A Hugo Award that The Fifths Season got in 2016 promised a good read, but didn’t deliver, unfortunately. I am still wondering what made the book special. Ok, the world building is kinda interesting, but resembles The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, which was written in like 2006 and on. There are also many themes similar to those Jemisin used in her Ten Thousand Kingdoms: polyamory, gods in chains metaphor, special snowflake. The story was similarly plot-driven and even more confusing. Those first chapters irritated me sooooo much! I was squirming in my train seat as I went through them. Brrr.
The only thing I liked is the geology angle - that kind of magic sounds new, but I wish I was better at sciences to understand the lingo. In fact, the story could have been so much more, but it seemed squeezed into one book, which left the characters underdeveloped and the world building confusing.