Reading Well: The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

You may have noticed that I usually don’t read mutli-volume entries in order. N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy (The Fifth Season [2015], The Obelisk Gate [2016], and The Stone Sky [2017]) is so good it made me break that rule, and I steamrolled from one to the next to the next.

I have a confession: Jemisin is hailed (along with Reading Well favorite Nnedi Okorafor) as a leading voice in the next generation of science fiction/fantasy, and specifically of what is termed afro-futurism. Should be exactly in one of my sweet spots.

I read something by her many years ago, I don’t even remember what, and it just left me … unreactive. This was before Reading Well, so I didn’t have to think about the reaction much, just shrugged, tossed it aside, and moved on.

Having read this, I’m pretty sure the fault was in me.

Let me be clear: this is not “great literature.” This is a page-turning fantasy epic that is richly and deftly constructed, a world that, with very little exposition, feels deep and real and whose impossibilities are shrugged off willingly. That’s a great achievement.

Add a central character who veers between courage and anger, between moments of potentially world-changing possibility and the particular grief of mothers whose children are lost to them; toss in a complex system of social control that is–and yet is not–slavery in different clothing, and you have a magnificently compelling story.

The setting is a world ravaged by tectonic disruption: every few centuries, this manifests in global catastrophe, placing humanity in a very subsistence rhythm: there are times of plenty, and then seasons of total lack, where even the flora and fauna become aggressive and deadly. There are some people–and the main character is one–who have a genetic ability to calm, if not control, the Earth itself, using this ability to lessen the impact of the constant tectonic churn.

If the genre is one you read, and the setting has the faintest appeal, read The Fifth Season immediately. I suspect you will pick up the other two shortly thereafter.

#WhatIWishICouldDo

Creating a world this rich with this little exposition is a great feat: Jemisin’s conception of this world is consistent and true and what you don’t know emerges in ways that are a natural progression of the story. Just fantastic.