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  • The Fifth Season

  • The Broken Earth, Book 1
  • By: N. K. Jemisin
  • Narrated by: Robin Miles
  • Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,288 ratings)

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The Fifth Season cover art

The Fifth Season

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Robin Miles
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Publisher's Summary

Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel
Book 1 in the double Hugo-Award-winning trilogy
A New York Times Notable Book
Shortlisted for the World Fantasy, Nebula, Kitschies, Audie and Locus Awards
The inaugural Wired.com book club pick

This is the way the world ends...for the last time. 

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world, 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.

The Broken Earth trilogy is complete - beginning with The Fifth Season, continuing in The Obelisk Gate (Winner of the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel) and concluding with The Stone Sky (Shortlisted for the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novel).

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2015 N. K. Jemisin (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

"Astounding." (NPR)

"Elegiac, complex, and intriguing." (Publishers Weekly)

"Intricate and extraordinary." (New York Times)

What listeners say about The Fifth Season

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible

Absurdly incredible. I'm speechless. And the narrator was a dream. Best book. All the reviews are true and it's so worth it.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic!

A fantastically written book with dynamic and diverse characters. The storyline was engrossing with brought a new perspective to the post apocalyptic fantasy genre.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not for me sadly!

I chose this because it had excellent reviews but I just could not get into this book. I really tried my hardest and it does have potential, but I feel that this is best actually read rather than listened to as it is a whole new world with all these different names for different species which are hard to keep track of when listening to. I felt like I needed to keep flicking back a page so I could understand what was going on. Perhaps good for binge listening, but I found it too hard to follow.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic world building

Loved this book, so unique with a stunning storyline. Jemisin is such a great writer, the Hugo Award was well deserved. One of the best books I have listened to. Narration excellent.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

The world is constructed nicely, but in almost all other areas this book left me feeling... disappointed and even resentful or the time I've spent listening. Not a feeling I admit to having felt before reading genre fiction.
Prose is indulgent to the point of heavy handedness, the themes of oppression feel incredibly forced, the world seeming to bend to accommodate them.
The character's every thought is over dramatised in an internal monologue making their actions seem contrived and unrealistic, which sours the otherwise excellent world building.
In a genre often accused of style over substances, I do believe there is room for such intense themes and subtexts to be explored.
But here it feels as though raw substance is beating you over the head and style is the masked perpetrator.
This all conspires to make me question the awards. When I go to find new novels to explore, I'll probably be looking elsewhere for book recommendations, or at least taking a strong look at why books are being highly praised. Is it because they are forcibly breaking new ground or are they actually good as well?

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good, but not great.

At times so compelling I was up until 2am listening; at times oddly unsatisfying. I have mixed feelings about this story. I enjoyed it, but I don't really care enough to buy book 2. Robin Miles' narration is exemplary - most likely it's her voice that kept me listening at times.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Boring

I'm 6 hours in and have only been intetested for about 15 minutes. There's no storyline... I'm giving up hope on this one

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • al
  • 19-07-2018

Good book though a little slow at times

The book performance was outstanding the book a little slow, but at the same time gripping. I’m looking forward to the next instalment

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful. Alien but just within grasp.

The Fifth Season was everything. As beautiful as it is sorrowful.
Thanks N. K. Jemisin.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book. Can't wait for part two!

The story develops slowly but once it's rolling you can't stop listening. The hardest part is getting familiar with all terms.

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5 people found this helpful

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