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  • The Fifth Season

  • The Broken Earth, Book 1
  • By: N. K. Jemisin
  • Narrated by: Robin Miles
  • Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,828 ratings)
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The Fifth Season cover art

The Fifth Season

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Robin Miles
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Summary

Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel
Book 1 in the double Hugo-Award-winning trilogy
A New York Times Notable Book
Shortlisted for the World Fantasy, Nebula, Kitschies, Audie and Locus Awards
The inaugural Wired.com book club pick

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

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world, 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.

The Broken Earth trilogy is complete - beginning with The Fifth Season, continuing in The Obelisk Gate (Winner of the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel) and concluding with The Stone Sky (Shortlisted for the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novel).

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2015 N. K. Jemisin (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Astounding." (NPR)

"Elegiac, complex, and intriguing." (Publishers Weekly)

"Intricate and extraordinary." (New York Times)

What listeners say about The Fifth Season

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good and enjoyable book.

Be warned. The opening chapter is terrible and doesn't reflect the rest of the story. The narrator loses the weird jokey familiarity, the background music stops and the second person writing style only appears periodically. (Not something I normally struggle with but having an audiobook refer to 'you' doing things is a tad jarring at first.)

The plot focuses around 3 woman who are second class citizens subject to racism. The author has clearly written from a familiarish viewpoint but there's a reason people are told to 'write what you know' and that's because it works.

It is a little confusing working out how technologically advanced the background civilisation is. They have hydro-electric power, tarmac and antibiotics but ride horses, use telegrams, don't have guns and don't know what stars are. You end up having to sort of roll with it and assume pre-medieval tech until told otherwise.

The main characters are all stubborn and excessively close-minded. I think we are meant to put this down to brainwashing but it does grate a bit.

Overall, the story is fairly unique, the plot is compelling, the narration is good and the characters are quite likeable. Other than my minor qualms above there isn't anything too wromg with the story. Give it a go.

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38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Well read, decent characters, plodding plot

This is an odd book. The author does a great job of world building and populates it with some compelling characters but managed to have them do very little other than wander around aimlessly. There's an occasional reveal, which all feel fairly arbitrary, and some slightly strange narrative choices which don't really work.

That said, it's certainly original and the narration is excellent.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Gave up halfway

I wanted to love this book. The world building is incredible and the universe is a breath of fresh air. However, after 7 hours (roughly half way) I'm finally giving up. Other than the odd reveal here and there, nothing has happened. Just a bunch of characters I don't feel for wondering around aimlessly.

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12 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Blown away...

After reading some of the reviews I was slightly sceptical. I'm glad i went for it anyway. This book needs your full attention but is an amazing introduction to a well crafted and mysterious world.

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

<br />Hard to get into, but deeply absorbing

Persevere through the first three or four chapters. . . . . . . .

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding

It’s no surprise this book won awards. It’s so intriguing, so engrossing, so mind blowingly brilliant. I could fill this review with superlatives alone.

Half the book you’re wondering what the hell is going on, what the plot is, but you become intrigued to the point of obsession. What makes this stand out is it is worth the wait and all you want to do is pick up book 2 straight away. Ms Jemisin knows her geology, whether through research for the book or through work, when going into detail you are not bored by it nor do you switch off.

Chapters are written alternatively in 2nd and 3rd person which takes a bit of getting used to, but you get used to it soon enough.

Robin Miles works wonders giving the story real life and navigating the voices giving each character enough identity that you know who is talking..

Without a doubt one of the best books I’ve ever had the pleasure to read/listen to. Book 2 is half way through and 3 is sat waiting.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Struggled.

Struggled to get into this one. For me, the narration by Robin Miles was quite stilted. The muddied accents she put on for some of the characters were very strange. The sci-fi aspects of the story were very compelling though.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

some great ideas but...

I felt some areas needed further exposition and the characters were never fully fleshed out... I always felt I was skimming over the surface of the story without being drawn in. what brought it home was the lack of emotion at losing certain characters, didn't bat an eyelid when they kicked the bucket.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic really recommend

Normally a Sci fi fan and stumbled on this book looking at Hugo awards. Very rewarding listen great narrator

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good world-building but stretched out story

A bit of a slog after an interesting start. As an audio book I managed to get through it with it on in the background. But I would have given up in Kindle form.

A Hugo award winner...it now makes me wary of other such winners. A 'worthy' book with a welcome diversity you rarely see in sci-fi/fantasy....but if you take that away, the story is pretty average.

I've definitely been put off from completing the trilogy.

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3 people found this helpful