Review: The Fifth Season

Hi and welcome to the reading world!

Today I’m going to be sharing a review for a book that is widely considered a modern fantasy classic, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.

Now, The Fifth Season is an incredibly popular book (as of writing this review, it’s got over 180,000 reviews and a 4.28 average) so reviewing it and saying it’s one of my new all time favorite reads isn’t exactly surprising. However, since I got the chance to read this along with some of my fellow book club members in @B2Weird, I wanted to dedicate an entire post to why this book was so incredible to me personally.

Summarizing this book is hard, and I especially want to avoid spoilers so I’ll just briefly say: The Fifth Season follows multiple storylines of individuals on journeys throughout a post-apocalyptic world where some people have the ability to manipulate the Broken Earth itself. One of the perspectives is even told in the second person, which was a new and unique reading experience for me! This book has incredible world building, a magic system that is both intricate and intuitive, and excellently paced storylines.

This book has an incredible structure. The way the storylines unfolded was expertly crafted and executed in a way that is completely novel to my reading experience and was compelling throughout but especially so by the latter third of the book.

The world itself is also unique and intriguing. Magic systems are shown and the complexity that the scope of this series can hold is hinted at, but there’s never excessive dumping of information so that the understanding of the supernatural elements is well integrated into the story itself.

I also loved the character development and the build up throughout each storyline. My one issue with character dynamics was I wanted to see more especially from side characters, but even as a character-driven reader I found the plot so engaging that missing a bit more from certain side characters wasn’t something I found myself dwelling on. This is also something that I think is a potential way for the series to expand further as I read on (because I am definitely picking up book 2 almost immediately after I finish writing this review!) and based on how incredible this book is, I’m excited to read on!

So, yes the buzz around The Fifth Season was very much deserved in my opinion. I can’t wait to read the rest of the trilogy, and I will definitely be picking up more books by this author!

Read this if you like: fantasy, dystopians, intricate storyline and story structure that still feels accessible, Mistborn‘s depiction of a magic system that is subtly explained and built out while still giving the reader a sense of the world building, The Poppy War for a fantasy that shows the grit and imperfect sides of characters trying to wield their abilities, City of Brass for epic multiple POV storylines that each create an intriguing and compelling narrative

Read this if you’re in the mood for: a fantasy that is unlike any other you’ve read with a unique world, magic system, and story structure

What’s your favorite fantasy series?

Thank you for stopping by! I’m off to pick up book 2!

-Rae