This is the fifth blog installment of Read & React for The Fifth Season. If you’re new to the series check out the first installment here. Eventually I hope to take my notes from this and transform them into a Spoiler Free Review, but this segment will definitely be filled with spoilers since it is my thoughts as I go through the book. Reader be warned, this post is meant for discussion purposes; avert your eyes now if you wish to avoid spoilers.
4: Syenite, cut and polished
We’re back to third person again! We meet Syenite and Feldspar who sound like they’re at some sort of school that gives out rings like how a karate class gives out different belts (I’m guessing we’re in in the Fulcrum). (A couple of sentences later and yep, we’re definitely at Fulcrum.) During the discussion of Syenite’s next assignment we learn that apparently orogenes with 5 rings or more no longer need a partner or Guardian to go out into the world, but her assignment involves something with a guy who has attained 10 rings.
(Woah this just took a turn I was not expecting.) The 10-ringer still doesn’t have a name, but he’s a grouchy 40-ish year old, and Syen’s assignment is to have a child with this mysterious 10-ringer within a year. (Let me just say that the way Syen describes the possibility of her staying at Fulcrum to make all the babies sounds both hilarious and boring.) After having business-like sex (it’s the only way I can think to describe it), Syen reveals that there actually is a mission that starts tomorrow where 10-ringer becomes her mentor on how to break up some coral and whatnot (this is much closer to what I had originally expected).
This chapter ends on a bit of notes on a conversation held just before the founding of the Fulcrum (which just makes everything about the Fulcrum now feel disgusting).
IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
Shape Prominence – an area of Fulcrum used to house senior members
Important Things:
Safe – a nutritious drink which no one enjoys made from plant milk that changes color when contaminated with anything
Sanzeds – a physically superior race
Important People:
Syenite (Syen) – a girl (roughly 20 years of age) trained at Fulcrum who has obtained 4 rings and is sent on a mission with another Fulcrum member with 10 rings
Feldspar (Feld) – Syen’s mentor at Fulcrum; a member of the senior advisory board? (I’m not completely sure what her role is, but I do know that Syen is gunning for her job.)
10-ringer – a guy presumed to be in his 40’s who is the highest level of orogene at Fulcrum (we don’t know what his actual name is yet even though the characters clearly do)
TheBookishSock 