The Fifth Season

N. K. Jemisin

Aug 2015 · The Broken Earth Book 1 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Robin Miles

About this audiobook

At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times)

This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time.

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.

This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

Read the first book in the critically acclaimed, three-time Hugo award-winning trilogy by NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

Ratings and reviews

Excellent book. The narrative reveals are well done. the relationship between the main character and Alabaster is incredible. For me, this book is a stand alone. The intrigue and pacing is really enjoyable. I read book 2 and all of that is gone. I wouldn't say book two is bad, but it's not the same kind of book. I like what the author conveys in this book and the following books in the series. it just becomes a little pedantic. Book 1, yes; books 2 and 3?? not the same energy even though they complete the story. I preferred reading the plot synopsis for book 3 rather than buying and listening to it. This book is good, but it does end on a bit of a cliffhanger. Buy the subsequent books at your own risk.

This is actually a very compelling book. I grabbed the audio book on a whim to use my first purchase 50% off coupon code, and I was very impressed. The book itself is very well written, and will give it 5 stars until I am blue in the face, and that's the first thing that will stand out. The author is clearly well educated and it shows in her craft. I give the audio portion of the audio-book 4 stars because, and probably due to no fault of the performer's own, but the book is understood oddly when read aloud. There are portions of the book written in second-person, and portions of the book written in third-person and it gets confusing at times, and especially when tensions are high, the internal monologue you hear physically, is supposed to be only "thought" in the book, and it's hard to determine which parts are thought and which parts are actions. I am not sure if there is really a better way to portray this method of writing, but it gets confusing occasionally, so prepare to rewind 30-seconds often in those chapters. I can't really give this package a 4.5 star rating, so I will round up to 5. If you're on the fence, just get it. It will captivate you for the entire length of the novel, if you offer it the opportunity.

The book itself is great, and the narrator gave me the impression she would be good in a different context, but the two together was a very bad pairing. This book got so much heat for being "heavy handed" activism disguised as sci-fi (which I strongly disagree with). So the pretentious tone the narrator used was not only unpleasant, but also ammunition against the book itself. Do yourself a favor and read this one, but with your eyes - or with text-to-speech if that's not an option.

About the author

N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author who won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. She previously won the Locus Award for her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and her short fiction and novels have been nominated multiple times for Hugo, World Fantasy, Nebula, and RT Reviewers' Choice awards, and shortlisted for the Crawford and the James Tiptree, Jr. awards. She is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for the New York Times, and you can find her online at nkjemisin.com.