The Fifth Season

I saw this book recommended on social media in a thread that mentioned some other authors I’d enjoyed, Becky Chambers was there certainly, and picked this up from the library on that recommendation. Then I sat down at home and glanced up at the bookshelf and saw the exact same copy of the book looking back at me. So I took the copy back to the library and read Darren’s copy of it instead.

I certainly can’t complain that this book is too short! The book is set on a planet that appears to be dying, or at least cycling through a bad phase in its evolution, I was never quite sure which. I belated realised there’s a glossary in the back of the book explaining the terms that are in use in the book, but it’s not really needed, I like to pick up words by figuring them out from their context. The most important is probably orogeny: the ability to manipulate thermal, kinetic and related forms of energy to address seismic events and the main characters in the books are orogenes, the people who have this power. Far from being revered for their ability to connect with the land and avert disaster though they are basically outcasts being exploited by the rest of society. It’s an interesting setup for sure. I really enjoyed my slow discovery of how the world worked and what the problems with it were.

The book has three threads. The major thread features Syenite, an orogene who is sent out on a mission with a mentor in the dying world. Another concerns Essun, a woman wandering and looking for her missing daughter. The third thread tells the story of Damaya, a young girl thrown away from her family and taken to the school where orogenes are trained to handle their powers. I saw where two of the threads were going to link up early on, but the third dangled loosely until almost the end of the book and made the book feel a little disjoint. Perhaps I missed the clues as to the connections between that thread and the others and the connection made sense when it was revealed but it seemed to spend too long apart from the other parts of the story. In the end all was good, and I certainly enjoyed the read. The next one in the series is sitting on the shelves at home as well and I plan to read that in the near future.