The Fifth Season

In the Stillness, a quake-wracked supercontinent, the Seasons, winters that last for years, wipe out civilizations. Orogenes, who control the earth's energy, are feared and hunted. Essun, an orogene hiding in a small town, finds that her husband has killed their son and fled with their daughter, Nassun, on the day someone splits the continent and starts the worst Season ever. Alongside her story, the girl Damaya is taken by the Guardian Schaffa to the Fulcrum, and young Syenite goes on a mission with Alabaster, the Fulcrum's most powerful orogene. In the end, Essun reaches the underground comm of Castrima and finds Alabaster. Damaya, Syenite and Essun are the same woman. Alabaster admits he broke the continent and asks if she has ever heard of the moon.

1. Behind the scenesIt started with a dream

   Jemisin dreamed of an angry woman walking toward her, a mountain floating behind her. She woke up in a cold sweat, wanting to know who that woman was and what kind of society had wronged her.

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2. Behind the scenesThe "you" that worked

   Before starting a novel, Jemisin writes test chapters in different tenses and points of view. The second-person test worked so well it became the book's prologue.

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3. Behind the scenesA historic Hugo

   This book made Jemisin the first African American author to win the Hugo for Best Novel, in 2016. She has said the story was also partly inspired by the Ferguson protests.

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4. ReferenceThe story that became a book

   In 2014, Jemisin published the short story "Stone Hunger," about a girl tracking the man who destroyed her town with stone power. It was the prototype for this novel and later appeared in How Long 'til Black Future Month? (2018).

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5. SetupWho's talking?

   Pay attention to the voice that calls Essun "you." It knows things only someone very close to her would know. Who is narrating, and why, are questions the trilogy answers later.

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