Book Review: “The Fifth Season” by N.K. Jemisin
Håfa adai! February is Black History Month in the United States. Throughout February 2025, I will post reviews for books across various genres that are written by African American authors and/or depict important experiences and stories within Black history. My first selection of February 2025 is The Fifth Season, the first book in The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin.
The book review portion of this post consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.
Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Fantasy bookshelf.
Spoiler-Free Plot Summary of The Fifth Season
Everything changed in the course of a single day: Essun’s family was destroyed when her husband killed their son and kidnapped their daughter; the empire that has dominated the world’s civilizations for millennia, Sanze, has been usurped; and the Stillness, the planet’s singular mega continent, has been torn in two in a horrific seismic event. Now, Essun is forced to travel across the darkened and unsafe Stillness, facing the dangers throughout and within it, to find her daughter.
Damaya has recently been surrendered by her family to the Guardian after her parents realized that she is an orogene, a person with the innate ability to control energy by manipulating the earth and temperature. Now, she must learn to control her abilities and live by the rules of the Fulcrum, the organization that takes the hated sub-class orogenes and turns them into controlled tools for Sanze.
Syenite is a prodigy among the young orogenes living at the Fulcrum. But being considered the best among a set of tools for Sanze does not grant one humanity. Her skills lead the Guardians to pair her with Alabaster so that they may breed more highly skilled orogenes. When Syenite and Alabaster see an opportunity to break free of the Fulcrum, they take it.
Important Trigger Warning for The Fifth Season
The Fifth Season heavily depicts discrimination, child abuse, child murder, physical assault, sexual assault, and genocide. These scenes and themes are essential to the plot. If these are themes that would cause you distress or discomfort in any way, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.
My Thoughts on The Fifth Season: 4.75 stars
I chose what to review for Black History Month 2025 with the intention of following the genres I typically feature in a given week of any other month on the Bookmarks & Armchairs blog. As of this writing, Week 2 of any month features reviews of fantasy, mystery, or fiction. I picked N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season as the first book to review for several reasons: (1) the story centers themes that draw inspiration from and are significant within Black history, (2) fantasy has always been and will probably always be my favorite genre of literature, and (3) I have wanted to start this series for years now and sometimes I need a prompt to move a book to the top of my to-read list (which the weekly feature and heritage month doubly provide in this case).
In The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin builds a world that is dense, intense, nuanced, and complex. I listened to the audiobook version and had to make sure I was keeping note of what was going on and who was doing what in every scene. If I zoned out for a minute or so at any point of the first few chapters, I had to restart the chapter. But I was absolutely entranced by the story once I understood what was going on. The world within The Fifth Season consists of a single massive continent known as the Stillness. The Stillness is controlled by a large empire known as Sanze. Societies living at the center portion of the Stillness (near the equator) are perceived as being higher class within Sanze while those living further away from the equator are seen as lower class. Amongst all races and creeds of people, there is a collective prejudice against those born as orogenes (individuals with a magical ability to manipulate or influence the earth and temperature around them).
Instead of being told in a linear timeline, the chapters in The Fifth Season alternate between three perspectives in multiple points in time: Essun’s perspective details present events; Damaya’s perspective follows events furthest back in time; and Syenite’s perspective falls in between Essun’s and Damaya’s set of events. The narrator following Essun’s perspective addresses the reader directly, as if You are Essun, while the narrator following Damaya and Syenite are that of a third-person omniscient. This dynamic style of narrative switching was unlike anything I had experience recently. I initially assumed it would be confusing, but it actually helped keep me grounded throughout the story (no pun intended).
The Fifth Season explores themes of oppression, enslavement, and systemic bias and violence. The actions and choices of Essun, Damaya, and Syenite are informed by the horrors of the world they are forced to navigate: one that seeks to use, abuse, and discard them at every turn for simply existing, without ever acknowledging or respecting their humanity. The empire of Sanze deftly reflects systems of injustice and prejudice that exist in the real world. Children discovered to be orogenes are forcibly sold or surrendered by their parents to an institution that either molds them into manageable tools or kills them for not operating the way the institution dictates. Those who are seen as “exceptional” by the definitions of the institution are bred like animals with the intent to produce more “exceptional” offspring. Their names are taken from them, their bodies are broken, and their minds are manipulated.
In portraying the way orogenes are identified as subclass/nonhuman and treated like animals throughout the Stillness by the Sanze empire, The Fifth Season displays how notions of legality and morality can be coded to contradict each other within a broader prejudiced society. The Sanze empire and its classes of citizens live within a social structure that defines orogenes (who have no way of determining the powerful abilities they are born with) as being a separate type of living being from the other human beings that inhabit the Stillness. This definition, created and reinforced by legal and educational structures throughout the Sanze empire, empowers the citizens, Guardians, Fulcrum, and others all over the Stillness to believe there is nothing wrong with the way they mistreat and discard human beings born with those innate magical abilities.
My rating for N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is 4.75 out of 5 stars. I thoroughly appreciated the experience of this book. The worldbuilding is deeply thought out, the storytelling is complex, the plot twists were absolutely unpredictable, and the themes are tragic yet poignant. I had recently reviewed multiple books categorized as Young Adult, so it was refreshing to encounter a story that had greater depth and complexity. The Fifth Season is categorized as fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy, but I am including it in the Fantasy bookshelf because that is where I would find physical copies of this book in a bookstore. I recommend The Fifth Season to any reader who is a fan of speculative fiction and who is okay reading about uncomfortable topics.
Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of The Fifth Season, the first book in The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin.
Other Books Reviewed for Black History Month 2025:
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Rating Cheat Sheet
4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.
Post Date: 10 February 2025
Published: 4 August 2015
Publisher: Orbit
