Title The Fifth Season Author N.K. Jemisin Cover Art Lauren Panepinto Publisher Orbit - 2015 First Printing Orbit - 2015
	Title The Obelisk Gate Author N.K. Jemisin Cover Art Lauren Panepinto Publisher Orbit - 2016 First Printing Orbit - 2016
	Title The Stone Sky Author N.K. Jemisin Cover Art Lauren Panepinto Publisher Orbit - 2017 First Printing Orbit - 2017
	Title “Stone Hunger” Author N.K. Jemisin Cover Art Albert Urmanov Publisher Clarkesworld Magazine - 2014 First Printing Clarkesworld Magazine - 2014
	Category Post-Apocalypse Warnings None Main Characters Essun, Syenite, Alabaster, Damaya, Hoa, Nassun, Schaffa, Ykka Main Elements Wizards Website nkjemisin.com

The Fifth Season

The Obelisk Gate

The Stone Sky

This is a book that forces a reader to pay attention, a lot of attention. I won't say why, because it's important you figure it out for yourself exactly what is going on (well, ok, you won't figure it all out by the end, there's still another two books). It starts with an interesting choice of using "you" to describe the narrator. I've seen first person narratives, and omniscent narrators, but never this. It was a big odd being told what "you" were thinking and doing, but it was also intriguing. Not all of the book is written in that form though, we meet other characters and journey with them as well. And this journey takes place on a world where all the landmass has collected into a single continent, but it is a restless Earth, prone to Seasons where tectonic forces cause the skies to fill with ash and the crops to die. This is why the people live by the Stonelore, it tells them how to prepare for a Season, and hopefully how to survive one. We don't know if this is our world, or another, but I have my suspicion this is less a fantasy and more a future Dying Earth (like that of Jack Vance). There are some hints that the magic may be less than magical and potentially more technological, but too early to tell with this first book.

But this Season...this is the last one. After all we keep using the words "end of the world" but in fact even if all humans are wiped off the face of the Earth, the world still carries on just fine without out us. But here we get the feeling that perhaps the world is in fact ending, for real, this time.

This world is populated with a fascinating group of characters. We have Essun, and orogene, which means she has a kind of Earth magic, and is capable of controlling the quakes that torment the land. You'd think everyone would want orogenes around them, to protect them, but of course orogenes can also kill people with their power and thus they are feared and ostracized. If they are not trained at the Fulcrum and proven capable of controlling their powers, they are often cast out or killed. Perhaps not entirely wrongly, for they are indeed dangerous when they can't control their emotions. We also have Damaya, a child orogene who is brought to the Fulcrum to train by a Guardian, a most mysterious group of people who have powers it seems only other Guardians really understand. They smile a lot, especially when they are killing a rogue orogene, they are very creepy. There is Syenite, a trained orogene from the Fulcrum sent out to continue her training with Alabaster, the most powerful orogene around.

And there are the obelisks, beautiful crystal like things that spin through the air, seemingly harmless but perhaps not, mysterious relics from an ancient past no one remembers...this is important, the past is murky, we don't know how we got to where we are now, a lot has been forgotten which needs to be recovered.

And then there are Stoneaters. Don't ask me what they are, seems no one really knows. They are sentient, but not human, and they have an agenda all their own.

And then the world breaks...

Engaging characters, excellent worldbuilding, a plot that confuses and intrigues and makes you want to know more...no not want, you MUST know more. Dangling tantalizing hints as to truth of things. I am definitely going to read the rest of this trilogy, and I'm going to do it soon. Leave it too long and you'll forgot those hints and suggestions, and you never know what might be mentioned just in passing may in fact be quite important. Highly recommend this series!

January 2019

I eagerly dived into the second book in the hopes of learning more, and that we do, much more. We find out there is a three sided war going on with humans caught in the middle. We learn more of the nature of the Guardians, the Obelisks, and the Stone Eaters. And much of what we learn leads to even more questions. Now that we know there are sides, we need to figure out who is on what side. Even understanding exactly what the sides represent takes some effort, taking hints dropped in the first two books and putting all the pieces together. I won't talk too much about this middle book other than to say it drew me in just as much as the first books did...and the Guardians are even freakier than you can imagine!

Let's just say these aren't the easiest books to read. Just looking at the kill count of our main characters across the first two books measures in the tens of millions. And while sometimes it's a accident, you have to sit back and realize that most of the time it's not only intentionally, but driven by nothing more than anger and a desire for revenge. Suddenly it becomes a little harder to sympathize with our protagonists! While for what its worth, make these books that much more interesting to read, to make you think, to wonder even if the achieve something good in the end, was it worth the deaths of all those innocents, particularly the ones that did not in fact have to die. Frankly, I think Lerna the doctor is the only actual good person, everyone else is serious damaged in some way, and yet even damaged, not justified in their actions.

I really look forward to the fourth book but I'm fourth in line to get it from the library so it might be another couple of months.

March 2019

And so it ends...or maybe it doesn't, I'm not telling as it could go either way. In this book we get some chapters which take place before the Shattering and get to learn how things came to be the way they are. And where Guardians come from, and Stone Eaters, and even the mysterious purpose of the Obelisks. I'm not sure I understood everything perfectly, either I missed the bit of info I needed to connect the dots or it wasn't there, but just the same, while I started the series confused and wanting to know more, I ended it satisfied that I understood enough. And I was satisfied with what happened to the characters, not necessarily happy about what happened to them, but it all made sense. I was glad though that I was reading along with someone else so we could jog each other's memories and point things out that the other missed, I recommend doing that.

And I definitely plan to read these books again, it's one of those series that should really benefit from a second read since you'll have a general idea of where things are going so you can see how Jemisin guides the reader along. And you'll also understand why the book is written from the second person point of view, and it will change the way you feel as you read it.

No matter what I highly recommend this series and if my review of the last book is so much shorter than the first, it's not because I liked it less but rather because I don't want to give anything away.

May 2019

"Stone Eater" is a standalone story, free to read on the Clarkesworld Magazine website, that tells the tale of another young orogene trying to survive the Season and also looking for revenge against another orogene that destroyed her home. But when she finds him, she finds far more than she expected.