Line #73 Literature/TheFifthSeason


1	[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fifthseason.png]]
2	%%
3	->But this is the way the world ends.\
4	This is the way the world ends.\
5	''This is the way the world ends.''\
6	For the last time.
7
8	''The Fifth Season'' is a 2015 novel by Creator/NKJemisin, and the first book of ''Literature/TheBrokenEarthTrilogy''. In a world plagued by terrible earthquakes, the survival-obsessed populace scrapes by living in disaster-prepared city-states called comms and following the survival tips of the ancients known as stonelore. There once was an empire called the Sanzed Equatorial Affiliation in this land, whose presence is still felt through the culture, rules, and other things passed down by their former capital Yumenes and the rest of their former lands. The government of Yumenes helps maintain stability with the Fulcrum, an army of enslaved orogenes trained under the watchful eyes of the mysterious Guardians. These orogenes are born with staggering power, but are widely feared and hated, considered agents of the bitter, humanity-hating Father Earth.
9
10	For ten years, Essun has been living a peaceful life in a small town with her husband and two children--but all that changes when a massive earthquake cracks the continent down the center. Such disasters have happened before, but this one is the worst yet. After they unconsciously shield the town from the worst of the shake, Essun and her children are revealed as orogenes. Her husband beats her son to death and kidnaps their daughter, and Essun, with nothing else left to live for, chases him down in pursuit of revenge. But even that isn't simple. She is joined by a strange inhuman child and a mysterious homeless woman, and it soon becomes clear that the past she's been hiding from isn't as dead she'd hoped...
11
12	----
13	!! ''The Fifth Season'' contains examples of:
14
15	* AbusiveParents: Damaya's parents lock her in a barn in winter without a blanket, and were perfectly happy to hand her over to a man they thought would kill her. [[spoiler:And Schaffa, once he becomes her ParentalSubstitute, ''breaks her hand'' to teach her a lesson. In a twisted moment, he tells her that he will kill her if he deems it necessary because he loves her.]]
16	-->[[spoiler:'''Schaffa:''' I will break every bone in your hand, every bone in your ''body'', if I deem it necessary to make the world safe from you.]]
17	* AccentInterest: The veteran MageKiller Guardian Schaffa has a unique accent that several viewpoint characters remark on. [[spoiler:An ancient Stone Eater]] eventually identifies it as a sign that he's [[spoiler:[[TimeAbyss tens of thousands of years old]]]] -- telltale linguistic quirks last even though [[spoiler:he's long since forgotten their source due to the FogOfAges]].
18	* AfterTheEnd: Or perhaps "during the end," as the cataclysm that ends the world is the novel's prologue.
19	* AmplifierArtifact: The obelisks amplify orogenes's power, allowing them to perform impressive feats.
20	* AnachronicOrder: The Damaya and Syenite sections clearly take place before the Essun sections, given that Yumenes still ''exists'' during them, while its destruction is the start of the Essun sections. [[spoiler:Specifically, Damaya is a young Syenite, who takes the name of Essun after everything in her life goes to shit.]] Overlaps with FlashbackBPlot.
21	* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler: The node maintainers, who are orogenes that live in constant agony thanks to surgical meddling with their sessapinae.]]
22	* ApocalypseHow:
23	** Class 2: Humanity has already survived multiple iterations of the planetary/societal collapse, to the point that society is built around it. Everyone thinks they'll get through this one, too, except...
24	** Class 4: Unbeknownst to them, the artificial winter is going to last a whole lot longer and the world's not going to get back to normal for several thousand years.
25	* ArchaeologicalArmsRace: Defied - the Empire's official policy is that if the relics didn't save the long-dead civilizations they belonged to, they're of no use in the present day
26	* ArtifactOfDoom: Some dead civ relics can be these. [[spoiler:The quartz obelisk wakes the volcano that annihilates the comm of Allia.]] In fairness, it seems to be broken. It's policy in many areas that ''all'' deadciv relics should be treated like this, just in case, to the point where some societies level them.
27	* BewareTheQuietOnes: Essun is an unobtrusive, unassuming woman whom most people in her village know as "Jija's wife". When they figure out she's an orogene and try to kill her, she snaps, kills her attackers and everyone else who was too close to her, and destroys half the town.
28	* BlessedWithSuck: In a world that is always seismically unstable, you'd think being able to control earthquakes would be great, but orogenes who don't know how to control their power can accidentally kill people by instinctively sucking the heat energy out of them to use as power, and they are widely hated and feared.
29	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The official view on Stone Eaters by humans. That said, the three Stone Eaters that appear are all helpful to their human companions. Not to mention that the same culture that officially finds Stone Eaters impenetrable [[UnreliableNarrator also considers oregene a curse and its wielders inhuman.]]
30	* BrokenAce: Alabaster is a ten-ringer, making him the Fulcrum's very best operative. But, since he works for the Fulcrum, he's been horribly abused for years, and he is cynical and self-hating. Oh, [[spoiler: and he's the one who caused the world-ending earthquake.]]
31	* ChekhovsGun:
32	** The floating obelisks, which [[spoiler:grant additional powers to rare orogenes who are attuned to them.]]
33	** Early in the novel, Alabaster tells Syenite that turning an orogene's power against them will have unpleasant results, but doesn't elaborate further. Near the end, we see [[spoiler: what this does to Innon, and it's not pretty]].
34	* ChekhovsGunman: Binof Leadership Yumenes turns up later [[spoiler: as Tonkee]]
35	* CrystalPrison: The obelisk under Allia was different than the others, damaged and spinning off-kilter, because ''somehow'' a Stone Eater had become trapped inside of it. [[spoiler:And may have even still been alive.]]
36	* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Fulcrum wisdom says that orogenes can't cooperate; the more powerful torus cancels out the other. The [[spoiler:obelisks]] get around this rule, though only Alabaster knows it. He uses them to [[spoiler: combine his power with all the Node Maintainers' and destroy Yumenes,]] perhaps illustrating why the civilization that made this possible isn't around anymore.
37	* DeathOfAChild: Essun's section of the book begins with her discovering her three-year-old son Uche beaten to death by his own father for being an orogene. [[spoiler:Syenite's section ends with her murdering her son so the Guardians and the Fulcrum can't take him.]]
38	* DisinheritedChild: [[spoiler:Tonkee]] was quietly shuffled off to a university and disinherited by her aristocratic family because she (a) showed far more interest in academia than in rule and (b) disrupted a politically sensitive ArrangedMarriage plan by coming out as transgender. She's equally relieved to be out of the family.
39	* DownerBeginning: Starts with the double whammy of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and Essun's three-year-old son being killed by her husband.
40	* DisproportionateRetribution: The Fulcrum's idea of training Grits - who are mainly children - involve shaving them bald if they repeatedly forget to brush their hair, mouth-soaping them if they forget to brush their teeth and beating them with a switch for incorrect uniform or not making the bed.
41	* FakingTheDead: How Essun has stayed under the Guardians' radar. They think she died when [[spoiler: she blew up Meov]].
42	* {{Foreshadowing}}: We encounter a legend about the loss of Father Earth's companion bringing down his wrath [[spoiler:not too long before we learn Alabaster wants to provide a new one by making a moon.]]
43	* GuyOnGuyIsHot: Syenite gets aroused watching Alabaster and Innon together in bed, despite usually not finding Alabaster particularly attractive on his own.
44	* HighClassCannibal: During the Seasons when the planet becomes a DeathWorld, it's a grim fact that [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty "you don't ask about the meat"]]. Some of the Sanzed elite, however, developed a taste and continued the practice into peacetime.
45	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: InUniverse, it turns out Misalem was hit by this, with the stories making it seem like he wanted to kill the emperor and threaten Yumenes because he wanted power [[spoiler: when he actually wanted revenge for how they had oppressed and cannibalized his people.]]
46	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: At least one of Alabster's children--which he only had because the Fulcrum forced him too--are node maintainers. Alabaster uses them [[spoiler: courtesy of the obelisks]] to destroy the entire culture that created and maimed them.
47	* ImAHumanitarian: As it turns out, [[spoiler: the Sanzeds]] were this during a particularly bad Season.
48	* IWillFindYou: Essun is determined to find her daughter Nassun, who has been taken away by her father Jija, and travels the world looking for her.
49	* JustBeforeTheEnd: The prologue opens on [[spoiler: Alabaster]] opening the rift and releasing the Season to end all Seasons upon the world. Damaya and Syenite's stories take place approximately 30 and 12 years before, respectively.
50	* TheLostLenore: Hessionite to Alabaster and [[spoiler: Innon to both Alabaster and Syenite/Essun.]]
51	* MamaBear: Essun. [[spoiler: She was this as Syenite, too.]]
52	* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler: Damaya takes the name "Syenite" when she passes her first ring test and becomes an active Fulcrum operative. Syenite is a stone that becomes stronger under heat and pressure, rather than breaking.]]
53	* MentorInSourArmor: Alabaster acts as Syenite's mentor, teaching her both about advanced orogeny and horrible truths about the fulcrum. He's very cynical due to realizing said horrible truths and often seems annoyed by Syenite, though he grows to genuinely care for her.
54	* MuggleBornOfMages: [[spoiler:Guardians are cultivated from the children of orogenes who are not themselves oregenes]]. It involves some surgery to the brain stem, and no one else can do it.
55	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Syenite, after she accidentally [[spoiler: wakes a volcano under the city of Allia]].
56	* NarratorAllAlong: [[spoiler: Hoa is actually narrating the story.]]
57	* OffingTheOffspring: Essun's husband to her son, when he realized that the son was an orogene; [[spoiler: Syenite to her son Corundum, in order to keep him from being captured and mutilated]].
58	* OhMyGods: People swear by "Evil Earth".
59	* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: Alabaster is the very best orogene the Fulcrum has ever trained. He also hates them, did ''something'' to his Guardian to get her out of the way (nobody knows what), gets the hell out the first chance he gets, and [[spoiler: causes the end of the world because he thinks it's the only way to break Yumenes's power and destroy the Fulcrum for good]].
60	* ParentalSubstitute: Guardians often become this to orogenes, because they alone are not scared of them. As long as an orogene isn't about to kill someone, they're safer with the Guardians than they are anywhere else. Unfortunately, that still [[AbusiveParents isn't very safe]].
61	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:The "node maintainers" are lobotomized orogenes.]]
62	* PrecisionFStrike: [[spoiler:When Schaffa reminds Syenite that she is not allowed to say "no" to him, she responds with "fucking no!"]]
63	* Really700YearsOld: [[spoiler: Hoa]] is at least twenty-seven thousand years old, but looks about eight. As in ''eight,'' eight, not "eight-thousand."
64	* TheReveal: When Damaya tells Schaffa that she has chosen her ringer name, [[spoiler: we realize that Damaya is Syenite as a child, with the extension that Essun is the same woman in her forties being an easy leap of logic.]]
65	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Jemisin acknowledges that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Garner Margaret Garner]], who [[OffingTheOffspring killed her own daughter]] rather that have her live as a slave, inspired the novel.
66	* SealedEvilInACan: Played with. The Stillness is apocalypse-prone enough that it's littered with "dead civ" artifacts of uncertain purpose. Some of them are things like a fully functional apocalypse vault. Others include a device that wakes a long-dead volcano that has a town built on it (though in fairness, that one seemed to be broken).
67	* SexualExtortion: It's revealed in Damaya's time as a Grit that one of the instructors was blackmailing another Grit into sexual activity so he could send letters home.
68	* SuperBreedingProgram: The Fulcrum sometimes orders their orogenes to have children with each other in order to produce new, powerful orogenes. This happens to Syenite and Alabaster.
69	* TechnicallyASmile: When Stone Eaters bare their teeth, it's done as a threat display. Enhanced by the fact that the teeth are made of diamond.
70	* TestOfPain: The [[WizardingSchool Fulcrum]] tests orogene children by breaking their hands, ostensibly to see if they can control their powers since they can be triggered by the orogene's fight-or-flight response. Those who [[PowerIncontinence lash out]] are killed. It was a defining horror of Essun's childhood, [[spoiler:and a WhamLine when she's revealed to have [[AbusiveParents done the same to her daughter]]]].
71	-->'''Schaffa:''' Can you? Control yourself. It's an important question. The ''most'' important, really. Can you?
72	* TheThreeFacesOfEve: The protagonists: Damaya, the child; Syenite, the seductress -- [[spoiler:in that it is her job to have sex with Alabaster to produce an orogene]]; and the quiet Essun, known merely as Jija's wife. [[spoiler:They are all the same person at different stages of her life, playing into this trope's use as three faces of one thing -- each is a different "face" of the same person, who moves between each over the course of her growth.]]
73	* {{Tsundere}}: Syenite has shades of this as a consequence of being so guarded. A piece of narration from her time in Meov sums up this trope's mentality nicely:
74	-->...[the Meovites] think that Syenite enjoys being reminded that she is part of a group now, contributing and contributed to, and that she no longer needs to guard herself against everyone and everything. They're right. That doesn't mean she's going to tell them so.
75	* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: It gets revealed that [[spoiler:the three characters the book follows the perspective of, Damaya, Syenite, and Essun]], are the same person at different times. Similarly, [[spoiler:Tonkee]] turns out to be [[spoiler:Binof.]]
76	* UngratefulBastard: The people of Tirimo to Essun. They survived a literal world-ending earthquake with their homes and food supplies mostly intact because of her... and they try to kill her anyway because she's a "rogga".
77	* UnreliableNarrator: Sanzed social views have so deeply penetrated world culture that many concepts are initially skewed. The parable that Schaffa tells Damaya and Alabaster later deconstructs is a prime example.
78	* TheUnSmile: Guardians have a tendency of smiling very creepily. [[spoiler: This is because they are in constant pain and smiling helps to alleviate it.]]
79	* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Alabaster.]] Yes, causing the massive earthquake killed thousands if not millions of people and is going to kill even more. But it also destroyed the corrupt and horrifically abusive Fulcrum, which was the point.
80	* WhamLine: For most of the book, it seems like [[spoiler:the pattern of destructive Fifth Seasons]] is just part of the setting and not something that needs explanation, until we suddenly ''get'' that explanation in the last line of dialogue.
81	--> [[spoiler:'''Alabaster''': Tell me, have you ever heard of something called a moon?]]
82	* WhatIfTheBabyIsLikeMe: Syenite and Alabaster worry their baby will be an orogene like them and be abused by he Fulcrum. Alabaster, however, reveals that if the baby is ''not'' an orogene they will end up being turned into a Guardian, which it is implied isn't a good fate either.
83	* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Essun attacks her hometown after she's nearly killed while trying to leave it, killing a few people before controlling herself but also dooming the town by destroying their underground water supply, which really isn't good during [[AfterTheEnd a Season]].
84	* WizardingSchool: ''Horribly'' subverted. The Fulcrum may look like a school, but it's just a place to beat and brainwash young orogenes into becoming obedient slaves of non-orogenes. There's also hints of sexual abuse among the 'grits'. Anyone who causes too much trouble or fails too much is either killed or taken away and [[spoiler:lobotomized]].
85	-->The Fulcrum is not a school. Grits are not students. Orogenes are not people.
86	* WorldSundering: Alabaster uses his [[DishingOutDirt orogeny powers]] in conjunction with the [[AmplifierArtifact obelisks]] to create a massive rift in the earth that splits the world's only continent in two permanently, killing everyone in the city where the rift appeared and many in the areas relatively close-by immediately, as well as ensuring the ensuing volcanic winter-type event will starve everyone in the world within a few decades.
87	* WouldHurtAChild: The Guardians, to a one.
88	* YouKilledMyFather: Essun is chasing down her husband, Jija, because he killed her son and kidnapped her daughter.

Context Literature / TheFifthSeason