Where have I been???

...Well I have been on vacation. Lots of time spent on the beach in Tobago. I brought books along for the trip.....but I didn't finish any. I definitely read on the trip, just not as much as I thought I would.

Historically, I'm a slow reader. When pushed, I can read a book in a couple of days. But since I like to read several books at once, it can take some time for me to finish. Or....in the case of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, it can take me months before I finally decide to throw in the towel.

Part of my resolution for the New Year was to read more sci-fi/fantasy books. The Fifth Season was first on my list.

Here is the description from Amazon.com:

A season of endings has begun.

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun.

It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter.

It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.

This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

Sounds interesting. I wanted to like this. I heard N.K. Jemisin speak at a book event. She was very engaging. I saw a lot of praise online for The Fifth Season. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to break the mental block I have against sci-fi/fantasy books. Well.....I will have to try again.

Fifty pages in I wanted to give up. This is written in the third person. I found it hard to follow. Every other page, I had to look up words in the appendix because I had no idea what Jemisin was talking about. But I kept going. I kept waiting for the big moment. The big moment when the book would make sense. 100 pages in. 150 pages in. Finally, after a little more than 200 pages I had to give up. I rarely give up on books. For me, this book was work. Reading a book shouldn't feel like work. I had to let it go.

The Fifth Season has not soured my opinion of sci-fi/fantasy books or N.K. Jemisin. This one just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm trying again with A Game of Thrones. Since my family is such big fans of the TV series, I thought I would finally give the books a try. Why not watch the series instead? Because I totally believe in reading the books first!!