I started The Fifth Season and got a good way into it before the relentless death (in particular, the death of a child, which happens very close to the beginning of the book) and grief and catastrophe was just too much for me. I keep thinking I'd like to give it another try, but I'm... unlikely... to be ready and willing to subject myself to that anytime soon.
Tracy: 'When you can't run, you crawl... and when you can't crawl, when you can't do that--' Zoe: 'You find someone to carry you.'
'The Message'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Kate P. - May 11, 2020 1:29:33 pm PDT #25825 of 28176
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
Dana - May 11, 2020 1:45:17 pm PDT #25826 of 28176
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Yeah, the series doesn't really get less grim.
Consuela - May 11, 2020 7:52:52 pm PDT #25827 of 28176
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
Indeed.
esse - May 12, 2020 7:39:08 pm PDT #25828 of 28176
S to the A -- using they/them pronouns!
Jemisin is relentless in conveying her concept of the world. I couldn't read it straight through; I had to read a bit at a time, and it did get more challenging to come back to it the grimmer it got.
I'm reading "Empress" which is a biography of the Nar Jahal, who for several years was the ruler of Mughal India following the death of her husband, the Emperor. The only female ruler -- she's amazing and largely unknown to the West.
Jessica - May 13, 2020 6:15:28 am PDT #25829 of 28176
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
This is my obligatory plug for the Broken Earth trilogy on audio - Robin Miles does phenomenal work with the 2nd-person narration.
But yeah, it's not a *comforting* read, and it doesn't get cheerier as the series goes on.
Dana - May 13, 2020 8:32:20 am PDT #25830 of 28176
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
God, I'm not sure I could listen to it, rather than read it.
Consuela - May 13, 2020 9:19:04 am PDT #25831 of 28176
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
I have her new one, I'm hoping it's more cheerful.
Jessica - May 13, 2020 9:20:39 am PDT #25832 of 28176
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
The City We Became is practically a beach read compared to Broken Earth.
-t - May 13, 2020 9:24:38 am PDT #25833 of 28176
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I didn't care for the short story (The City Born Great? Something like that) so I was thinking I'd skip the novel. First thing of hers I'd read that I didn't like, I think.
Jessica - May 13, 2020 9:38:17 am PDT #25834 of 28176
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
The style is very different from most of what she's written before, but I really really enjoyed it. I'm not sure how much I would have gotten out of it if I didn't live in NY though.