The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
NK Jemisin has taken the science fiction and fantasy world by storm by winning the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years in a row, one for each book in her Broken Earth Trilogy, of which The Fifth Season is the first. In this episode we discuss the story and the narrative craft. Time skips and the use of second person at times pulls us from the story but also makes us wonder how stories are told. As our conversation unfolds we dig deeper into the horrible and fantastical elements of the Stillness, and we discuss how this is what makes science fiction prose some of our favorite works to read.
Spoilers
- The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
- Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (mild)
Other Works Mentioned
- Westworld (HBO Series)
- X-Men
- Shinsekai Yori (Anime)
- Short Story by NK Jemisin we forgot the name of: The Storyteller’s Replacement
Storytelling Methods
NK Jemisin chooses several bold storytelling methodologies. The use of second person, stories separated by time instead of by character, these narrative methods push science fiction / fantasy into an experimental realm. NK Jemisin ultimately pushes the genre into a new perspective. But speaking of genre, The Fifth Season (and The Broken Earth Trilogy) blends the genre of science fiction and fantasy. At points elements of magic are simply science, and similarly science might in fact be magic.
The Fifth Season exemplifies the type of story we like to discuss on our Science Fiction and Fantasy Podcast. A solid story mixed with pushing the boundary on narrative craft. Join us in this episode and others as we have book discussions on science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction.
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