Summary When mysterious aircraft wreak havoc across Earth’s skies, it is revealed that there are clusters of other planets where humankind resides, distant worlds where the people wield the power of the stars themselves. It is an energy force that can bring about miracles or, as the alien fleet’s ruthless leader displays, unleash horrors beyond imagination. After experiencing a loss during the onslaught, Colton Samson, an ordinary college student, vows to protect his loved ones at any cost. But to learn the power to do so, he must enlist into the Army of the Universal Throne—a second alien force with...
The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
Summary The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind. In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken? In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn. In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland. In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the...
Dungeon School by Kenny Gould
Summary King Crow has made it through the first level of Toroth-Gol. After killing the world’s last giant, running afoul of pirates, and narrowly escaping a booby-trapped party store, he finds himself on a platform in the middle of the ocean, where he faces a new challenge... WELCOME TO DUNGEON SCHOOL. Review Dungeon School is a fantastic sequel that improves on everything I enjoyed about the first novel. The relentless pace, witty humor, intriguing world, and endearing characters are perfect for readers looking for a quick and unique reading experience. In this novel King Crow and companions continue through the...
Beta by M.T. Zimny
Summary Samantha Havardson is not an Apex. Seriously. She’s completely ordinary with a totally normal family that just happens to be moving to the Apex epicenter of the world- the manmade island city of New Delos. Although she thinks her lack of super Apex abilities will keep her out of the limelight, it quickly becomes apparent that the city has different plans, sweeping Samantha up in a world of secret identities and super powers where anyone, even those closest to her, might be an Apex. Review Beta was the YA superhero story that I didn't know I needed. It is...
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Summary: “Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb’s books are diamonds in a sea of zircons.”—George R. R. Martin Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father’s gruff stableman. He is treated as an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz’s blood runs the magic Skill—and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous...
The Soul of Chaos by Gregory Wunderlin
Summary: The whispers followed her. Since her first rebuke they persisted in their pursuit, distant yet clear, they offered the same deal. Power. Freedom. They swelled when she acknowledged them, the fierce static eschewing reality in its sudden onset. Exiled from his home and his noble heritage in disgrace, Rurik toils in the mines of an ancient, underground ruin as foreman to a group of breakers: prisoners, cutthroats, and dregs of society forced into indentured servitude. His responsibility to his crew weighs heavily on his conscience-for even the most minor job can prove fatal, and earning his life back can...
Cloti’s Song by Dani Finn
Synopsis: There are some things that cannot be taken from you. The humans have conquered the Maer capital, and they show no signs of leaving. Cloti and her spouses cling to each other in the hollow shell of their occupied city. Each day is a bitter gift; they may not be free, but they have each other. When the city’s human Administrator offers to let Cloti restart her meditation practice in the temple, she jumps at the chance to spread a little hope in such dark days. Half the city followed her teachings before the occupation; maybe she can...
Springtide Harvest by J.D. Mitchell
Summary The old world is dead. Worse, it was a lie. Haskell wants to be a legend, a hero like his grandfather who broke the orcish hordes. Froba just wants to survive. She knows what Haskell doesn't: that the deck is stacked against them, and there are no heroes in the world. After assembling a band of misfits, Haskell must face a labyrinthine dungeon, an exploitative, monster-hunting guild, and his own failings, while Froba must decide where her loyalties lie—with her naïve mark or corrupt master. If traitors and woodland monsters don’t murder them first. Review Springtide Harvest starts out...
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
Summary
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.
Review
N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is a triumph of the fantasy grimdark subgenre and has gained renown in the broader literary world, winning the 2016 Hugo Award and shattering readers since its publication in 2015. The novel is a deeply depressing fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic world trades between three points of view (POVs). This book put me through a collection of emotions as I placed myself in some of the uncomfortable situations each of the three main characters suffers through. Mrs. Jemisin writes reflective yet straight prose presenting themes of control, parenthood, sexuality, and prejudice throughout five hundred pages. Reading the starkness of the world Mrs. Jemisin created, the quiet moments of tenseness between each of the three main characters’ arcs never end, and somehow, I kept turning the page to see if things would get better and knowing that it most likely would not.
The three main characters are Syenite, a highly motivated and intelligent pupil of the Fulcrum, Damaya, a young child who is given the protection of a Guardian because she has extraordinary powers that she must learn to control, and Essun, a middle-aged woman looking for her husband and their last surviving child.
“You’re a gift of the earth—but Father Earth hates us, never forget, and his gifts are neither free nor safe.”
For me, one of the challenges of the book, besides the bleakness of the environment and the supporting cast, is that one of the three main POVs is told from a second person POV, which is jarring when jumping from character to character, mainly when the other POVs use a different writing perspective. I pushed through this as I have with other books, and it paid off as each character arc meet in the end.
The setting and ideas formulated through the three main POVs are placed in a stark and unforgiving dystopian apocalypse wrecked by earthquakes (or other disasters). A season is a disaster or significant world event and the corresponding time between when people attempt to rebuild, knowing they must prepare for the next season. A never-ending cycle of preparation and disaster, which, when looking forward, feels now only familiar. The people who walk the world and have no power are called “stills,” and the smaller portion of the population (less than one percent) are called “orogenes”. These people can cause earthquakes, kill with frost or cold, and perform other feats. They are hated and feared by most and used as tools or weapons to control specific areas through a form of lifelong military service or enslavement. The Fulcrum attempts to use “orogens” to control territories, lessen the effects of a season, and calm the rumbling ground under the different shattered fault lines of the land. The Fulcrum a government-like entity that trains orogenes harbor shadier secrets, and upon learning them, I realized how cruel the world Mrs. Jemisin has created.
“You think you matter?” All at once, he smiles. It’s ugly, cold as the vapor curling off the ice. “You think any of us matter beyond what we can do for them? Whether we obey or not.”
Mental and physical pain is felt through the three main characters in various circumstances. Mrs. Jemisin’s storytelling had me hating Schaffa through most of the book, yet for a few moments, it somehow changed my thoughts on Schaffa, a Guardian who broke a young girl’s hand at the start of the book at the end. I still hated him, but somehow, I nodded, if not in agreement but in understanding at the end. The last few pages linger like a ink stains on my fingers.
The Fifth Season provides complicated characters making choices in extreme circumstances at the end of the world, and the last portion of the book is the eye-opening, “holy shit” writing that secures this book’s acclaim and awards. This review is spoiler-free, but let me say yes, it deserves the treatment it gets from the professional press and others who pick it up and make it through the entire book.
“Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; Death is the fifth and master of all.”
Mrs. Jemisin doesn’t play with words; each sentence and word are set down deliberately, providing further growth for the characters and overarching story. She laces the three POVs charters separated at the start of the book, slowly twisting them until their fateful and dramatic ending and maybe everything that comes after. The narrative that drives the books is shown through the pacing. Long silences where life occurs, people prepare, and bursts of violence and destruction. Where I thought the writing shined was the agony of life between the disasters, learning how everyone barely coped with surviving and existing, which was felt on each page.
I read a paperback version of The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin Book 1 of the Broken Earth Trilogy printed in 2020. The book is around 130,000 words with a cover created by Lauren Panepinto, which shows a decaying wall with a faded sculpted metal and stone flourish. Its morose simplicity represents the tone found inside the pages. This book is not easy to recommend to everyone, but it was worth my time, and if you’re courageous enough, I hope it’s worth yours.
The Last Wish by Andrezj Sapowski
Summary: Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Last Wish introduced the world to the iconic monster hunter Geralt of Rivia; his beloved ward and the prophesied savior of the world, Ciri; and his ally and true love, the powerful sorceress Yennefer—and they took the world by storm. Now, experience the world of the Witcher like never before with this stunning deluxe hardcover edition of the story collection that started it all, featuring a beautiful new cover and eight gorgeous interior illustrations by a range of award-winning artists. Geralt is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious...