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The Fifth Season

The Broken Earth, Book 1

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The Fifth Season

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Robin Miles
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About this listen

 Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel
Book 1 in the record-breaking triple Hugo-Award-winning trilogy

***One of Time Magazine's top 100 fantasy books of all time***
***Shortlisted for the World Fantasy, Nebula, Kitschies, Audie and Locus Awards***
***A New York Times Notable Book and 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'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.

'Astounding' NPR
'Amazing' Ann Leckie
'Breaks uncharted ground' Library Journal
'Powerful' io9
'Elegiac, complex, and intriguing' Publishers Weekly
'Intricate and extraordinary' New York Times
'Brilliant' Washington Post

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

Also by N. K. Jemisin:
The Inheritance trilogy
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Broken Kingdoms
The Kingdom of Gods

The Dreamblood Duology
The Killing Moon
The Shadowed Sun©2015 N. K. Jemisin Fantasy Fiction

Critic Reviews

Jemisin brilliantly illustrates the belief that, yes, imaginative world-building is a vital element of fantasy - but also that every character is a world unto herself
Fantasy novels often provide a degree of escapism: a good thing, for any reader who has something worth escaping. Too often, though, that escape comes through a fictional world that erases rather than solves the more complex problems of our own... In Jemisin's work, nature is not unchangeable or inevitable. The Fifth Season invites us to imagine a dismantling of the earth in both the literal and the metaphorical sense, and suggests the possibility of a richer and more fundamental escape
Heartbreaking, wholly unexpected, and technically virtuosic, THE FIFTH SEASON is a tour-de-force. I felt every shock--and the book is packed with them--in my marrow. It's no exaggeration to say that Jemisin expands the range of what great fantasy can be (Brian Staveley)
All stars
Most relevant
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.

Good, but not great.

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This book was hard going for me. I can understand why people liked it. I thought the reader was the wrong person for for this book. I had to speed it up or I would full asleep.

The fifth season

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As time went on the world appeared to catch up with narrative. As far as a fantasy world goes there is so much awesome potential. Could have explored the science deeper and twisted it more with fantasy/magic aspects.

Seems like a story written by a Geologist who loves fantasy and decided to write a book after cheating on her husband with a jock.

For earth's sake

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The superb narration carries the story beautifully. Vivid world building. Momentum builds steadily and leaves the listener hanging for the next in the series.

Top notch narration and world building

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Fantastic book, and reading and production. Reading is fantastic and excellently emphasises the events of the story and different voices of the characters.

Fantastic book, and reading and production.

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