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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 9820077" data-attributes="member: 11760"><p>Finally finished The Fifth Season, which may be the only five star unsatisfying book I've ever read.</p><p></p><p>The world-building is incredible, in part because Jemsin doesn't throw 10,000 things at us, but instead deploys a carefully curated list of elements about her world that paint a vivid picture and convey the impression that she has a rock-solid idea of how her world works and what's going on, rather than what I call the Grant Morrison technique of throwing out some cool terms without anything initially behind them. (Also known as my DMing style.)</p><p></p><p>Reading this at the same time as Tales From Earthsea, it's a shockingly different vision of how society relates to wizards. The cruelty starts almost immediately and turns out to be systemic and pervasive.</p><p></p><p>I caught early on the lack of references to [ISPOILER]the moon[/ISPOILER], but I can't put my finger on exactly why I believe certain things about some other elements of the setting, like the idea that the Stillness mega-continent is mostly Africa with parts of, I guess, Europe and maybe Antarctica attached. (It is noteworthy that they use the terms Arctic and Antarctic.) But I am pretty sure this is Earth, just far in the future, after a magical (?) catastrophe.</p><p></p><p>But it's unsatisfying because this was all a set up for the rest of the trilogy, and surprisingly little actually happens in this book.</p><p></p><p>That would normally be a dealbreaker for me, but the rest of this book is just so well done, and Jemsin is just such a confident writer, it feels liking whining to wish for more. What did I want, a six-star book?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 9820077, member: 11760"] Finally finished The Fifth Season, which may be the only five star unsatisfying book I've ever read. The world-building is incredible, in part because Jemsin doesn't throw 10,000 things at us, but instead deploys a carefully curated list of elements about her world that paint a vivid picture and convey the impression that she has a rock-solid idea of how her world works and what's going on, rather than what I call the Grant Morrison technique of throwing out some cool terms without anything initially behind them. (Also known as my DMing style.) Reading this at the same time as Tales From Earthsea, it's a shockingly different vision of how society relates to wizards. The cruelty starts almost immediately and turns out to be systemic and pervasive. I caught early on the lack of references to [ISPOILER]the moon[/ISPOILER], but I can't put my finger on exactly why I believe certain things about some other elements of the setting, like the idea that the Stillness mega-continent is mostly Africa with parts of, I guess, Europe and maybe Antarctica attached. (It is noteworthy that they use the terms Arctic and Antarctic.) But I am pretty sure this is Earth, just far in the future, after a magical (?) catastrophe. But it's unsatisfying because this was all a set up for the rest of the trilogy, and surprisingly little actually happens in this book. That would normally be a dealbreaker for me, but the rest of this book is just so well done, and Jemsin is just such a confident writer, it feels liking whining to wish for more. What did I want, a six-star book? [/QUOTE]
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