When I originally sat down to work on this project, I knew the first and most important thing for me to do was research books. Specifically, newer books, not just the classics and the rereads on my shelf. I’d already been reading outside my comfort zone in 2021 thanks to a commitment to stop being so stuffy about what I considered “Good Fiction” and a large pile of unfamiliar books lent to me by a very lovely friend. This experiment ended up being a success (much like my other Get Over Yourself interventions I’ve been giving myself these last few years) and I knew I had to continue it when I started this blog. The problem, as always, is the glaring white of the blank page and the vast ocean of the internet. 

There are so many books, folks. Like. So many. It was overwhelming. Just looking at “Top 100” lists sent my heart into spasms because how was I supposed to pick twelve? An awful thought slithered into my brain as I browsed, seeing some titles repeated over and over: How much of this is marketing? Are any of these genuine reviews? The lists began taking new shapes as I researched, trying to dodge the churning capitalist machine that’s taken over Google searches. I tried to find real people reading the books, ones that weren’t paid or given a free copy. I even dredged the bottom of Twitter for reviews. In the end, my document was still blank and my brain was pounding against my skull like wet dough in a bread machine.

I sat on it for a few days. Looked at my bookshelf. Looked at the books I’d bought in the last year but hadn’t gotten around to reading yet. I started noticing some gaps. Then I sat in front of the document again, armed with different keyword criteria, and got to searching. 

The Fifth Season was the first book to make the list. It was the first gap I noticed when I went through all my books. I’ve been a sucker for fantasy and sci-fi since I was a kid and my shelves reflect this, a hefty percentage of the books belonging to one of the two categories (or both). When I looked at my collection, though, I noticed three things: One, nearly all the authors I own are white; Two, most of them are men; Three, about two-thirds are about white protagonists (a major exception being my nearly complete collection of Ursula K. LeGuin. Miss you always, you absolute legend). This isn’t exactly surprising- the books that have gone down in literary history as “classics” are, more often than not, written by white people. Books taught in schools are primarily written by white people. Growing up white in a heavily white suburban town, it’s no wonder I had this blind spot. People of color have always written sci-fi and fantasy, but few have ever been recommended to me by my peers. It was time I went and explored new authors myself.

This is how I found The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. She’s the first black author to ever win a Hugo in the Best Novel category and then she went on to win 2 more consecutive Hugos in the same category (another First for the Hugos!) for the next two books in the trilogy. That’s a hell of a recommendation if I ever heard one! But the numerous awards weren’t the only thing that drew me to Jemisin. As I read her wiki and her website, I stumbled on her blog. I spent an afternoon skipping around entries from nearly a decade ago, reading posts that I related to far more than I’d expected. We both “self-published” as kids, writing our own stories and making handmade books to distribute them. We play the same videogames. We’re excited about the same shows. The more I read, the more I realized that she was someone I wanted to know, much like I would’ve killed to know LeGuin. Her blog was one of my favorite discoveries while researching her and made me that much more excited to read her books.

Digging into reviews for The Fifth Season fueled my “I’m really gonna dig this, huh?” vibe. Critics and general readers alike love this book, even people who may not label themselves Genre Readers (a topic for another time). I read words like “Literary Fantasy” and “Climate Change Sci-fi” and I had to stop myself from picking up a digital copy of the book to read at work. This isn’t going to be another shoot-em-up Star Wars sci-fi novel or the hero’s journey with a fancy coat of Future Paint. From all the chatter I read, The Fifth Season is going to be one hell of a ride.

I think starting this way will be a nice way for me to ease into blogging. I am about 98% sure I’m going to enjoy it, buy the other two to read on my own time, and then jump onto my computer to sing its praises to all of you. Passion for books is what pushed me to write in the first place; might as well start with a book I’m pretty sure I’ll be passionate about! I hope you’ll join me for the adventure and we can all gush about it later this month.

Links to buy the book can be found in the “Book of the Month” tab, or you can check out your local library/library app/or bookstore. Happy reading!