The Fifth Season is an adult science-fantasy novel taking place on the super-continent of Stillness. In this world, a disastrous climate change called the fifth season occurs every few centuries. However, one day, a powerful orogene, a person capable of controlling energy, releases a gigantic amount of power that leads to the fracture of the continent and threatens to trigger the most dreadful fifth season in Stillness's history.
It was my first entry to the world of N. K. Jemisin and it became one of the best reading experiences that I have had in a very long time as I found the concept extremely original, the world-building phenomenal but also because it dealt with race, gender, and systematic oppression as well as environmental justice (and many more).
N. K. Jemisin's Fifth Season is a character-driven story that follows three black female characters as they navigate through the rough, difficult, and unforgiving environment that is the world of the Stillness. The author's writing style is as sharp as a glass-knife. Each sentence, each word will cut through you deeper and deeper during the course of the book. You will suffer, cry, and bleed and scream at the world when the characters do. This is how powerful N. K. Jemisin's writing style is. (Even the switch from second person to third person is executed masterfully.)
Moreover, for those who are looking for a series with a very diverse cast, The Fifth Season has got you covered. And you will be pleased to know that both main and secondary characters are so vividly portrayed that you will truly support and care for them because as I said before, you will suffer, cry, and bleed and scream at the world when they do.
Another element that engaged me even more was the fact that there was never any information dumping moments regarding how the magic system worked or regarding Stillness's history and/or the caste system, etc. In fact, the characters are acting the way they should be. After all, this is how their world has been functioning for the past thousands of years, therefore, the characters are perfectly aware of how things work and so it is up to us, the readers, to pick up the information that are being given to us and analyse it in order to figure out how everything works in this society.
To conclude, I believe The Fifth Season is a must-read if you are tired of Medieval-European settings and are looking for wonderful character work, and a dangerous and brutal dystopian world with a rule-based magic system that deals with topics and issues that are still relevant today in our very own society.
Jemisin, N. K., The Fifth Season, London, Orbit, July 2016.