Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post. I have read only one book this week, but what a book! I found it amazing!

My chosen book this week was N K Jemisin’s The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #01). It was one of those random serendipitous picks that, for once, turned out to be a brilliant find. Well done Amazon targeted adverts! Anyway, here is the blurb:

“This is the way the world ends. Again.

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 heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been 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, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.”

Let me just say to anyone considering this book, it is a very dark fantasy/science fiction crossover. There are most probably better ways of categorising it, but be aware that the story is not uplifting and cheerful. Brilliant for me as it cheered me up immensely! My life may be hard in many ways, but it is not that hard!

This is my review on Goodreads. I awarded the book the full five stars…

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! This was an amazing read and full of incredibly imaginative world building. It is difficult to review without giving too much away. The plot is split into three timelines where the reader follows the stories of three female characters. Most of it takes place on a continent suffering from epoch ending natural disasters, where the people struggle to survive. It takes quite a while for all of the various threads in the story to become clearer to the reader, but it is worth persevering.

Now, I am going to stop before I do give anything away! All I can say is “well worth reading”. Now, I am going on to the second book in the trilogy!

View all my reviews

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Yes, I am now going to read the second book in the series: The Obelisk Gate! I hope I can finish it in time for next week’s post.

Happy Reading to you all.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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