Book Review - The Fifth Season

Title: The Fifth Season
Series: The Broken Earth(Book # 1)
Author: N.K. Jemisin
 
Description: Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze – the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years – collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying lan. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
 
Review: “The Fifth Season” kicks off the “The Broken Earth” series. I don’t read fantasy very often, I’m more the type to read detective or crime stories. But I heard so many great things about this series, that I decided to give it a go. 
The story is written from several character’s perspective. A thing you either love or hate. I always love it, because it keeps the story interesting and makes a lot more clear about the story too. Here, each perspective also comes with its own storyline. But all characters are connected in a special way. 
Because I read so many great things about this book and its series, I had high expectations. There weren’t met unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty I liked in this book. The characters, the world-building, the theme. But because the world-building is so complex and everything happening in this world also is, for me as a reader that always tries to visualize everything, it was really hard to absorb all the information that I got from the story. I still think it’s a good book, but it wasn’t for me. And I’ll probably won’t continue this series.
 
Rating: 3/ 5