This is the seventh 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.
6: Damaya, grinding to a halt
We’re back to third person (there’s definitely a pattern here). While spending a night in an inn in Brevard, Schaffa dreams during the night – thrashing around and crying out like he’s dying, but when Damaya checks on him he has no awareness of what has happened. (I wonder if he’s having a bad dream or if this is some tell-tale sign that if his kind get too far away from a rend bad things happen?)
As they pass through an area that has somewhat recently been affected by a quake Damaya begins to listen to the earth which Schaffa picks up on and tells her not to do. She gets squirmy with trying not too so Schaffa decides to tell her a story to take her mind off of things. He tells her of Shemshena, a woman who used knowledge to protect her people and kill an orogene (among other things – come on, I’m not going to completely spoil/summarize everything).
Eventually, Damaya gets a bit sassy and claims that she can control herself without need of a Guardian, and then things get messy. Schaffa breaks Damaya’s hand in 3 places then basically gaslights her. (I’m furious at this point having at a few points in my life been gas-lit myself. I’m presuming this somehow comes in again later in the story. Also I’m beginning to think Schaffa isn’t actually a child of Father Earth anymore – meaning not birthed of a rend.)
This time the chapter end in an excerpt from a textbook, ruminating on what constitutes a “‘true’ Season”.
IN SUMMARY
Important Places:
Sanze – the only nation to have survived a Fifth Season, a rending causing deadly ash winters which last years, 7 times
Important Things:
Shemshena – an ancient story used to explain many orogene mechanics (of course that isn’t how it’s framed in the story, but that’s what it actually does for the reader – and in a very entertaining way)
Important People:
Misalem – a male orogene from before the Fulcrum was established who killed many and wished to destroy Yumenes
Shemshena – “a renowned fighter of the finest Sanzed lineage” who understood how orogeny worked and accompanied the Emperor to his meeting with Misalem
Personal Point of Interest
I knew early on in this book that there was definitely some abuse happening to Damaya, but I had hoped that ended when Schaffa took her away from her home. Evidently the Guardians get to abuse orogenes to gain control over them. Gross.
TheBookishSock 