Welcome back to the Stronger by Science Podcast. I'm Greg and I'm Lindsay and we have another great show for you today but first Lindsay what's on your mind?

Yeah I think I want to start today with a book recommendation.

I read quite a bit and I'm kind of hoping that if I give book recommendations on the

podcast maybe other people will give me book recommendations as well.

So the book that I just finished is called The Fifth Season.

It's the first book in a trilogy called Broken Earth. I'm on the second book now. It's a science fantasy genre, which I guess is like a mixture between science fiction and fantasy, but there are elements that remind me of

post-apocalyptic novels as well, which I also love, but it takes place on a supercontinent where every few centuries, the inhabitants

endure what they call a fifth season, which is like catastrophic climate change brought on

by earthquakes and the main

characters have the ability to control energy particularly being able to

cause or prevent earthquakes, which, you know, cause the catastrophic seasons.

But because of the immense power that those people have in their abilities, everyone's scared of them and they're like an extremely

oppressed class of people. But the books were written by N.K. Jemison, who's a black woman, and I think her perspective and the themes

that she brings in are just really refreshing

for those genres.

You don't see a lot of people of color and women

and science fiction and fantasy and so the books are filled with people of different races and sexualities and gender identities and casts alongside with like these magical elements of people having these cool abilities.

All three books in the series won the Hugo Award and the author was the first person to win the Hugo Award three years in a row or for all three books in a trilogy

Oh wow which is really impressive. Yeah that's why like when I learned about that I was like oh I got to give these a shot

and as a song of Ice and Fire girly it's very comforting to have a series that I love that I know is completed and in

fact will be completed.

Has it has been completed. I yes.

...