The Broken Earth
My favorite thing about NK Jemisin is that she makes her readers work hard. She creates these fantastically rich worlds with intricate magic systems that inform complex societies. She builds up entire cultures, buttressed by new vocabulary and gods. And then she just throws you in the deep end and expects you to learn how to navigate it all.
This works so well because she is a brilliant writer, expertly dropping hints throughout the narrative that help expand the world while the plot rushes forward. Her books take a little while to get invested in because they have such a steep learning curve. But it's always worth it.
This is a rather long way of saying that I returned to the prologue at least four or five times while I was reading the rest of the book. The prologue is so incredibly dense that it took a long time to digest. I think the entire first book is actually contained in those first few pages, though it takes the entire book to make all of that clear. It was a treat to keep going back and gaining a better understanding of what exactly had happened to set off the end of the world.
At the beginning of the book, the world ends. Again, the narrator tells us, and for the last time this time. Then we back up a bit so we can learn what that means. Why the world is ending. Why Essun, for whom it has also ended in a very personal way with the discovery that her husband has beaten their son to death, is at the center of all these events even though she really doesn't want to be.
I happened to see an interview with NK Jemisin in the wake of LeGuin's recent death in which she mentions that The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is woven through this trilogy and this book in particular. Having just read that story, I came to The Fifth Season with that framework, which helped a lot in understanding the motivations of various characters, particularly Alabaster who would like nothing more than to walk away from the horrors of his homeland but who gets dragged back to them again and again. Much like Essun. At some point you realize that you can't walk away, and then the only option left is to change the world.
By the end of the book, we're circled back around to the beginning. The entire book is a beginning, after all, the beginning of what is sure to be an epic and engrossing trilogy. Jemisin pulls this off brilliantly, filling in the backstory but not really progressing much beyond the end of the world here. It takes a while to explain this world, to explain what ending it would mean and why that might be a good thing and why these are the people to do it. I can't wait to see what they all do next.
This works so well because she is a brilliant writer, expertly dropping hints throughout the narrative that help expand the world while the plot rushes forward. Her books take a little while to get invested in because they have such a steep learning curve. But it's always worth it.
This is a rather long way of saying that I returned to the prologue at least four or five times while I was reading the rest of the book. The prologue is so incredibly dense that it took a long time to digest. I think the entire first book is actually contained in those first few pages, though it takes the entire book to make all of that clear. It was a treat to keep going back and gaining a better understanding of what exactly had happened to set off the end of the world.
At the beginning of the book, the world ends. Again, the narrator tells us, and for the last time this time. Then we back up a bit so we can learn what that means. Why the world is ending. Why Essun, for whom it has also ended in a very personal way with the discovery that her husband has beaten their son to death, is at the center of all these events even though she really doesn't want to be.
I happened to see an interview with NK Jemisin in the wake of LeGuin's recent death in which she mentions that The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is woven through this trilogy and this book in particular. Having just read that story, I came to The Fifth Season with that framework, which helped a lot in understanding the motivations of various characters, particularly Alabaster who would like nothing more than to walk away from the horrors of his homeland but who gets dragged back to them again and again. Much like Essun. At some point you realize that you can't walk away, and then the only option left is to change the world.
By the end of the book, we're circled back around to the beginning. The entire book is a beginning, after all, the beginning of what is sure to be an epic and engrossing trilogy. Jemisin pulls this off brilliantly, filling in the backstory but not really progressing much beyond the end of the world here. It takes a while to explain this world, to explain what ending it would mean and why that might be a good thing and why these are the people to do it. I can't wait to see what they all do next.
Comments
Post a Comment