The Fifth Season

I’ve come to be a lover of science fiction over the past several years. And I’m slow to come to a series of books, usually, and it was no different with NK Jemisin’s The Fifth Season. But the advantage of being late to read a series means there is no waiting when I finish one book, I can launch right into the next. And that’s exactly what I did after finishing The Fifth Season.

The book is in another world that is somewhat like our world, but not quite the same. It’s one continent dealing with earthquakes on a regular basis and using people with special skills to control them. And that is the crux of the book, we follow the characters as they move in the world as Orogenes, as the beings who can use their powers to control the Earth. I use the word beings deliberately, because even though they are people, in their world they aren’t defined as such, so that they can be used and abused.

The main characters are fascinating, the world they live in being somewhat like our own but not quite means it was easy to escape and yet be reminded of what our world is doing. Jemisin weaves an incredible story that left me hanging and wanting for more. I started the next book in the series the same day I finished this one.