Waiting on Wednesday: The Fifth Season

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to let us share our excitement for books coming out soon.

I read my first book by N.K. Jemisin earlier this month and am eager to read more. While I know there are a number of published books I need to catch up on, I am also quite looking forward to this one. It sounds dark and exciting (and likely a bit emotional). Plus, I love a story where there’s a female protagonist looking to fight to overcome what ever odds and obstacles are thrown her way.

Title: The Fifth Season

Author: N.K. Jemisin
Expected publication: August 4th, 2015
Publisher: Orbit

This is the way the world ends. Again.

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 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 land. 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.