About the Author

N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author who won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. She previously won the Locus Award for her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and her short fiction and novels have been nominated multiple times for Hugo, World Fantasy, Nebula, and RT Reviewers' Choice awards, and shortlisted for the Crawford and the James Tiptree, Jr. awards. She is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for the New York Times, and you can find her online at nkjemisin.com.

Reviews

"[The Fifth Season is] an ambitious book, with a shifting point of view, and a protagonist whose full complexity doesn't become apparent till toward the end ... Jemisin's work itself is part of a slow but definite change in sci-fi and fantasy."--Guardian on The Fifth Season

"[A] powerful, epic novel of discovery, pain, and heartbreak." --SFF World on The Fifth Season

"[How] can something as large and complex as this story exist in her head, and how does she manage to tell it to me so beautifully? I can't stand how much I love The Broken Earth trilogy so far.... Absolutely dazzling."--B&N Reviews on The Obelisk Gate

"A must-buy...breaks uncharted ground."--Library Journal (starred review) on The Fifth Season

"Astounding... Jemisin maintains a gripping voice and an emotional core that not only carries the story through its complicated setting, but sets things up for even more staggering revelations to come."--NPR Books on The Fifth Season

"Beyond the meticulous pacing, the thorough character work, and the staggering ambition and revelations of the narration, Jemisin is telling a story of our present, our failures, our actions in the face of repeated trauma, our responses to the heat and pressure of our times. Her accomplishment in this series is tremendous. It pole-vaults over the expectations I had for what epic fantasy should be and stands in magnificent testimony to what it could be."--NPR on The Obelisk Gate

"Brilliant characters, vivid world, and pacing . . . .The Obelisk Gate is an incredibly ambitious and important novel."--The Verge on The Obelisk Gate

"Exceptional."--Library Journal (starred review) on The Obelisk Gate

"Heartbreaking, wholly unexpected, and technically virtuosic, The Fifth Season is a tour-de-force. I felt every shock--and the book is packed with them--in my marrow. It's no exaggeration to say that Jemisin expands the range of what great fantasy can be."--Brian Staveley, author of The Emperor's Blades

"Intricate and extraordinary."--New York Times on The Fifth Season

"Jemisin builds off of the strong foundation laid in The Fifth Season ... an interesting new series."
--Booklist on The Obelisk Gate

"Jemisin is a tremendously talented writer on every level and she's at the top of her game here. I love books that beat me up and take my lunch money, and this one left me bruised, breathless, and desperate for the final volume."--Rose Fox, senior reviews editor Publishers Weekly, (PW Staff Picks: The Best Books We Read in 2016) on The Obelisk Gate

"Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold."--Entertainment Weekly

"Jemisin might just be the best world builder out there right now.... [She] is a master at what she does." --RT Book Reviews (Top Pick!) on The Fifth Season

"Jemisin's graceful prose and gritty setting provide the perfect backdrop for this fascinating tale of determined characters fighting to save a doomed world."--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on The Fifth Season

"One of the most celebrated new voices in epic fantasy."--Salon.com

"Stunning and well constructed ... a book that imbues itself with deeper meaning the more it unfolds and reveals itself, and by the end, I saw everything in a new light. I knew Jemisin was talented, being a huge fan of her Inheritance and Dreamblood books, but here she employs heretofore unseen skills."--Lightspeed on The Fifth Season

"Stunning.... Jemisin's most accomplished series yet."--RT Book Reviews on The Obelisk Gate

"Stunning, again."--Kirkus (starred review) on The Obelisk Gate

"This is an intense, exciting novel, where survival is always on the line, set in a fascinating, original and dangerous world with an intriguing mystery at the heart of it. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!"--Martha Wells on The Fifth Season

"With every new work, Jemisin's ability to build worlds and break hearts only grows."--Kirkus (starred review)