N. K. Jemisin
The Fifth Season is post-apocalyptic fantasy. Well. Post-post-post-post-apocalyptic. The world of the Fifth Season has undergone so many apocalypses that most of the people who are there are used to it by now. They have plans for it, rules to follow, storage caches, roles within communities, everything a society needs to survive apocalypse number fifty-three.But that's not what the book is about. Not really. The book is, in a way, about you. That's right folks. About half of the book is written in the second-person.
When I first heard that from my brother, I was skeptical to say the least. After having read the book... meh. After the first chapter or so, it sort of fades into the background. It stopped bothering me pretty quickly, but I can't really say it added anything to the book. So, meh.
That said, the Fifth Season is great. Apocalypse, earthquake mages, mad feels in a few places, and great characters. And as expected of Jemisin, a subtle and beautiful handling of discrimination, identity, race in a way that means something but isn't in your face at all. Speaking as a white male, I read the book through to the end and then when thinking about the characters noticed "Huh. She was transgender. He was gay. These people are the discriminated against race of this world. Those people are black." And all of them felt like real people. Not caricatures, not tokens, not facades defined solely by their minority status. Just people who mattered. To me, that was just a moment of notice. To people who can actually relate to those depictions, I can imagine it would be even more impactful. And we need more of that in fantasy.
Simply, if you've enjoyed any of Jemisin's other work, you're probably gonna like this one. If you haven't, I'd suggest you start with the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms instead.
When the sequel comes out, you can bet I'm gonna grab it. See if the book interests you.
Later folks
-Leo
