Sure, there's a whopping glossary at the end of the book - two of them, actually - but that simply underscores how much sumptuous detail and dimensionality she's packed into her premise. Jemisin's new novel, The Fifth Season, the payoff is astounding.
Positively, fantasy-novel glossaries help the reader keep track of an intricate clockwork of imaginary peoples, places, and things - and that intricacy actually pays off. Negatively, they're self-indulgent exercises in building fictional worlds, with the author fixating on the sheer quantity of settings and characters to the exclusion of all else. There are two ways to look at the kind of fantasy novels that come with big glossaries at the end. Your purchase helps support NPR programming.
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