The Fifth Season offers a brutal, sophisticated take on the ecological apocalypse. Three terrible things happen in a single day: a catastrophic crime throws the lives of three people into turmoil; an ancient supercontinent, soaked in blood and war, collapses and breaks apart; and along the edge of the resulting abyss, a woman raises her newborn child—Book One of The Broken Earth trilogy.
New York Times–bestselling author N. K. Jemisin brings her critically acclaimed Dreamblood duology to an unforgettable conclusion in the epic and highly anticipated finale, The Stone Sky. As a Fifth Season draws near, a world has been torn apart by earthquakes, volcanoes, and the strange affliction known as orogeny that only women can wield. This is a realm where those with the ability to call up the earth’s fury must battle each other for possession of their world’s elemental magic—a battle of ancient origin waged by modern women who are now caught in its inexorable current.
The Fifth Season is a novel of breathtaking ambition and scale. N. K. Jemisin starts dismissively but deftly with three major tragedies that occur on a single day in a world whose history is governed by the activities of its gods and Goddesses (or are they?). Essun is an orogene who can control seismic activity; Syenite is an ambassador in the army of Alabaster, another such individual; and Damaya is a slave in the training academy run by Fulcrum, who oversees the empire of Sanze. The prologue shows how much space and time will be traversed as these three women fight for survival well into their old age. It also touches on some magic used to explain how this world works — namely, its geology.
About The Fifth Season Book
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, arable land, and limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be a war across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory but simply for the essential resources necessary to get through the long night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself to save her daughter if she must.
