N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth series is as amazing as everyone told me. The complex plot and world-making of these books is hard to sum up. Loosely, they tell the story of the Stillness, a world that has intense geological activity like volcanoes, quakes, rifts. This turmoil (breaking the earth) causes seasons of ash and destruction and death. People stockpile resources their whole lives in anticipation of the next Season.
Fortunately, there are Orogones, individuals who can react to, somewhat control, and even harness the power of the erupting earth. This class of people is needed and feared, necessary for civilization, and also a risk to it. The dedication to The Fifth Season alludes to their struggle: “for all those who have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question.” It was a delight to spend the holidays plunging into this complex and fascinating world.
Since summarizing further would be insufficient, or spoil things, I’ll comment on some ideas that Jemisin explores throughout the arc of this series:
🌓 agency and self-actualization: many characters have a journey of discovering the evil realities of what was portrayed to them as a normal and civilized society. In particular, the main character must trust herself to develop her skills to fight back against the structures that have harmed so many.
🌓 discrimination and enslavement: orogones, necessary for calming the spasms of the earth, are essentially enslaved to this duty (to varying degrees) and yet are feared and hated for their power.
🌓 ethics of consumption, and the ways that fantastically clever use of natural (and magical) materials can still lead to overuse and abuse.
🌓 colonization and control: how, throughout the gradually unfolding history of this world, narratives of othering have been used to maintain the allusion of the right to control. And how fearful the colonizers are of their secrets getting out, and of retribution being paid.
“There are stages to the process of being betrayed by your society. One is jolted from a place of complacency by the discovery of difference, by hypocrisy, by inexplicable or incongruous ill treatment. What follows is a time of confusion — unlearning what one thought to be the truth. Immersing oneself in the new truth. And then a decision must be made.
Some except their fate. Swallow their pride, forget the real truth, embrace the falsehood for all their worth – because, they decide, they cannot be worth much. If a whole society has dedicated itself to their subjugation, after all, then surely they deserve it? Even if they don’t, fighting back is too painful, to impossible. At least this way there is a peace, of a sort. Fleetingly.
The alternative is to demand the impossible…. There can be peace this way, too, but not before conflict.”
The Stone Sky page 311
Allongé 