---
product_id: 17306153
title: "The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, 1)"
price: "€ 16.15"
currency: EUR
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.pt/products/17306153-the-fifth-season-the-broken-earth-1
store_origin: PT
region: Portugal
---

# The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, 1)

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- **What is this?** The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, 1)
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## Description

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.

Review: At first, I was wary but I decided to keep reading and it was so worth it. - I absolutely loved it! At first, I was wary of the fact that the story begins with a murder and a kidnapping but I decided to keep reading and it was so worth it. It is not often that we get a dystopic protagonist who is not only past her teenage years but a mother, it makes for a great change in pace and motivations. The book was a roller-coaster from beginning to end and at first, it may be difficult to get the hang of the storytelling, there's so much happening. In fact, I recommend re-reading the first chapter after finishing the book, it makes so much more sense in hindsight, just a little mind-blowing moment. I really enjoyed all the characters, they are well thought and very different from what I'm used to seeing in popular trilogies. The world and society are also very well presented, even if at times it seems as if its history is much too important to understand what is going on, but little by little you get to discover how everything works and that it may not be as far of reality as you once thought. Before reading this I saw many reviews complaining about the narrative in the second person. This first book is told from the perspective of three different people, which I liked since it marked a good reading pace and allowed me to know that I could actually "stop after this chapter" if need be. Of the three characters presenting the story, however, only one is in the second person and there is a good reason for that, so let it not discourage you. At one point it is not even noticeable, tbh. I would like to talk about the plot and its harsh topics including racism and toxic relationships, but I fear I would say too much. Just know that it is a story of attempting to repair mistakes from the past while making new mistakes, a story of a broken but thriving society in the harshest of conditions, a story of facing the world after your secrets are out, even if those secrets shouldn't have existed in the first place. It is a story of strength and humanity, and it is so good. I'm so happy I gave myself the chance to read it.
Review: A Mix Of World-Building And Character Study - On another planet there’s a continent called The Stillness in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, because it’s a highly seismologically active place. Every so often, that activity leads to what is referred to as a Fifth Season, when an earthquake or volcanic eruption creates society-destroying chaos. Over time, civilizations have risen and collapsed, with some Fifth Seasons relatively short-lived and some that kill off all but a few isolated bands who restart the world. There are a group of people in this world called orogenes, born with the ability to connect to the earth’s energy in ways both helpful (stilling earthquakes before they even happen) and destructive (triggering those same quakes, or even just striking out against threats). Those without their powers hate and fear them, and have channeled that fear into the creation of a training center called the Fulcrum where orogenes can be controlled, taught to use their skills for the good of the greater society. This book tells the story of three women in that world: Damaya, a young girl whose family has discovered that she is an orogene and have rejected her, sending her away to the Fulcrum, where she struggles to connect with her peers even as she excels in her training, Syenite, a young adult working her way up the heirarchy in the Fulcrum, who is sent on a mission with Alabaster, one of the center’s most accomplished products, and Essun, a middle-aged woman whose personal world is destroyed on the same day as the wider world: her husband has discovered that she and their children are orogenes and has killed their son, while fleeing with their daughter. At the same time, an orogene has triggered a massive earthquake that sets off a Fifth Season, making Essun’s quest to find her daughter ever-more fraught with peril. I don’t tend to gravitate towards sci-fi/fantasy that spends a lot of time on world building: I can’t “see” scenes play out inside my head when I’m reading so the pleasures of that sort of thing are largely lost on me. But N.K. Jemison balances her intricate world-building with the kind of strong character development that many of these sorts of stories lack, giving me reason to care about all of the details. Each of the women’s stories is compelling, exploring what it means to be “other” and how to interact with an outside world that both needs and resents you. It also explores the power of story itself: the folklore that has been passed down through the years about how to survive a Fifth Season and how people respond to it, the framing of orogenes as inherently dangerous through tales told to children, and how easy it can be to make up a story for yourself in ways that paper over uncomfortable realities. In a bit of a stylistic flourish that she completely earns with her talent, Essun’s chapters are narrated in the second person, something that can be tricky to pull off but works here. Another thing Jemison does that feels refreshing in this genre is incorporate diversity in a way that feels completely natural: The Stillness is home to people of various ethnic backgrounds and has its own racial hierarchies, and people are not always just cisgender and heterosexual. While I was always engaged with it when reading it, the book is a bit on the intellectual side and it was the sort of thing that I didn’t find myself compulsively driven to pick up. That being said, though, this was a very good book and I intend to continue with this series and recommend it!

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #64,016 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #10 in Magical Realism #66 in Dystopian Fiction (Books) #75 in Action & Adventure Fantasy (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 42,916 Reviews |

## Images

![The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, 1) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91y2FwIWVKL.jpg)

## Available Options

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ At first, I was wary but I decided to keep reading and it was so worth it.
*by Y***R on April 20, 2018*

I absolutely loved it! At first, I was wary of the fact that the story begins with a murder and a kidnapping but I decided to keep reading and it was so worth it. It is not often that we get a dystopic protagonist who is not only past her teenage years but a mother, it makes for a great change in pace and motivations. The book was a roller-coaster from beginning to end and at first, it may be difficult to get the hang of the storytelling, there's so much happening. In fact, I recommend re-reading the first chapter after finishing the book, it makes so much more sense in hindsight, just a little mind-blowing moment. I really enjoyed all the characters, they are well thought and very different from what I'm used to seeing in popular trilogies. The world and society are also very well presented, even if at times it seems as if its history is much too important to understand what is going on, but little by little you get to discover how everything works and that it may not be as far of reality as you once thought. Before reading this I saw many reviews complaining about the narrative in the second person. This first book is told from the perspective of three different people, which I liked since it marked a good reading pace and allowed me to know that I could actually "stop after this chapter" if need be. Of the three characters presenting the story, however, only one is in the second person and there is a good reason for that, so let it not discourage you. At one point it is not even noticeable, tbh. I would like to talk about the plot and its harsh topics including racism and toxic relationships, but I fear I would say too much. Just know that it is a story of attempting to repair mistakes from the past while making new mistakes, a story of a broken but thriving society in the harshest of conditions, a story of facing the world after your secrets are out, even if those secrets shouldn't have existed in the first place. It is a story of strength and humanity, and it is so good. I'm so happy I gave myself the chance to read it.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Mix Of World-Building And Character Study
*by G***M on February 3, 2026*

On another planet there’s a continent called The Stillness in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, because it’s a highly seismologically active place. Every so often, that activity leads to what is referred to as a Fifth Season, when an earthquake or volcanic eruption creates society-destroying chaos. Over time, civilizations have risen and collapsed, with some Fifth Seasons relatively short-lived and some that kill off all but a few isolated bands who restart the world. There are a group of people in this world called orogenes, born with the ability to connect to the earth’s energy in ways both helpful (stilling earthquakes before they even happen) and destructive (triggering those same quakes, or even just striking out against threats). Those without their powers hate and fear them, and have channeled that fear into the creation of a training center called the Fulcrum where orogenes can be controlled, taught to use their skills for the good of the greater society. This book tells the story of three women in that world: Damaya, a young girl whose family has discovered that she is an orogene and have rejected her, sending her away to the Fulcrum, where she struggles to connect with her peers even as she excels in her training, Syenite, a young adult working her way up the heirarchy in the Fulcrum, who is sent on a mission with Alabaster, one of the center’s most accomplished products, and Essun, a middle-aged woman whose personal world is destroyed on the same day as the wider world: her husband has discovered that she and their children are orogenes and has killed their son, while fleeing with their daughter. At the same time, an orogene has triggered a massive earthquake that sets off a Fifth Season, making Essun’s quest to find her daughter ever-more fraught with peril. I don’t tend to gravitate towards sci-fi/fantasy that spends a lot of time on world building: I can’t “see” scenes play out inside my head when I’m reading so the pleasures of that sort of thing are largely lost on me. But N.K. Jemison balances her intricate world-building with the kind of strong character development that many of these sorts of stories lack, giving me reason to care about all of the details. Each of the women’s stories is compelling, exploring what it means to be “other” and how to interact with an outside world that both needs and resents you. It also explores the power of story itself: the folklore that has been passed down through the years about how to survive a Fifth Season and how people respond to it, the framing of orogenes as inherently dangerous through tales told to children, and how easy it can be to make up a story for yourself in ways that paper over uncomfortable realities. In a bit of a stylistic flourish that she completely earns with her talent, Essun’s chapters are narrated in the second person, something that can be tricky to pull off but works here. Another thing Jemison does that feels refreshing in this genre is incorporate diversity in a way that feels completely natural: The Stillness is home to people of various ethnic backgrounds and has its own racial hierarchies, and people are not always just cisgender and heterosexual. While I was always engaged with it when reading it, the book is a bit on the intellectual side and it was the sort of thing that I didn’t find myself compulsively driven to pick up. That being said, though, this was a very good book and I intend to continue with this series and recommend it!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Incredible worldbuilding, rich characterization, and a complex way of writing that blew me away
*by J***E on April 13, 2018*

I've been hearing for a while now about N.K. Jemisin's writing, with most recommendations orbiting around her novel The Fifth Season, the first volume in a (blessedly already completed) trilogy named "The Broken Earth." And with an itch to get back into reading fantasy lately, I was hoping that The Fifth Season would rekindle my love for a genre that has been letting me down a bit lately. Man, did it ever work, because I loved this book a lot. From the rich worldbuilding to the compelling characters, from the focus on marginalized and damaged protagonists to the thematic richness of its ideas, The Fifth Season gripped me early and never let go. It doesn't hurt that The Fifth Season has such a bold, unusual structure. Unfolding across three stories that we alternate between, the story opens with its boldest narration structure: a second-person voice that places the reader in the position of Essun, a woman whose husband has murdered her son and run away with their daughter in tow. That this murder becomes almost understandable in the world Jemisin has created doesn't make the crime any less horrifying, or the emotions any less powerful, and Jemisin's unusual second-person narration has a way of making the book hit home in a way that's hard to pin down. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that this story begins with the ending of the world - the unleashing of another Fifth Season across the globe: a catastrophe that may wipe out all life on The Stillness, a mass continent wracked by constant tremors and instability. (Jemisin's small but subtle implications that this is not fantasy, but distant science-fiction set in a far-off future, make the world all the more fascinating.) This is a quest for justice set against the collapse of society, and that makes it all the more haunting to watch unfold. That would be enough story for most authors. But Jemisin mixes in two other stories, each set in what appears to be a time before this apocalypse has been unleashed. In one, we meet a young girl named Damaya, whose magical powers - known as "orogeny" in the novel - lead her parents to give her to a man who can keep her safe. It's the flip side of what happened to Essun's son; in the world of The Stillness, orogenes - who can both control and unleash the destructive powers of the earth - are both needed and feared, and often killed as soon as their powers begin to manifest in uncontrollable ways. That Jemisin so neatly intertwines power and control, safety and destruction, makes for compelling reading; that we become so invested in Damaya's survival, training, and learning who she is makes the story all the richer. And then there's Syenite, a grown orogene sent on a mission with Alabaster, one of the most powerful male orogenes alive, both to train and to provide him a chance to procreate. It's this relationship that's most fascinating and complex in the book; with the mixture of Alabaster's anger and rage at the ways in which he's forced to use his powers, Syen's desire to prove herself and establish who she is, and the way this third of the novel finds Jemisin diving into the nuance of her world and peeling away the simple rules that Damaya is learning, it's by far the most complex part of the book, and maybe the most satisfying. Any of these three stories could be a great book on their own, but Jemisin's gift for interweaving them is what makes them truly fascinating, as each story comments on the others in small ways and enriches the text we're reading, giving the reader more information than the characters and allowing us to see what's going on beyond the surface. Add to that Jemisin's desire to focus on diverse, complex characters beyond the basic archetypes (I can't think offhand of a fantasy novel that's more diverse in terms of gender and race, much less one that incorporates those aspects so well), and you have a knockout voice in fantasy that's giving me a fresh love for the genre that means so much to me. It won't be long until I'm jumping into volume two, and I really can't wait to get there.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, 1)
- The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, 2)
- The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, 3)

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*Product available on Desertcart Portugal*
*Store origin: PT*
*Last updated: 2026-10-13*