“Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we?”
The Fifth Season is a fantasy story told via 3 storylines. Essun, a woman, Syenite, an apprentice orogene (Earth Mage), and Damaya, a young, feral orogene. The narrative for Essun is told from the second-person perspective, while the other storylines are written with the present tense. It’s a bit jarring, and is a choice that I didn’t really like, but it didn’t chase me away from the book. The voice of the story is quite casual as well, with narrative lines like ”Back to the personal. Need to keep things grounded, ha ha.” and “Pyramids are the most stable architectural form, and this one is pyramids times five because why not?” (direct quotes). It was a bit of a rocky start, but once I got used to the book’s voice, it stopped bothering me.
What did turn my stomach was the fact that the story starts with a 3-year-old beaten to death by its father and Essun’s husband, and Essun sitting next to its corpse for days. It’s tough to read that as a parent to a 3-year-old child. I suppose that’s the inciting incident for Essun’s story, that she’s going to chase down her husband to save her other child. Oh, also the world is ending due to massive fissures in the north, and ash blotting out the sun. But that storyline doesn’t materialize in this novel. There’s a lot of utter disrespect for the human condition, like a Guardian who casually shatters the bones of a child just to teach the child a lesson. Listen to me, or else. The grimdark aspects are a huge turn-off for me, but that’s more of a personal preference than anything else.
The other two storylines don’t have an inciting incident, they seem to exist to provide context for the world around them. Damaya is on her way to the Fulcrum with a Guardian, and Syenite’s has her leaving the Fulcrum with Alabaster on a mission. Both stories showcase the world as it was, and the oppression that Orogene’s face. They aren’t treated as humans, but as tools at the best of times, despite wielding god-like power.
There’s no real villain for these stories, they just plod along, having things happen until each one reaches its conclusion. The Fifth Season is more of a character focused and world building story than a story about an event. I spent a lot of time just wondering where the story was going? What was the point of all this exposition and exploration. Why are there three characters, who’s stories have vastly different timelines (at one point Essun’s story mentions having 2 months pass, while a whole year passes in Damaya’s story). When it’s all revealed at the end, it’s a pretty cool twist, but it’s a long walk for a short drink of water.
I found a lot odd with this book. The story goes from detailing the nuance of Orogene power, and how they draw heat and feel stone and giving an incredible amount of detail, to flipping over to the obelisks and saying “no one knows what they’re for. They just float around” and an entire underground community with magical geodes that filter the air that “just work”.
I admire the world that author N.K. Jemisin built, and the story she’s telling. The Orogene magic system has a scientific edge to it that I love, the different races are inventive and exciting. The characters reference a history of the world and stumble upon dead-civs that makes the world feel more realized than many other stories I’ve read. But it feels like a prequel. Most of the story is creating the character that is actually going to do something in the next novel, and creating the cataclysm that will eventually tell a story, but The Fifth Season on its own, doesn’t feel like a complete book to me. I know that this is the start of a series, but I don’t know that I really want to continue reading. Personally, I like my books to stand on their own, and this one doesn’t inspire me to continue on with the journey.
