Play Book Tag discussion

**Extra book for Shadow & Flame - Letter H - 58 tags Authors of Color
Steeplechase - Did Not Finish - 120 tags

I read this for the Did Not Finish tag, and I wouldn't have either, if it hadn't fit so well for both games. Some years back, I read The Fifth Season by this author and I didn't like it. It seemed both too abstract and too depressing. But this author gets so many raves, I thought I should try again. I'm sorry I did. I'll try to explain why.

Many of the characters are gods or near-gods. I think I get bored by them the same way I get bored by vampires, werewolves and zombies. Ordinary laws don't apply so the author can just make up whatever they want. (I used to feel that way about dragons until some of my PBT friends - and Temeraire - changed my opinion.) I can't really get connected to these characters. The main character is human - or is she? There is a lot of cruelty and some outright torture, which is something I have trouble reading about. And there is no point to the quarrels of the gods, millennia of jealousy and conflict with humans, even all of human civilization, caught in the crossfire. If that gets destroyed, oh well, it will arise again in some more millennia. Gods fighting just struck me as boring - and the description of sex with a god I found worthy of a bad romance novel.

I bought the trilogy as kindle deal last year but I'm sure I won't read any more.

I remember after reading the Fifth Season, and waiting for the 2nd book that I picked this one up. Although I did not tag it, it was a DNF for me. Good job sticking it out.

This was my first Jemisin read and I really loved it. But then I am a sucker for political maneuvering of fantasy gods books. When I saw you were going to read it, I cringed a bit because as much as I loved it I figured you would not.

I have a copy of this floating around the TBR Towers, picked up at a used book sale before I had read any Jemisen. I suspect I will give it a shot at some point even though I too disliked The Fifth Season though admired the writing and there is one image seared into my mind that still haunts). I will never ever read the rest of the trilogy.

However, I did love The City We Became and have the sequel here awaiting my attention. It is so NYC-centric, literally every place in there is some place I know, even the buses taken by the characters, and it was funny! Much much lighter than Fifth Season - and based on an interview I heard, deliberately so as Jemisen needed to write something lighter for a bit. Feminerdy Book Club read it and I probably liked it the most of anyone else in the group - we all agree we would sign up for a Walking Tour led by Jemisen based on the book. My Feminerdy group loved The Fifth Season when I didn't. Led to some really vigorous debates.