paperback, 512 pages

English language

Published Nov. 16, 2016 by Orbit.

ISBN:
978-0-356-50819-1
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4 stars (5 reviews)

This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle …

5 editions

La profondeur comme la densité de cette œuvre m’ont émerveillé

5 stars

J‘avais ce livre depuis bien longtemps dans ma PAL, à la fois à cause de bonnes critiques que j‘avais lues et des multiples récompenses qu‘il a obtenu (dont le plus prestigieux en SF, le prix Hugo, obtenu pendant 3 années consécutives, pour les 3 tomes de la trilogie !). Bref, je me suis (enfin) lancé… et je ne le regrette pas ! Je vous fais le pitch

Nous sommes, peut-être, sur Terre. Est-ce de la science-fiction post-apocalyptique ou de la fantasy ? Ce n’est pas bien clair (et c’est très bien comme ça).

La terre tremble si souvent sur votre monde que la civilisation y est menacée en permanence. Le pire s'est d'ailleurs déjà produit plus d'une fois : de grands cataclysmes ont détruit les plus fières cités et soumis la planète à des hivers terribles, d'interminables nuits auxquelles l'humanité n'a survécu que de justesse.

Si c’est la Terre, elle …

Slightly disappointing Hugo Winner

No rating

Warning: Extremely Vague Spoilers

It’s clear to see why The Fifth Season won a Hugo award and became immensely popular. Jemisin is an amazing world-builder and extremely good at plotting. She knows exactly at what pace to reveal the mysteries of her world to make her readers desperate to find out what happens next. The culture and history of her world are shaped by the titular “fifth seasons” years-long periods of environmental disasters, which is a great concept, and her orogenes are a really cool half-magic, half-science twist on typical elemental magics. She also manages to do something that was once thought impossible: create fantasy-cursing that sounds both thematic and natural.

Jemisin wants to do more than just write an exciting book though, she has a message, a two-fold one at that. She’s clearly both inspired by climate disasters in our world, as well as (racial) oppression. I say racial, …