The Fifth Season is an audiobook by N. K. Jemisin, narrated by Robin Miles. The unabridged Audible edition runs 15 hrs 27 mins.
Publisher’s Summary
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.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs 27 mins
- Publisher: Orbit
- Release year: 2015
- Audible category: Literature & Fiction / Genre Fiction / Literary Fiction
Listener Ratings
The Fifth Season holds an average listener rating of 4.4/5 from 27343 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.6/5
- Story: 4.4/5
- 5-star ratings: 63% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
3/5 stars — “Rusted Ruminations”
Three threads tell the intertwined story of Orogeny, a form of magic in N.K. Jemisin’s vision of Earth that allows control of seismic, volcanic, and other geologic events, and the social and political structures built around this critical skill in a world wracked by earthquakes, eruptions, and tsunamis.One thread follows a girl with orogenic power as she is taken from her village to the big city to learn how to control her skill. Another follows a young woman at the height of her powers as she is sent on a mission. The third follows an aging orogene trying to track down her husband after he kills their son and kidnaps their daughter.
Jemisin builds her world through the process of developing character, slowly and patiently, in a manner strongly reminiscent of similar stories of environmental disaster by Hugh Howey (Wool, Sand) and Paolo Bacigalupi (Windup Girl, Ship Breaker), as well as John Scalzi’s Human Division (minus the action sequences).
The writing is impeccable, the characters are well-developed, the metaphors are subtle, nuanced, thought provoking — just take the word orogeny that Jemisin seems to have coined (it’s actually an obscure geologic term), which sounds exactly like erogeny, which suggests origins or aboriginals, which seems like it could be an etymological construct that means golden people, all relevant to the themes she tackles.
And yet… the pace is glacial, nothing much happens, and much of what does happen is the height of implausibility, not properly explained by Jemisin or her characters. The big reveal — the primary reason to keep reading — is telegraphed about halfway through. And the segue to the next entry in the series (yet to be written), though not quite as obvious, becomes easy to predict over the last few hours.
Hours… there’s the rub. This would have been a knockout at 8-9 hours. At nearly double that length, it drags on and on for long stretches. Edit, edit, edit! That’s what they tell my kids at school. That’s what my editor tells me. That’s my advice to Jemisin. Concise and precise, those are the primary Elements of Style. But what do I know? Everyone else loves this book.
The one thing I love is the thread that’s told in the second person. That is really hard to pull off, especially risky to even attempt it after Bright Lights Big City laid claim to that conceit forevermore. But Jemisin does attempt it and succeeds masterfully. Even better, it seems to me to be a point of view that works particularly well in audio. The best aspect of this book by far.
— Dubi, Audible listener
3/5 stars — “Yawn!!!!”
I tried, I reeeaaaallllyyyy tried! The book was so boring and the narrator so….uuummmmm equally boring I had to throw in the towel early in the narrative.— brad, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “In a class of its own”
The mixed reviews had me worried about starting this one as a lot of people have said, but I think I can clear up the confusion here. This book is objectively good. It’s brilliantly written. It is well designed in both its intricate world and its eloquent writing.But this book is not for everyone. Some people will be turned off by the bold choices the author has made with her writing style. Some people will be turned off by the pacing. Maybe it will be the bleak world that never lightens up. Or it will be the many times the author asks you to look at things from the perspective of people who think differently than you do. Something may turn you off, and you may not like this book. That’s fine. Return it and find something that speaks to you.
But it’s a lie to ever say this is a bad book. This is an incredible work of art. It stands as a powerful story that evokes the history of oppression and slavery. It asks hard questions and doesn’t provide easy answers. Its heroes are as flawed as the people that oppress them.
As a first book in a series, it’s a crazy beginning. It’s a monumental achievement. I do look forward to seeing how it plays out.
This book isn’t my ideal fantasy or sci-fi book. It’s not my favorite, but I have a huge amount of respect for it. I can’t give it anything less than high marks. But don’t feel bad if you don’t feel like reading it. It isn’t for everyone.
— Zachary J. Burke, Audible listener
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