This is how you do a novella, people. I bought this on release day, actually, and I’m not sure why I waited to read it. I loved Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy, and even now after reading this, I still want more from this world. But I just finished The Fifth Season over the weekend, and then I had a bad experience with another novella read for the Hugos, and this was just the perfect antidote to both of those. The Fifth Season was wonderful, but so, […]
Scary, but so good, and so smart.
Sometimes you read a book and you’re like, the hell did I just read? And then other times you’re like THE HELL DID I JUST READ. This is the second one. This is the last novel I had to read before I could vote in this year’s Hugos. I probably wouldn’t have read it for a couple of years otherwise because the older I get and the more fantasy books I’ve got crammed all up in my head, the harder it is for me to […]
How do you survive when the earth itself fights you.
The Fifth Season is the first book in a trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, it’s so very good and so very hard to push through. The book starts with an incident that essentially sets the tone for the whole novel. I am definitely waiting, with impatience, for the next one though. The book follows three different story lines throughout this strange fantasy world called The Stillness. This world suffers from frequent seismic activity leading to what the people call Seasons, periods of time where there is acid rain, […]
So good! Too bad the book ends in the middle of the action with zero resolution.
This book was actually pretty great, but I knocked off a star because it didn’t have a full plot. I really think that even books that are part of a series should have some form of resolution to them so what you just finished reading feels satisfying. The Fifth Season just felt like it stopped on a random chapter. Not cool. I would recommend people wait for the next book to come out before reading this one. The premise of The Fifth Season is great. […]
The weakest book in the series, but still pretty great.
Here are two seemingly contradictory statements regarding this book: 1) This book is the weakest in the series; and 2) It’s a good ending for the series. I don’t think these two statements actually contradict one another, but they’ll give you a good idea of my mental state during and after reading this book. I think this book had two things working against it that weren’t quite overcome in the execution. First, it’s the only one of the trilogy whose main character is not mortal*. The […]
My favorite book in an awesome series.
I really, really liked the first book in this series, but I loved this second book. It just got to me, man. The plot, the characters, the setting . . . hit me right in, like, three of my sweet spots. Spoilers for book one follow in this review. (You can actually read all three of these books separately, but you’ll definitely get the most out of all of them if you read all three.) The Broken Kingdoms takes place ten years after The Hundred […]