As I write this review, Fifth Season has not yet won the 2016 Hugo. I am however, confident that is will (caveat: haven't looked at Seveneves yet, still have a week to vote UPDATE: The Fifth Season did win!). This is a powerful masterpiece in the vein of classic Ursula K. LeGuin, a rich character and sociological study in fear, control, revenge, and above all survival.

From the opening lines, "Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things." Fifth Season draws the reader into the strange world of Stillness, smashed in the opening scene by the rage of a mad sorcerer, and the institutions that humanity has create to survive its harsh and regular cataclysms. Stonelore, the ancient pragmatic wisdom of survival, and the harsh rule of the Sanze Empire, where enslaved orogene sorcerers provide a fragile security from minor catastrophes like earthquakes and tsunamis. Orogenes have the ability to control the earth, which they can use to protect their friends or summon catastrophe. Hatred of orogenes is an instinct bred deeply into the people of Stillness, control of their power the basis on which their civilization lies.

The non-linear story follows an orogene woman named Essun, hunting her daughter and husband through the start of the end of the world. Her husband killed their son when he found that the boy had inherited her terrible and hidden power. The other two tracks follow Essun in a previous life, in training and in the fullness of her power, and her search for some basic humanity despite her power.

Jeminsin is relentless in following utilitarianism to its logical conclusion, to the reduction of human beings to uses and tools, to the brutality of the necessity of survival and false heroism of 'hard men making hard choices'. Communities are closed against outsiders, wisdom consists in shedding the weak, society rests on the enslavement and ability to instantly kill those who threaten it. For all the cruelty of the world, its complete destruction is an even greater crime. Revenge is no fair reason.

This book is also deeply weird in the best possible way, with a rich invented vocabulary, orogene 'magic' that is simultaneously fantastic and scientific, and artifacts from dead civilizations ranging from unrusting metal roads to immense floating obelisks. A race of statue-like Stone Eaters and the anti-orogene power of the Guardian orders provides further mysteries.

I've not read any Jemisin, but she is definitely on my radar screen.