Book Review: “The Fifth Season” by N.K. Jemisin
Håfa adai! February is Black History Month in the United States. Throughout February 2025, I will post reviews for books across various genres that are written by African American authors and/or depict important experiences and stories within Black history. Each book review will be followed by a brief summary of Black history and Black History Month within the context of United States history. Learn more about Black History Month at the end of this book review. My first selection of February 2025 is The Fifth Season, the first book in The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin.
The book review portion of this post consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.
Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Fantasy bookshelf.
Spoiler-Free Plot Summary of The Fifth Season
Everything changed in the course of a single day: Essun’s family was destroyed when her husband killed their son and kidnapped their daughter; the empire that has dominated the world’s civilizations for millennia, Sanze, has been usurped; and the Stillness, the planet’s singular mega continent, has been torn in two in a horrific seismic event. Now, Essun is forced to travel across the darkened and unsafe Stillness, facing the dangers throughout and within it, to find her daughter.
Damaya has recently been surrendered by her family to the Guardian after her parents realized that she is an orogene, a person with the innate ability to control energy by manipulating the earth and temperature. Now, she must learn to control her abilities and live by the rules of the Fulcrum, the organization that takes the hated sub-class orogenes and turns them into controlled tools for Sanze.
Syenite is a prodigy among the young orogenes living at the Fulcrum. But being considered the best among a set of tools for Sanze does not grant one humanity. Her skills lead the Guardians to pair her with Alabaster so that they may breed more highly skilled orogenes. When Syenite and Alabaster see an opportunity to break free of the Fulcrum, they take it.
IMPORTANT TRIGGER WARNING FOR THE FIFTH SEASON
The Fifth Season heavily depicts discrimination, child abuse, child murder, physical assault, sexual assault, and genocide. These scenes and themes are essential to the plot. If these are themes that would cause you distress or discomfort in any way, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.
My Thoughts on The Fifth Season: 4.75 stars
I chose what to review for Black History Month 2025 with the intention of following the genres I typically feature in a given week of any other month on the Bookmarks & Armchairs blog. As of this writing, Week 2 of any month features reviews of fantasy, mystery, or fiction. I picked N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season as the first book to review for several reasons: (1) the story centers themes that draw inspiration from and are significant within Black history, (2) fantasy has always been and will probably always be my favorite genre of literature, and (3) I have wanted to start this series for years now and sometimes I need a prompt to move a book to the top of my to-read list (which the weekly feature and heritage month doubly provide in this case).
In The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin builds a world that is dense, intense, nuanced, and complex. I listened to the audiobook version and had to make sure I was keeping note of what was going on and who was doing what in every scene. If I zoned out for a minute or so at any point of the first few chapters, I had to restart the chapter. But I was absolutely entranced by the story once I understood what was going on. The world within The Fifth Season consists of a single massive continent known as the Stillness. The Stillness is controlled by a large empire known as Sanze. Societies living at the center portion of the Stillness (near the equator) are perceived as being higher class within Sanze while those living further away from the equator are seen as lower class. Amongst all races and creeds of people, there is a collective prejudice against those born as orogenes (individuals with a magical ability to manipulate or influence the earth and temperature around them).
Instead of being told in a linear timeline, the chapters in The Fifth Season alternate between three perspectives in multiple points in time: Essun’s perspective details present events; Damaya’s perspective follows events furthest back in time; and Syenite’s perspective falls in between Essun’s and Damaya’s set of events. The narrator following Essun’s perspective addresses the reader directly, as if You are Essun, while the narrator following Damaya and Syenite are that of a third-person omniscient. This dynamic style of narrative switching was unlike anything I had experience recently. I initially assumed it would be confusing, but it actually helped keep me grounded throughout the story (no pun intended).
The Fifth Season explores themes of oppression, enslavement, and systemic bias and violence. The actions and choices of Essun, Damaya, and Syenite are informed by the horrors of the world they are forced to navigate: one that seeks to use, abuse, and discard them at every turn for simply existing, without ever acknowledging or respecting their humanity. The empire of Sanze deftly reflects systems of injustice and prejudice that exist in the real world. Children discovered to be orogenes are forcibly sold or surrendered by their parents to an institution that either molds them into manageable tools or kills them for not operating the way the institution dictates. Those who are seen as “exceptional” by the definitions of the institution are bred like animals with the intent to produce more “exceptional” offspring. Their names are taken from them, their bodies are broken, and their minds are manipulated.
In portraying the way orogenes are identified as subclass/nonhuman and treated like animals throughout the Stillness by the Sanze empire, The Fifth Season displays how notions of legality and morality can be coded to contradict each other within a broader prejudiced society. The Sanze empire and its classes of citizens live within a social structure that defines orogenes (who have no way of determining the powerful abilities they are born with) as being a separate type of living being from the other human beings that inhabit the Stillness. This definition, created and reinforced by legal and educational structures throughout the Sanze empire, empowers the citizens, Guardians, Fulcrum, and others all over the Stillness to believe there is nothing wrong with the way they mistreat and discard human beings born with those innate magical abilities.
My rating for N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is 4.75 out of 5 stars. I thoroughly appreciated the experience of this book. The worldbuilding is deeply thought out, the storytelling is complex, the plot twists were absolutely unpredictable, and the themes are tragic yet poignant. I had recently reviewed multiple books categorized as Young Adult, so it was refreshing to encounter a story that had greater depth and complexity. The Fifth Season is categorized as fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy, but I am including it in the Fantasy bookshelf because that is where I would find physical copies of this book in a bookstore. I recommend The Fifth Season to any reader who is a fan of speculative fiction and who is okay reading about uncomfortable topics.
Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of The Fifth Season, the first book in The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin.
Other Books Reviewed for Black History Month 2025:
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
A Brief Summary of Black History & Black History Month in the United States
Black History Month is the first heritage month of the year celebrated in the United States. But how did this important heritage month come to be? How a community enters a nation’s historical narrative matters. The context of that introduction often sets the tone for how members of that community will be defined and treated by that nation’s leading demographic, legislation, popular media, public education, and more. For that reason, it is important to give a quick summary of the legislative history of how Africans and African Americans entered the national narrative of the United States, giving context to the significance of Black History Month.
A Quick Glance at the Legislative History of the United States of America
In 1776, thirteen British colonies in North America legally and politically separated from Great Britain to form the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments of the Constitution)—documents considered to be the foundation of the nation—rely on notions of freedom and equality as staunch opposition to the monarchy the colonies left behind. Yet the entire economy and structure of the United States in 1776 contradicted these notions, relying on the genocide and enslavement of multiple populations through practices that had been created and aggressively maintained for centuries. At the moment of its birth in 1776, the newly-formed United States of America had a lot of work to do before its reality resembled its ideologies.
In 1808, the 366 year-long Trans-Atlantic slave trade—costing the lives of over 15 million African men, women, and children—was legally ended in the United States, but illegal slave trade continued into the 1860s throughout both Union and Confederate states. On 1 January 1863, in the third year of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation stating “that all persons held as slaves… shall be free.” In 1865, the passage of the 13th Amendment formally abolished slavery in the United States. Citizenship would be granted to formerly enslaved people later with the 1866 adoption (and 1868 ratification) of the 14th Amendment*, which states that those born or naturalized in the United States would be granted citizenship. In 1870, the 15th Amendment technically “granted” voting rights to Black men (not Black women) in the aftermath of the Civil War; but legal protections against public discrimination and intimidation informed by bigotry (which prevented many Black men from exercising their right to vote, among many other things) would not be set in place until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1954, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education ruled that it was unconstitutional to separate children in public schools on the basis of race. But the historical narrative of African Americans can be seen far beyond the legislative record of the country.
*Citizenship for Native Americans and those from United States territories/colonies was and is not granted through the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Creations by African American Inventors Shape Much of American Life Today
From the economic foundations of the nation, to connecting the country coast to coast and beyond, and the comforts of everyday life, the impact of inventions by African Americans are felt in almost every facet of American life today. To name a few, these inventions include: the induction telegraph system that lets trains communicate while still in motion (Granville T. Woods); touch-tone phone, fiber optic cables, portable fax, and Caller ID (Shirley Jackson, not to be mistaken for the American horror author with the same name); the original IBM personal computer and color PC monitor (co-invented by Mark Dean); the Fairchild Channel F videogame console and the first interchangeable videogame cartridge (Jerry Lawson); Shockwave (the foundation for web animation) (Lisa Gelobter); the traffic signal (Garrett Morgan); automated elevator doors (Alexander Miles); synthetic drugs to treat glaucoma (Percy Lavon Julian); the home security system (Marie Van Brittan Brown); the sanitary belt (predecessor to sanitary pads and other menstrual products for women) and much more (Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner); refrigeration preserving things from food to medicine and donated blood (Frederick McKinley Jones); the first set of haircare products made especially for Black women’s hair (Madam C.J. Walker); synthetic rubber, peanut butter, and a lot more (George Washington Carver); the potato chip (George Crum); and the Super Soaker (Lonnie Johnson).
Black History Month Takes Shape
The foundations for Black History Month were laid in 1915 when historian Carter G. Woodson traveled to Chicago to attend the 50 anniversary celebration of the abolishment of slavery. Woodson noticed an absence of academic studies and acknowledgements of the contributions of African Americans in American history. In response to this, he organized the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 and the Journal of Negro History in 1916, where historians and other scholars could focus research on African American experiences. In 1926, Woodson created Negro History Week in the second week of February, choosing that week for its overlap with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and American abolitionist Frederick Douglas. Social change throughout the 1960s—spurred by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement—caused a shift across the United States. Younger generations of African Americans were changing how they related to their heritage within the nation’s popular historical narrative. Woodson’s organization was renamed the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). ASALH members expanded celebrations of Black heritage to a month long and—50 years after Woodson created a week-long homage—Black History Month was celebrated for the first time in 1976.
Closing Thoughts
Africans entered the historical narrative of the United States of America through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the most horrific practice and period of modern history. Although legislation would eventually abolish slavery, grant African Americans citizenship, and the right to vote, decades more would pass before African Americans would be able to practice their rights as equal citizens. Fifty years after slavery was abolished in the United States, historian Carter G. Woodson noticed a need to acknowledge the history, heritage, and contributions of African American citizens in the United States and laid the foundations of what would later become Black History Month.
References (sorted alphabetically by source as “Post. Source: Link”):
Transatlantic slave trade. Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/transatlantic-slave-trade
Slave Voyages, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. Emory University: https://www.slavevoyages.org/
Historical Context: Facts about the Slave Trade and Slavery. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/historical-context-facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery
13th Amendment. HISTORY: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/thirteenth-amendment
14th Amendment. HISTORY: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fourteenth-amendment
15th Amendment. HISTORY: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fifteenth-amendment
Black History Month. HISTORY: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month
Carter G. Woodson: The Man Behind Black History Month. HISTORY: https://www.history.com/news/the-man-behind-black-history-month
When Did African Americans Actually Get the Right to Vote? HISTORY: https://www.history.com/news/african-american-voting-right-15th-amendment
HISTORY OF | History of Black History Month. The HISTORY Channel Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnSHm3Y9qYc
African American Voting Rights. Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/elections/voters/african-americans/
Voyage of the Echo: The Trials of an Illegal Trans-Atlantic Slave Ship. Lowcounty Digital History Initiative: https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/voyage-of-the-echo-the-trials/historic-context--abolishing-t#:~:text=Britain%20finally%20abolished%20the%20trans,trade%20continued%20into%20the%201860s.
Americas Founding Documents. National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs
Black Americans and the Right to Vote. National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/vote
Brown v. Board of Education (1954). National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education
Civil Rights Act (1964). National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act#:~:text=This%20act%2C%20signed%20into%20law,civil%20rights%20legislation%20since%20Reconstruction.
The Emancipation Proclamation. National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation#:~:text=President%20Abraham%20Lincoln%20issued%20the,and%20henceforward%20shall%20be%20free.%22
Carter G. Woodson. NAACP: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/carter-g-woodson
Black History Month. National Geographic Kids: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/black-history-month
The transatlantic slave trade. National Museums Liverpool: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/history-of-slavery/transatlantic-slave-trade
The Declaration of Independence, 1776. Office of the Historian: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/declaration
PBS LEARNING MEDIA | Black History Month | PBS KIDS. PBS KIDS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f00AatzvxC0
Transatlantic Slave Trade. Slavery and Remembrance: https://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0002.
The History of Black History Month. Stanford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNxzOliUCTc
Black History is American History | Okalani Dawkins | TEDxYouth@MVHS. TEDx Talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VINtKSpbXw
Landmark Legislation: The Fourteenth Amendment. United States Senate: https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/14th-amendment.htm#:~:text=Passed%20by%20the%20Senate%20on,laws%2C%E2%80%9D%20extending%20the%20provisions%20of
Rating Cheat Sheet
4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.
Post Date: 10 February 2025
Published: 4 August 2015
Publisher: Orbit
