On "The Fifth Season" and the oppression of powerful wizards
A review of N. K. Jemisin's first book in the "Broken Earth" trilogy
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 out of 5)
Science Fiction: ★★★☆☆ (3 out of 5)
Literary: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)
Vibe: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)
[No spoiler section]
While veering into the fantasy category, The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin has some hints of invented science in its magic system. In addition, the world being regularly devastated in the eponymous geological “fifth seasons” creates an almost steampunk vibe — or at least proto-steampunk. There’s a biological basis to the magic that is countered by what is hinted to be a piece of biotechnology. As I’ve said before, the distinction between “hard” and other kinds of sci fi is difficult to defend; this novel gives me pause about the usefulness of distinguishing sci fi from fantasy. Overall, it was good in terms of the writing and characters (including the way the story is told as three separate arcs that tie together), but it suffers from a trope that I find difficult to wave away — the oppression of powerful wizards.
There’s a nice article on the issues with this trope over at Mythcreants — mostly that it doesn’t make sense unless those wizards are being oppressed by even more powerful wizards. The Fifth Season hints in that direction, but the interactions seem mostly on par if not advantage: wizards, mixed sports metaphor notwithstanding.
While there were several points in the book where I was confused as to a character’s motivation (more on one of those in the spoilers section), it was still a well-written1 book that kept me engaged. That’s what we want, right? It’s a creative, well-constructed world, but suffers a bit from a question of why? A world that has to constantly rebuild itself in between periods of tectonic activity is an interesting thought experiment — I liked the way a nurturing Mother Earth that could be associated with Eden is turned on its head into a vengeful Father Earth associated with hell (see also spoilers below). However, thus far, it has left me yearning for a bigger picture. Le Guin created Annares to examine the nature of an anarcho-utopia. Herbert created Arrakis to examine the idea of charismatic leaders. The Stillness seems (again, thus far) to be just a setting where a society has to rebuild itself, and does to greater or lesser degrees.
Regardless, I don’t think anyone would be disappointed by this book.
[Spoilers section]
Part of the reason I don’t buy the oppression of the Orogenes (powerful wizards) is that we are shown limited interactions with the mechanism of their oppression — the Guardians. Twice with an Orogene child, once as a surprise, and once as a straight-up attack that is rebuffed by two Orogenes.
The Guardians also appear to be the mechanism of the Orogene’s oppression, taking on a potentially hazardous piece of biotechnology, for pure $#!Ts and giggles. They oppress the Orogenes in order to make them work for the communities (“Coms”) to stop earthquakes or handle geological issues. They don’t appear to benefit from this except the occasional joy they get out of murdering Orogenes that act out.
It’s also difficult for me to see how this arrangement survives between fifth seasons —maybe it doesn’t and it’s unique to this particular inter-season period? Maybe this is all explained further in future books.
Moving on to the character development, a main character seems to give up on finding their kid after losing the trail for no particular reason. That character also returns to a scene of an issue they caused (as imagined at the top of this post) out of guilt (which is fine), but it is used as a trap as if somehow the Fulcrum knows she is the kind of person who would do that. That is never really established as a character trait that others would be aware of. In fact, previously the character is established as somewhat calculating — handling political and social hierarchy imperfectly but not without examining the consequences.
I did enjoy the parallel between the main character rebuilding themselves after “tectonic shifts” in their life and the society at large (so we’re told) doing the same after seasons. Overall, the character’s actions are believable just sometimes unmotivated in terms of how the interact with the plot. This feels similar to the points of deus ex machina from Jemisin, though none of it is enough to ruin the experience.