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Start giftingThe Fifth Season
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Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“Maybe one of the best science fiction/fantasy novels I've ever read! No wonder the entire trilogy won three consecutive Hugo Awards. I loved: the masterfully crafted nonlinear storytelling that kept me guessing til the very end, the unparalleled world building, the strong characterization, the high stakes action/adventure, the diversity of relationship dynamics, the provocative depictions of the sexuality and gender, and the commentary on how otherness is so feared in society it leads to brutality and in some cases catastrophic ends. AMAZING! COMPLEX! and ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!”
— Zinna • A Great Good Place for Books
Bookseller recommendation
“This book is everything: complex characters, gorgeous settings, and a masterclass in worldbuilding. Robin Miles is one of the best narrators in the industry, and I would listen to every book she narrates. Her voice is rich and complex and she gives every character a distinct personality and voice. The Fifth Season is one of the best fantasy books ever written, and certainly one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to. ”
— Minna • Park Road Books
Bookseller recommendation
“The Fifth Season is an amazing, dark, and gripping work that will hook you from the first sentence. I cannot express to you how much this book stunned me. Robin's narration is well paced and engaging. While I wish this was a book for everyone to listen to, it isn't; destruction, trauma, and rage follow the women and girls who tell their stories. This book is about the end of the world, that you actually don't want to stop reading.”
— Jessica • Once Upon A Time
At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times)
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.
Read the first book in the critically acclaimed, three-time Hugo award-winning trilogy by NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.
N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author who won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. She previously won the Locus Award for her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and her short fiction and novels have been nominated multiple times for Hugo, World Fantasy, Nebula, and RT Reviewers' Choice awards, and shortlisted for the Crawford and the James Tiptree, Jr. awards. She is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for the New York Times, and you can find her online at nkjemisin.com.
Reviews
"Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold."โEntertainment Weekly "Intricate and extraordinary."โThe New York Times "[The Fifth Season is] an ambitious book, with a shifting point of view, and a protagonist whose full complexity doesn't become apparent till toward the end of the novel. ... Jemisin's work itself is part of a slow but definite change in sci-fi and fantasy."โGuardian "Astounding... Jemisin maintains a gripping voice and an emotional core that not only carries the story through its complicated setting, but sets things up for even more staggering revelations to come."โNPR Books "Jemisin's graceful prose and gritty setting provide the perfect backdrop for this fascinating tale of determined characters fighting to save a doomed world."โPublishers Weekly (Starred Review) "A must-buy...breaks uncharted ground."โLibrary Journal (starred review) "Jemisin might just be the best world builder out there right now.... [She] is a master at what she does." โRT Book Reviews (Top Pick!) "The Fifth Season is a powerful, epic novel of discovery, pain, and heartbreak.... It is a novel that demands much of its readers; it rewards them aplenty and is one of those novels that becomes more powerful after deep consideration and subsequent readings."โSFF World "This is an intense, exciting novel, where survival is always on the line, set in a fascinating, original and dangerous world with an intriguing mystery at the heart of it. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!"โMartha Wells "Brilliant...gorgeous writing and unexpected plot twists."โWashington Post "[A]ngrily, beautifully apocalyptic."โB&N.com "Heartbreaking, wholly unexpected, and technically virtuosic, The Fifth Season is a tour-de-force. I felt every shock--and the book is packed with them--in my marrow. It's no exaggeration to say that Jemisin expands the range of what great fantasy can be."โBrian Staveley, author of The Emperor's Blades "With every new work, Jemisin's ability to build worlds and break hearts only grows."โKirkus (starred review) Expand reviewsWant the printed book?
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