The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Book Description
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
Maude’s Book Club Questions For ‘The Fifth Season’:
Info dump of the prologue: was this easy to follow? Did you understand what was happening?
How did you find the casual nature of the narrator explaining the end of the world
The relationship between the 3 women: What do you think it is at the halfway mark? Maude felt Damaya and Essun were initially the same since it felt like a flashback. So far Syenite seems separate, but there have been mentions of given, family and mineral names. Syenite is a type of ingenious rock, Alabaster is soft rock/mineral.
Essun, Damaya, and Syen all emerge as distinct personalities: Damaya is intelligent and curious but shy; Syen is cynical, quick-witted, and confident.
How did you find the second person narration? Why do you think this was implemented
Chapters conclude with quotes from tomes/documentations/books, very similar to the beginning of chapters for Black Sun/Mistborn. Do you like this use of subtle exposition?
Talk through the distinct developments of the three characters:
Essun is travelling to find her daughter and meets Hoa, a young boy who has the ability to help find her
Dama has been discarded by her family and given to the Fulcrum to be trained. We see what life is like at the academy - full of bullying, control and survival
Syenite is much further along in her training having achieved 4 rings, and is sent on a field mission with a mentor/procreator Alabaster, who has 10 rings.
Predictions about Hoa - what/who is he?
How did you like the world building? Very visual displays of the land - plateaus, valleys, canyons with man-made structures (pyramids, balconies etc). Could you easily picture it?
How did you like the magic system? X-men (those born with powers), ‘otherism’, feeling threatened by those with power, needing training and control, who gets to harness the power?
The Stillness - this term is used to describe between time between the seasons, still refer to non-magic users
The prologue initially mentions the obelisks, but that there is very little information known. Did you piece together what was happening with the foreign structures in conjunction with the throw-away line?
Essun is 42, mixed race. Uche is her son, who inherited her ‘gift’. Her husband discovered this and killed him via beating. Essun slips into despair/grief. What did you learn about this world and Essun within it through this introduction?
Child-buyer to collect the orogene children. Shaffa looks very similar to how Hoa is described.
Talk about Fulcrum, the ‘school’ and attitude towards training those with the orogene.
Prejudice terms “rogga’ etc, names used to dehumanise the orogene
Talk about the levelling system with rings - earn rings based on controlling and increasing power, offered more freedoms
Syen being a woman must reproduce -it’s seen as a duty and Syen has incredibly detached views on it all.
Talk about Syen’s main trial with Alabaster - the discovery of the Node.
