It’s not always possible to tell that a novel is great while you’re reading it. I mean, obviously you can usually tell if you
like something, but to for me, you only know that a novel is capital-g Great when you find yourself, weeks or months or years after the first reading, still thinking about it. Most books, even delightful and brilliant ones, do not pass this test, at least for me. But I have thought about N. K. Jemisin’s
The Fifth Season (and its two sequels,
The Obelisk Gate and
The Stone Sky) at least weekly since I read it a few years ago.
Perhaps it’s unfair. The novel imagines an alternate Earth that is periodically torn apart by apocalyptic weather—like suffocating ash, acid clouds, fungal blooms, mineral-induced darkness, magnetic pole shifts—that lasts for decades at a time, often threatening to wipe out humanity entirely. So you can see how it might come to mind these days.
But I also think about it for its incredible world-building, its unfortunately relevant cultural critique (caste systems, power hierarchies, fear and oppression of the other or unknown, particularly when that unknown other has dreamed-of skills), and its unforgettable characters, particularly, of course, Essun, with all her anger and fear and strength and softness and power. I love her.
And hey, if you don’t want to take my word for it, consider that all three books in the Broken Earth series won Hugos. All three.
–Emily Temple, Senior Editor
N. K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season (2015)