The Fifth Season was extremely dark, but was a great & engaging read. It’s the first in a trilogy, and I’ve already started the second book!

The premise of this book mirrors the premise of Octavia Butler’s Patternist series in several ways: both books start with a class of (mostly) black people with supernatural ability, who are kept in captivity & bred in order to create more powerful offspring. I don’t know if this Slaves As Superhumans allegory is something that came from Butler, or if both Jemisin and Butler are pulling from a deeper mythology - but I’m excited to learn more!

The Patternist series and this book are the only books I’ve read of this “science fantasy” genre — halfway between science fiction and full-blown fantasy. Of the two authors, I think I like Jemisin more. The writing is more digressive, and I found that tough to push through and the beginning, but once I sunk in I came to enjoy the flavor that builds around the characters over the course of the book. I think I also better get what fans of these genres mean when they talk about “world building” - Jemisin does a great job describing a society and culture around the characters.