The Fifth Season

The Fifth Season is the first installment of author N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy—a “science fantasy” series that blends scientific explanation with the magical or supernatural elements of the fantasy genre. After its publication in 2015, the novel received the 2016 Hugo Award recognizing excellence in science fiction or fantasy writing. Jemisin was the first black woman to win the prize, and went on to break another record when her sequels to The Fifth Season—The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky—won the Hugo Award in 2017 and 2018: To date, she’s the only writer to have received the prize in three consecutive years.

Content Warning: The source material contains instances of sexual coercion, sexual assault, child death, child sexual abuse, and enslavement.

Plot Summary

The Fifth Season takes place on an unnamed planet home to a single, massive continent known as the Stillness. For all of written history, constant seismic activity in the form of shakes (earthquakes) and blows (volcanic eruptions) has made precarious life in the Stillness; multiple societies have risen and fallen, usually ending as a result of the Fifth Seasons (volcanic winters) that tend to recur every few centuries.

The novel follows the interwoven storylines of three characters ultimately revealed as the same woman at different stages of her life: Damaya, Syenite, and Essun.