The Fifth Season

This is probably slightly closer to 3.5 or 3.75* for me, but I'm bumping it up to 4* because I feel like this world and magic system has huge potential.

I was a little confused on how to rate and review this one because it's one of those books that started off strong, became a little repetitive and just okay for the middle, and then ended off with a huge bang. I probably skimmed through from the 40% to 75% mark of the book as there was a ton of setting up and I felt a little lost in the world. Plus, I wasn't always engaged by the writing style. The last 25% of the book was just wow though, and I think the ending of the book may have bumped it up a whole star for me.

The story takes place in a world that's sort of a cluster of primitive civilisations. It's a world that's post-apocalyptic only because they deal with apocalypses on the regular, known as Seasons. That is when the Earth shakes and ashes fill the sky, plants die, animals die, the whole schpiel. They've run through many (advanced) civilisations who couldn't survives these Seasons, so the one the story takes place in is primitive because they spend more time and technology on figuring out how to survive a Season rather than like, making cars or airplanes, for example. Within this world, there are people called orogenes, who have some kind of linked consciousness with the actual planet but to varying degrees. They can literally shake the earth beneath their feet, but in so doing they draw energy and heat from every heat-giving source around them, which could kill everyone in their vicinity or even in the entire town they're in by “icing” them. Everyone else who aren't orogenes, called Stills, are deathly afraid of them yet rely on them to quell the seismic activities that threaten their lives.

In this world, we meet Essun, a middle-aged orogene who comes home one day to find her 3 year old son beaten to death by her husband and his father, Jija. He has disappeared with her 7 year old daughter, Nassun, and Essun makes it her mission to find them both. We also learn about Syenite, a young woman and a budding orogene in the Fulcrum, the organization that trains orogenes to hone and control their powers, who is sent to accompany her mentor, Alabaster, and also to have a child with him as soon as possible in order to replenish more powerful orogenes for the Fulcrum. Lastly, we also have Damaya, a little girl who is just discovering her orogenic powers, who is feared by her family and thus given up to a Guardian from the Fulcrum, who brings her back to the capital city where it is headquartered but also teaches her the extent of the harshness of her training.

The most striking thing about this book when you first start on it is how you experience Essun's story entirely from a second-person perspective. That's right, the narrative runs like: You are she. She is you. You are Essun, remember? (actual quote) It's a little disorienting at first only because we are so little used to reading second-person perspective in fiction, but it's oddly easy to acclimatize. The initial set-up of the story was pretty strong, although the magic system does take a while of getting used to. The world in this one is very very solid, but also rather gritty and brutal. Sometimes it feels like there is not one spark of actual happiness in any corner of the world, which can be rather depressing. Nevertheless, the greater overarching plot of the world, the universe that this story is set in does draw you in. The ending, in particular, caught me off guard.

I would say that the pacing of most of this book is a bit too slow for me, but I also find that the ending set up a lot of details and further plot line which I'd be really excited to see more of, so I would need to read more of this series to find out how they're gonna continue from all these revelations we had at the end.