strangeness. I was not disappointed.

The plot was entrancing, and I thought the way the author introduced us to it was stupendous as well. This is a story about the end of the world... But what does that mean, exactly? And then the author walks us through all the possible meanings, all of them spectacularly interwoven. The intimate, heart-wrenching end of the world for a mother who comes home after a long day of work only to find her son has been beaten to death and her daughter kidnapped by her husband, the wider cataclysm that serves as backdrop as the massive super-continent in which the story is set is wounded and riven in such a way as to bring forth the latest and perhaps the worst in a long series of disasters. And then planetary... except not. As the author helpfully informs us, the phrase 'the end of the world' is usually an exaggeration at best and a lie at worst, because the world will eventually straighten itself out. It will not 'end'. It is only the people in it who will.

But the author also reminds us that from every ending, no matter how big or small in scope, comes a new beginning. And I think this is as much a theme of the story as the rest. And so start each of our three pov characters, each having already tipped or tipping into and end, and then struggling to make some sense from it, wrench back some meaning from which they can carve their life.

So yeah, this was probably the most ramble-y review I've done in a while, but the short of it is go read it.

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