The Fifth Season / N.K. Jemisin

The Fifth Season

(Broken Earth #1)

by N.K. Jemisin

fantasy

copyright 2015

read in May 2017

rated 8/10: really quite good

This book has drama, tragedy, good times and bad, lots of great ideas. There are no great surprises. Which is both good and bad.

The book gradually reveals major factors of the civilisation and of the plot. A few hints and I had most of the answers before the final revelation. Which I like! It's a sign that the author is managing the plot rather than trying to hide facts from the reader.

Except for the final revelation which is both obvious and cliched. Still, that's just one revelation... The rest are simply a steady build-up of ideas and plot. (Oh, and the final twist may suggest "science fiction". Overall, however, this book is "fantasy". In my opinion :-)

There's a lot of tragedy... In fact, the author includes a brief intermission in which she explains that there are times of happiness -- but only the bad times are documented. After all, it's the tragedies which drive the characters. Good times simply encourage rest and relaxation.

Even if we include the undocumented times when the main characters can rest and recover, this civilisation is cruel. And that is what drives the story, learning to not accept that cruelty is the only option. Yet I do not feel depressed.

The heroine is beset by cruelty and by personal tragedy. Yet she maintains her will to resist, to -- perhaps in the next books -- to fight back. So I can suffer along with the heroine. Yet continue reading with hope. That, I enjoy :-)

But finally, a point on which I disagree with the author: the dedication. "For all those who have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question." Forgive my cynicism, but in which fantasy world is "everyone else" given respect "without question" ?!

But that's just *my* view :-)  The book itself is really quite good.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"The man who has no imagination has no wings." … Muhammad Ali