Book Review - The Fifth Season

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The short and to-the-point review: First half of the book is a struggle. Next quarter gets exciting. Last quarter is nothing short of amazing and brings the book together in a neat, tidy package with a gold-plated bow on top. Go read this now.

The longer review:

I struggled with the first half for numerous reasons. The first and biggest one being how the author throws you into the world with little to no introductions. Even when things are made clear, they're normally done so AFTER the event/words. For instance: Rogga is a term often used, but isn't really explained for some time. Same with 'safe'. There are still some things I'm unsure of even after finishing the book. Looking through the appendices might help, but I'm a firm believer that appendices should be optional reading and not required to understand the book.

The other reason was because it had a prologue. I hate prologues. This didn't disappoint my hatred. It was confusing and I didn't see a point to it. Even now, after finishing, I don't see a NEED to have read it. It provides some nice context later on, but in my opinion not enough to trudge through it.

Last reason: 2nd person POV. A SPECIFIC 2nd person POV. 'You' have a life, a history, and a distinct personality. Jarring, to say the least.

I'm not going to pull punches - it was so freaking hard to get through that first half. Many times I had to force myself to keep reading and to pick it up again. However, once I started getting the hang of the world things became much, much smoother. Enjoyable, even. And while I quite frankly never ENJOYED the 2nd POV, I loved the events as they unfolded through it.

I understand why the author just throws you into the world, however. There is so much to N.K. Jemisin's world that it would be next to impossible to ease the reader into it. So throwing them in makes logical sense. Unfortunately it does make for a sink or swim type of situation. Either you'll struggle through the book, or you'll give up. But keep going.

After chapter 12 was when things picked up for me. I enjoyed the events - probably because I was getting used to the world - and found myself eager to know what happened next. The prose is beautiful both in its almost lyrical qualities and how it doesn't pull any punches. This is a brutal world - but it's not brutal to BE brutal. There are reasons, and it's not a story to see just how much bad can happen to a character. I loved the way homosexuality and trans-sexuality was treated as normal. For the most part the characters didn't have a strong opinion about it one way or the other, except in a few instances to bring up points about arranged marriages and procreation.

There is a polyamous relationship that makes sense and that works - it was nice to see it handled in such a way.

Unfortunately to explain exactly WHY this book went from 'bleh' to 'holy-freaking-crap-this-is-amazing' would require spoilers.

It ties itself together so freaking well, and all that trudging and struggling through has a payoff in the end. A big one.

If you're interested in high fantasy or science fiction with a brutal world but just can't stomach the extent of Game Of Thrones, this is the book for you. Just...uh...get through that first half.

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