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A review by loischanel
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
3.0
⭐2.5 stars⭐ The Fifth season is an intricately woven, apocalyptic book that I was only mildly interested in, to the point where I probably won't be continuing the series.
It is set on this fictional Continent called the Stillness, ironically named due to its flippant dynamism. Every few or hundred years of so, a Fifth Season occurs which are these powerful shakes that are so deadly, they have been known to wipe out entire civilisations. It is under these circumstances that we meet these beings called 'Oregenes' who are hated by regular people because of the their ability to wield the terrible power of the earth and trigger cataclysmic shakes.
At first the three different story arcs running in tandem, but at different points in time, confused me. But the way they all converged at the end was admittedly very clever. In that sense, I could not fault the imaginative structure of this story.
The attention to detail with all the different structural components of this fantasy world really helped to set the scene well. At the same time, I disliked the world-building as much as I loved its fine level of detail. As expected the story was too heavy handed in its use of exposition. This really alienated me from the story and made me care much less about the characters.
There were moments when crucial world elements were nicely weaved into the story in a less cumbersome way but mostly, my experience with this book felt too weighed down by expository verbiage.
Other positives include the scientific and geological discourse, albeit fictitious. Readers who enjoy science-y books with more technical, pragmatic prose will most likely find The Fifth Season enjoyable.
I, on the other hand, was unimpressed by the technical writing style, particularly the overuse of one-word sentences such as 'Oh.' and 'But.' Also, the fact that the characters kept on 'belatedly' remembering things was irksome, characters who were only fractionally developed, save for the main character. Altogether I thought The Fifth Season was an interesting book with promising elements and impressive intricacy, but it ultimately failed to deliver.
It is set on this fictional Continent called the Stillness, ironically named due to its flippant dynamism. Every few or hundred years of so, a Fifth Season occurs which are these powerful shakes that are so deadly, they have been known to wipe out entire civilisations. It is under these circumstances that we meet these beings called 'Oregenes' who are hated by regular people because of the their ability to wield the terrible power of the earth and trigger cataclysmic shakes.
At first the three different story arcs running in tandem, but at different points in time, confused me. But the way they all converged at the end was admittedly very clever. In that sense, I could not fault the imaginative structure of this story.
The attention to detail with all the different structural components of this fantasy world really helped to set the scene well. At the same time, I disliked the world-building as much as I loved its fine level of detail. As expected the story was too heavy handed in its use of exposition. This really alienated me from the story and made me care much less about the characters.
There were moments when crucial world elements were nicely weaved into the story in a less cumbersome way but mostly, my experience with this book felt too weighed down by expository verbiage.
Other positives include the scientific and geological discourse, albeit fictitious. Readers who enjoy science-y books with more technical, pragmatic prose will most likely find The Fifth Season enjoyable.
I, on the other hand, was unimpressed by the technical writing style, particularly the overuse of one-word sentences such as 'Oh.' and 'But.' Also, the fact that the characters kept on 'belatedly' remembering things was irksome, characters who were only fractionally developed, save for the main character. Altogether I thought The Fifth Season was an interesting book with promising elements and impressive intricacy, but it ultimately failed to deliver.