Book Club discussion: N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is essential reading for these apocalyptic times.
I am in my library, the Klementinium in Prague. Virtually. Not in photo: Jean and Jay, who had to leave before the picture-taking.
We had our Bibliophibians Book Club discussion of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Thanks again to Honey de Peralta who hounded me, very nicely, to read N.K. Jemisin.
The Fifth Season is the first book of The Broken Earth Trilogy, the first trilogy in history to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel.
Points:
– Science-fiction and fantasy are often dismissed as escapist, but the best of them, like this one, are grounded in the real world, in the chaotic present of environmental destruction and the fight against systemic racism.
– The author’s use of multiple POVs, esp the second person.
– Motherhood is complicated and traumatic, from Medea to Little Women’s Marmee and here.
– Superpowers are more easily portrayed in comic books, but NKJ does a great job of describing orogeny. (Writing exercise: Describe in words how Jean Grey in the grip of the Dark Phoenix destroys everything. In comics it is dealt with in three panels.)
– There are two kinds of SF&F narratives, the conservative and the progressive. In the former, a problem arises, is solved, and everything goes back to the way it was. In the latter, a problem arises, is addressed, and nothing can ever be the same again. The Broken Earth Trilogy is a progressive narrative.
– The Fifth Season made us think of Dune. This is a high compliment.
– The difference between SF by white male authors and SF by a woman of color. War is not glorious. “Collateral damage” is horrible. History is personal.
Copies should be available at Fully Booked next week.