The City We Became: A Novel (The Great Cities Trilogy, 1)

by N. K. Jemisin

Hardcover, 2020

Status

Available

Publication

Orbit (2020), Edition: 1st, 448 pages

Description

"Five New Yorkers must come together in order to save their city from destruction in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin. Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six. When a young man crosses the bridge into New York City, something changes. He doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can feel the pulse of the city, can see its history, can access its magic. And he's not the only one. All across the boroughs, strange things are happening. Something is threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all"--… (more)

Media reviews

The City We Became is an intensely political work of speculative fiction charting two distinct storylines, with both layers of the novel's narrative producing unexpected insights and parallels as they are superimposed atop one another. By blending concepts as diverse as the true nature of social
Show More
constructs, what it takes for fictional stories to become “real,” and some of the more bewildering implications of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics, Jemisin manages to explore hidden dimensions of social existence and racism. In so doing, she dramatizes the cues and subtexts that underlie even the most outwardly mundane of everyday interactions into an intensely compelling science fiction story.... Initially straining to maintain and introduce its large cast of characters, The City We Became eventually becomes an allegory for the ways in which all types of bigotry quite literally “infect” the societies and subcultures they target. The novel is in part an over-the-top adventure story whose characters engage in literal rap battles with two-dimensional spider-people, fight off a giant underground worm composed of discarded subway cars, and momentarily drive off parasitic alien sea anemones by throwing money at the problem until it goes away. However, behind all of that, this is also a novel about the horrifyingly absurd nature of bigotry, and the extent to which people are forced to accept as facts things that should not be true, but somehow are.
Show Less
9 more
IN 2018, N. K. Jemisin made genre history as the first author to win three consecutive Hugo Awards... Jemisin’s well-earned triumph was particularly notable given the fact that 2013 had seen the emergence of right-wing groups of predominantly white men, known as the “Sad Puppies” and “Rabid
Show More
Puppies,” who until 2017 attempted to flood the Hugo nomination system with blocs of authors and texts they deemed appropriate. In light of the failure of this extended reactionary tantrum, Jemisin didn’t just win — her victories announced that science fiction and fantasy were, as she put it in her acceptance speech, “the aspirational drive of the zeitgeist” .... it’s difficult, now, to avoid the temptation to retroactively read into the novel the historic events that are transforming New York, along with so many other United States and global cities. The language of infestation, infection, and contagion seeps into Jemisin’s description of the Enemy’s invasion of New York, illuminating with terrifying insight the physical ecosystems by which a pathogen spreads through the city .... The City We Became estranges us from the everyday operations of power so that we can, with new clarity, see how it works and how it can be unraveled and remade; like her Hugo acceptance speech, the novel declares that the stakes of social power, the significance of asserting that the world belongs to the marginalized, is nothing less than epic.
Show Less
The basic premise, which was previewed in Jemisin’s 2016 story “The City Born Great”, is this: each great city reaches a point in its history when it literally comes alive and is embodied in an avatar who might otherwise seem an ordinary, undistinguished citizen. When this happens, ancient
Show More
eldritch forces try to use this moment of instability to invade and gain a foothold in our world.... As a standalone narrative, The City We Became offers only a degree of closure in a rather abrupt ending, as Jemisin sets the stage for the epic struggles we can expect in subsequent volumes. As the inaugural volume of what promises to be a wildly original fantasy trilogy, quite unlike anything else Jemisin has written, it completely takes command of the very notion of urban fantasy, and it leaves us exactly where we need to be – wanting the next volume now.
Show Less
I’ve not read another book like this in years. Jemisin takes a concept that can be abstracted to the simplest of questions (What if cities were alive?) and wraps an adventure around it. That adventure takes center stage in the many scenes that read more like a superhero movie than a fantasy
Show More
novel, such as when a towering Lovecraftian tentacle bursts from the river to destroy the Williamsburg Bridge. However, Jemisin’s most beautiful passages deliver attentive descriptions of New York’s melting pot of people. Her characters’ life experiences—racial, sexual, financial—bring perspectives that are deeply important to and often missing from contemporary literature, particularly in the fantasy genre.
Show Less
The City We Became is strange to read right now in a way that Jemisin — the only person ever to win the prestigious Hugo Award three years in a row — could not possibly have predicted. The infection in her fantasy New York City is a metaphor for colonialism and bigotry and white nationalism.
Show More
Meanwhile, the real New York City, where I live, has become the center of America’s coronavirus pandemic, and the literal infection here is casting existing bigotry and white nationalism into ever-sharper relief. At times, it does feel as though coronavirus is threatening everything that makes New York a living, breathing, vital organism, and as though it will leave the city nothing but a husk of itself.... The City We Became is not a book about how New York falls apart. It’s a love letter to the city’s resilience, and to all the ways it overcomes hatred to rise up stronger than it was before. And by extension, it’s about the rest of us, and the ways in which we must all work together to protect and support one another. It will give you faith that New York can come back to itself again — and so can all the rest of us, too.
Show Less
Like Victor LaValle’s brilliant 2016 novella “The Ballad of Black Tom,” “The City We Became” subverts the work of the repellent H.P. Lovecraft, in whose stories evil is embodied as swarthy and foreign. If Jemisin’s novel lacks some of the deep strangeness of LaValle’s tale, it makes
Show More
up for it in sheer moxie and sly humor. Manny, avatar of the borough epitomized by unchecked capitalism, weaponizes credit cards, Checker Cabs and an iconic cinematic image. Brooklyn defends herself by channeling a Grandmaster Flash song. The Enemy’s various disguises include an unseen, nosy woman in a bathroom stall and Dr. White of the blandly named, sinister Better New York Foundation. And while all five avatars wield powers derived from the strengths of their individual boroughs, even superheroes struggle to prevail against gentrification, aggrieved white cisgender men who attempt to promote their alt-right agenda through really bad art, and a tendency to squabble among themselves.... “The City We Became” ends on a high note, but it makes no concession that the fight for a more equitable world is over. In both fiction and reality, it’s barely started.
Show Less
Jemisin's New York faces a more fantastical but no less insidious threat, something that wants to engulf the city in fear and darkness, stop its awakening and kill its avatars.... Early blurbs have dubbed The City We Became a "love letter to New York" and it is, but that almost doesn't do what
Show More
Jemisin accomplishes here justice. It is a love letter, a celebration and an expression of hope and belief that a city and its people can and will stand up to darkness, will stand up to fear, and will, when called to, stand up for each other.
Show Less
I read “The City Born Great” with a mixture of admiration and alienation. I am not a New Yorker — I’m not even American — and while I loved the shape of the short story, its insights and structures, I was less engaged by a denouement that relied on familiarity with the city’s bridges
Show More
and roadways for its effect.... Crucially — and most affectingly — Jemisin locates New York’s identity in plurality and adoption rather than any kind of nativist purity.... When I finally visited New York for the first time, I did the most unoriginal possible thing and fell in love with it. In the years since, the United States has become more hostile than hospitable to visitors, its borders the sites of vicious, almost gleeful cruelty. In the face of current events, “The City We Became” takes a broad-shouldered stand on the side of sanctuary, family and love. It’s a joyful shout, a reclamation and a call to arms.
Show Less
The staggering contemporary fantasy that launches three-time Hugo Award-winner Jemisin’s new trilogy (following the Broken Earth series) leads readers into the beating heart of New York City for a stunning tale of a world out of balance.... Jemisin’s earthy, vibrant New York is mirrored in her
Show More
dynamic, multicultural cast. Blending the concept of the multiverse with New York City arcana, this novel works as both a wry adventure and an incisive look at a changing city. Readers will be thrilled.
Show Less
The novel is a bold calling out of the racial tensions dividing not only New York City, but the U.S. as a whole; it underscores that people of color are an integral part of the city’s tapestry even if some White people prefer to treat them as interlopers. It's no accident that the only White
Show More
avatar is the racist woman representing Staten Island, nor that the Enemy appears as a Woman in White who employs the forces of racism and gentrification in her invasion; her true self is openly inspired by the tropes of the xenophobic author H.P. Lovecraft. Although the story is a fantasy, many aspects of the plot draw on contemporary incidents. In the real world, White people don’t need a nudge from an eldritch abomination to call down a violent police reaction on people of color innocently conducting their daily lives, and just as in the book, third parties are fraudulently transferring property deeds from African American homeowners in Brooklyn, and gentrification forces out the people who made the neighborhood attractive in the first place. In the face of these behaviors, whataboutism, #BothSides, and #NotAllWhitePeople are feeble arguments. Fierce, poetic, uncompromising.
Show Less

User reviews

LibraryThing member ladycato
I checked this out from my local library in order to consider this book as a Nebula finalist this year.

The City We Became is an ambitious, fast-paced book. By the concept, this is urban fantasy, but this is goes beyond those set genre tropes, with multiple points of view and a particular, gritty,
Show More
edgy vibe. The basic premise is nothing new: there comes a point when the great cities of the world truly come alive, and at that time, it chooses an avatar most connected to the city to be its defender. In the case of New York City and its boroughs, that means five avatars. This time of awakening is fraught with other-worldly peril, too, as cross-dimensional threats want to stake their own territorial claim.

I greatly enjoyed the voices and the mood of the book. Though I have never been to NYC, and find large cities to be horrific, panic attack-inducing things, the characters and their connections to the city were embodied by a wonderful rightness. What I did find frustrating was a complete lack of agency in much of the cast. The people 'awaken' and just know things and do things. They aren't really people anymore but demigods, and as horror-tinged as the book is, everything felt too easy. That dampened suspense in a major way.

Even so, I enjoyed the book overall, though I'm not sure if I will read onward in the series.
Show Less
LibraryThing member amberwitch
The metaphors are rather heavy-handed as is the DEI efforts, although I thought it was a little funny when the 2nd wave feminist gets into a fight with the 4th wave feminist, and secretly condemns the 3rd wave feminist. An interesting concept that is at times well executed, but skuffers from bring
Show More
very 21 century woke American, which is boring, preachy and heavy-handed to this non-American.
The narrative is grating, particularly the beginning and the end which is told in first person. I am not a big fan of narrators that are very obvious, and only a few authors can make that palatable (Robin McKinley, Joyce Carol Oates), N. K. Jemesin isn't one of them.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
I enjoyed Jemisin's previous fantasy trilogy, The Broken Earth, a lot, particularly its first volume. Despite being fantasy, I felt it had the doubling effect that for me makes the best science fiction: it had a rigorously extrapolated secondary world, but it was also a metaphor for our world. This
Show More
new novel is, as far as I know, the first book by Jemisin that falls into the Mendlesohn category of "intrusion fantasy" rather than "immersive fantasy," and perhaps for that reason, I found the commentary much less interesting. The basic premise is that when they reach certain levels of complexity, cities are "born" and acquire living avatars, but there are dark forces out there willing to destroy cities to stop this from happening. New York City is undergoing that process during the course of this novel, but because it has multiple boroughs, it has multiple avatars, who must find each other and learn to work together.

I had a number of problems with the book. It drags. As a friend of mine also pointed out, the reader understands what its going on by the end of the prologue, but it takes the characters over four hundred pages to figure it out for themselves, and to undertake the pretty mundane task of finding one another. And while the orogenes in The Broken Earth were potent metaphors for various aspects of chattel slavery, I felt like The City We Became didn't really engage with the potential complexities of its premise. The city avatars are basically all good, and the city is coming to life is a good thing, and they are a charming team of ethnically diverse heroes; the bad guys are all evil racists. But surely cities—and here my thoughts are influenced by James Scott's Seeing Like a State—are born of the push and pull between complexity and simplification. Cities are diverse places, but they are also always trying to contain and stamp out and systematize their own diversity in order to make it legible and therefore controllable. Without this, I would argue, you have no city. A city planner wants things in neat grids, and is willing to smash those who gets in their way; an American city in particular, is born of stolen land. I feel like some of this is touched on vaguely, but not really dealt with. I feel like there's another version of this book that's about cities coming to life in all their mess just being a thing that is, rather than a thing that's good, and I think that book is probably more interesting than this one.

This is made worse by the fact that the social commentary in The City We Became ranges from the obvious to the banal. It felt to me like it was written by Twitter: the villain is clearly a Karen, and there are definite echoes of the Chris Cooper birdwatching incident (though that actually happened after the book was written). Jemisin's book doesn't have anything new or interesting to say about those topics; it's pretty much all the exact same way you would get people snarkily commenting on it online. There's a particularly risible subplot about evil bro fascist racist progressive artists which completely failed to convince me that its villains were real people; again, it felt like an online stereotype of a category of person I'm not completely convinced actually exists. On top of that, this subplot is resolved stupidly easy; basically someone tweets "help out our art gallery," and it's all taken care of in a couple paragraphs.

Anyway, overall I found this pretty disappointing considering the strength of Jemisin's other work, and I imagine I will only read future installments if "forced" to do so by them being Hugo finalists in future years.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nmele
I grew up in New York City and loved being there s a child and young adult. When I learned that N.K. Jemisin was writing a novel about New York coming to life, I was eager to read it because her novels are always multi-layered, addressing real issues through speculative fiction and fantasy. I could
Show More
not put down "The City We Became", an exhilarating story about disparate avatars of the five counties finding one another to search for the prime avatar of the entire metropolitan area and defeat a menacing threat from another universe. To say more would spoil the fun, and this book is fun, a thriller that takes into consideration society's biases, anxieties, fears and virtues. I am looking forward to Book 2 in this trilogy.
Show Less
LibraryThing member deeEhmm
Ambitious, fun, and very hard on Staten Island! In NYC's various boroughs, five people awaken to their roles as avatars for the city. They are joined by the race to make the city's split soul whole before a powerful interdimensional enemy devours it and dooms it to oblivion, erasing it from
Show More
history. A wealth of wry and sometimes wicked commentary on the boroughs' personality differences invited me to delight in this book. A wealth of explaining and exposition affected the sparkle of the narrative somewhat, but not enough to ruin a fun and, especially once Jemisin gets warmed up, a wild ride.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
What fun!!

New York City has reached a stage in its development when it comes to life, and each borough becomes embodied in a human who represents that borough's personality and history. However, the embodiments of other cities in other multiverses don't want New York to come alive, and seek to
Show More
destroy the people who represent New York.

That description makes the book sound utterly ludicrous... and in some ways, it is, but Jemison is a brilliant world-builder and makes it all feel very real and very sensible, while at the same time not shying from the sheer fun of the concept.

This book is a wonderful homage to New York City that perfectly captures the essence of the boroughs and the city as a whole.

I listened to the audiobook, and it deserves every award that exists for audiobooks. The narrator is brilliant - she captures a range of different New York accents, and she is frightfully good at maniacal laughter. It's a virtuoso performance, with some masterful audio effects added in.

I can't wait for more books in the series!
Show Less
LibraryThing member bell7
When a city reaches a certain state of vibrancy and history and culture, it births and becomes alive in a new way. New York is on the cusp of that, but at it's birthing something goes horribly wrong and odd white fronds or tentacles seem to be finding a foothold. Now, that person that is New York
Show More
is missing, and its boroughs - each a person, an avatar embodying a part of the city - need to come together before the city dies without having a chance to live.

N.K. Jemisin is one of my go-to authors who writes phenomenal, complex fantasy with amazing world building. This book lives up to my expectations while being completely different from everything I've read by her. It's a love letter to New York while being aware of its flaws. It's raw, with a lot of swearing (in a fitting way, this is New York after all), and also a very diverse cast that has to fight racism and other societal evils just as much as the infiltrating white thing. It's a nod to Lovecraft while subverting it, too. When is the next book in the trilogy out again? I'm going to be preordering it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member froxgirl
It's exciting to be present at the creation of a new Jemisin trilogy! This one introduces us to the one man and five women who embody the city of New York, under threat from a shape-shifting demonic figure who is armed with a strange collection of soldiers - tentacles, towers, voracious chain
Show More
coffee shops, dudebro white supremacists – at her disposal. The introductions of Manny(hattan) and of the avatars of each borough allow the unique qualities of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx to shine through. Diverse in ethnicity (Lenape tribeswoman, Tamil immigrant, African American rapper), the avatars square off against the white villainess, who, while truly evil, also displays underpinnings of desperation that make her a tiny bit sympathetic. If you love New York (even the isolated, suburban, almost all-white Staten Island), you will enjoy this love letter to the city that has battled cinematic and literary monsters, terrorists and pandemics, but always emerges victorious.

Quote: “People who say change is impossible are usually pretty happy with things just as they are.”
Show Less
LibraryThing member eldang
There's a lot in this book. A love letter mainly to NYC but also to cities in general. And at the same time a really powerful allegory about whiteness and the terrible work it does - one which has only felt more timely in the few weeks since I read it. But I also found it kind of a frustrating
Show More
read, because Jemisin repeatedly interrupts a good, clear story to somewhat condescendingly say "look reader, this bit's about whiteness", when the plot and characters were doing the work and really didn't need that help.

I do want to read the next in the series, but I hope that in book 2 she's more content to let the storytelling work.
Show Less
LibraryThing member booklove2
The perfect book to land when the world just happens to be dealing with a global pandemic and massive protesting of racism. This book just FITS RIGHT NOW. It reminds me of a combination of Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere, American Gods), China Mieville (The City & the City, The Last Days of New Paris,
Show More
probably Kraken), David Mitchell's reincarnating good/evil and Jeff VanderMeer's 'Annihilation'. That is a tough bunch of books to sit on a shelf with. But these are also all white men so I'm very happy a book such as Jemisin's is joining them. As this will be a trilogy, this book is mostly set-up where the boroughs of New York City are meeting each other for a universal fight against The Woman in White. And then possibly too quick of a temporary fix.... for now. I haven't read Jemisin's other books, but I can only imagine that this one screams NYC in the style of writing alone. I doubt her other fantasy books are written like this. To be honest, I'm a reader who is sick of novels that are all taking place in NYC, but to my appreciation, Jemisin is very clear-eyed as to what NYC is, even the faults. There are some nuggets of sentences that let me know NYC isn't the center of the universe. Since the trilogy will be called 'Great Cities', I can't wait to see what other cities might be featured! But this book is also about racism... what other evil in any other pop-culture has dared to be WHITE? The world has for so long associated anything black with evil, which can only translate (even if it's subconsciously) to skin color... but I don't want to whitesplain too much here. This book hinges largely on the Lovecraft canon... Lovecraft seemed to be afraid of everything that wasn't himself. I'd love to read this book over Lovecraft's shoulder to see his reaction to the world now. Even if my complaint here is that the book is mostly set-up (and the first character, that I most wanted to spend time with, is missing for most of the book) I do love a world that a book such as 'The City We Became' can now exist, and therefore have an appreciation for this book, as it wouldn't have existed in Lovecraft's time. Some things are changing, and hopefully MORE MORE MORE will change! Thank you to all of those peaceful protesters out there.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
Five people discover that they are the embodiment of a borough of New York City and must find each other to fight a Lovecraftian horror (plenty of tentacles and racism) menacing the city. This being the first book, the story is that of the boroughs's origin stories and how they meet, with a few
Show More
menacing events to move things along. Some characters are more fleshed out than others, with the Bronx taking center stage for much of the novel. Luckily, she's a fascinating character. This novel is paced like a superhero movie with plenty of action scenes.

So this isn't my genre, but there were a few things I liked about this novel, primarily how it addressed racism and how one of the characters, who seemed to have been pulled from a Joyce Carol Oates novel, in a way that wasn't particularly comfortable to read about. I don't know if I'll read the next book in this series, but I will certainly be interested enough to read reviews about it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lisapeet
DNF. By all accounts this should have been up my alley—NYC-centric, a vaguely punk vibe, good vs. evil—but the lack of character development and nonstop manic pacing just didn't work for me. Very cool idea, though.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
A new series by Jemisin, I liked the Broken Earth Series. This is a timely book that reflects the current feel of anger and danger that fills the atmosphere not only in the city but in our lives. It is a sad book because of how it plays out with the enemy being described as white and the only NYC
Show More
borough to not join the super hero's being Staten Island. Staten Island being depicted as ignorant, fearful, angry, and hateful. Staten Island gets left out. It is a horror, fantasy, with a lot of reference to Lovecraft. I listened to the audio read by Robin Miles who did a great job. A talented writer, overuse of the popular swear word which I get that a lot of people use this word and it probably fits with NYC super heroes but it was wearing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bookczuk
This is my favorite book of the year, firmly cementing NK Jemisin as a favorite author. Mind bending, eye opening, heart lifting-- and set in NYC. The absolute best pandemic read ever.
LibraryThing member albertgoldfain
A cinematic action-packed story with interesting characters, but falls short of the depth and innovation in the Broken Earth Trilogy.
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
Okay - as a mid-west white female, I found this incredibly difficult too read, but in a good way. The book takes your New York stereotypes, multiplies it by 100, add in some scary monsters, and you get something that can be uncomfortable to read.

First, the book was well written. My first impression
Show More
is that it is incredibly heavy handed. Except, that's the whole point of the avatars of the boroughs. These people were chosen because they are the most like the areas they are from.

The story itself is good - characters were interesting, each person added to the story. However, I found the ending a bit strange, between New Jersey being an honorary Borough, and while I understand why Staten Island was written the way she was, and it fits within the rest of the story, I had a very hard time with this character.
Show Less
LibraryThing member grandpahobo
Fantastic story. As good as The Broken Earth series is, I thought this was better. It might be because the setting is more tangible. All the books have a similar storytelling pattern. The emphasis for the majoirty of the story is on defining and exploring complex characters. Then at the end there
Show More
is a flurry of activity which brings the plot to its fruition. It seemed like this book had more plot activity throughout the story than the others, which made it a little more compelling.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SandyAMcPherson
I'm not much of a Lovecraftian aficionado (themes too racist, homophobic and turgid for me), nor can I count many Sci-Fi titles amongst my catalogue of reading material. However, I surely have to give Nora Jemisin her due: she's an amazing sci-fi writer: gritty writing style, wild, crazy imagery
Show More
caught me for the ride. (Remember the Checker cab cut-out — complete with umbrella-shaped hole — when Manny and Madison blasted through The Enemy?). There were many other instances of such evocative scenes, all bringing the defence of NYC alive.

The creation of beings (Avatars? Guardians?) for several boroughs of New York City was a brilliant, outside-the-box concept. It was a little disappointing that the representative of New York City, itself, doesn’t seem to return in the end. I had been hooked by the opening preamble: queer black kid meeting up with cigarette-smoking Paulo. (This homeless young man succumbed to a supernatural coma when the city was invaded by forces set to destroy the City). But the chaos and the power of the adventurous “boroughs” and what they get up to in keeping their city from dying is quite rollicking.

The best quote to describe what Jemisin’s theme was about is in regards to the Manhattan character: Manny’s been in New York for less than an hour and yet he knows, he knows, that cities are organic, dynamic systems. Which of course, they really are. Look at how “a city” modifies the inhabitants’ behaviour, the living environment, the very air we breathe in a city and then tell me that isn’t true. Dazzling affirmation of the author’s story, yes?

One major quibble were distracting side-plays in the lives of supporting characters and whirlwind sequences of social justice statements (situations underscoring racism and bigotry). These human-conditions are heart-breaking, yes; but were also testimonials which derailed the thrust of the narrative. Their prominent place in this novel didn’t mesh, even as a theme with the concept of a dying city. Despite that critique, it is an untrammelled urban fantasy that folks who love the idea of a living city as a character will want to discover for themselves.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Hccpsk
With The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin flexes her extraordinary writing muscle to deliver a fast-paced, diverse, and entertaining fantasy novel. The Enemy--in the guise of a white woman--has set its sight on destroying New York by planting seeds of hatred, and all that stands in its way are six
Show More
people. Each one embodies the city’s boroughs and New York itself, and they represent the varied populous that live there--white, black, straight, gay, international, etc., and Jemisin pulls no punches in this metaphorical battle against white supremacy. The City We Became moves fast and sometimes even turbulently--it is not for the faint of heart with plenty of swearing, PG violence, sexual situations, and slang. As the first in a planned series, the ending feels a bit abrupt and a lot remains unresolved, but a great beginning to a completely different story.
Show Less
LibraryThing member streamsong
I really enjoyed The Broken Earth trilogy, so I was excited for Jimisin’s newest.

This one couldn’t be more different. It’s set in contemporary (although pre-Covid19) New York City.

Cities are born. Some evolve and reach their full potential. Others sadly die and slip away, most often due to
Show More
the efforts of The Enemy which exists throughout the multiverse.

Each city has an Avatar – a more-than-human that embodies the city itself.

New York City’s Avatar has vanished. To solve the mystery of his disappearance and save him and all of NYC, each of the five Burroughs have newly created avatars. These avatars are formerly humans living their average lives, but each one most represents the spirit of the individual boroughs. They slowly find each other, and with the help of the avatars of Sao Paulo and Hong Kong, they must come together to defeat the enemy and find the comatose New York City.

Hugely intriguing, even though I’ve never been to New York, so I don’t know the individual boroughs’y characteristics and spirits.

I found it wonderfully imaginative. As this is the first in a trilogy, there are many hanging threads.

I believe I’ll wait until the trilogy is complete to go with this series. In the meantime, I’ll certainly be exploring more of Jemisin’s works.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Narshkite
I am one of those people who loves NYC with my whole heart, the way I love people. I have traveled a good deal, have lived in a number of cities in the US and abroad, and while there are many that I adore, there are none that I love like this one. As Carrie Bradshaw said, "If you only get one great
Show More
love, New York may just be mine." And so I was elated when I began reading this book that created human embodiments of the 5 boroughs. These personifications were genius, I loved them, and having them as a sort of Justice League fighting what is essentially a giant virus and also the forces of xenophobia -- well let's just say it felt timely. For the first quarter of this book it was a 10 on a 5-point scale for this reader. Then it crashed to Earth and though there were still moments of real genius, it never got back to being great. Honestly this is probably closer to a 3, but i gave the bump to a wildly creative writer who, like me, loves this ridiculous city because of, and not in spite of how hard it makes things.

After the creative burst where Jemisin created these characters she moved on to making a POINT. I have no problem with that at all, many of my favorite books are books that make points, but this is fiction, and we need to remember that we are telling a story about many things, and that within that story we can advance all sorts of great and wise philosophy and social commentary but what we can't do (and end up with a great book) is to bring the story to a Road Runner type skidding halt, hammer home that commentary, and then return to our regularly scheduled programing. Jemisin does this a LOT. And when she is making point, her storytelling and characterization really suffer. Nowhere was this more evident than in the plotline with the white supremacist art collective and the evil Arts Center Board. I really hated that. The writing was hamfisted and the point was silly and both the concepts of the power of art and the danger of leaving art beholden to capitalists and the Bronx deserved better. There were other parts of the book that also did not work for me, but that was a real nadir and it came so close on the heels of some really wonderful storytelling that it felt like I got whiplash.

This is still a fun read, anyone who loves the City will enjoy it I think, but it did not live up to the promise of the beginning. Also, as a resident of Queens, I have to say we definitely got short shrift -- I liked who they chose to represent the borough, but she did very little in the story. At least we didn't get the Staten Island characterization. Jemisin really hates Staten Island! I have no strong feelings about it (view spoiler) but it did give us the Wu Tang Clan, and I once went to a friend's parents' house there for Feast of the Seven Fishes, and they had a 6-foot round working fountain embedded in concrete in the living room, It was astonishing! Also the food was great. (I think that is the only time I have been to SI other than to drive through, or turn around at the ferry terminal since its fun to ride the ferry in circles on a hot day.)

ETA: I read this one and also listened to the audio -- frequently when i do this I end up reading much more than listening, but Robin Miles' narration was really fantastic and added a lot to the experience -- I absolutely recommend the audiobook for people who like to listen.
Show Less
LibraryThing member quondame
Urban fantasy with a vengeance - or attitude, strong attitude. This was spotty, inventive and wearing, human and bizarre, wry and pedantic. Evil or at least anti-urban was white white white suburban and city was dynamic messy rainbow tinted. I am not encouraged that there are supposed to be two
Show More
more books. As much as I enjoyed the four urban boroughs in their awakening, their dithering and Staten Island's agoraphobia were just dull and the consequences of city embodiment on the multiverse seemed heavyhandedly arbitrary.
Show Less
LibraryThing member krau0098
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in The Great Cities Trilogy. I borrowed a copy of this book from the library.

Story (5/5): The concept of this story is a really good one, stories have been written about cities being living entities before but never quite like this story. The concept is
Show More
that if a city becomes big enough and different enough, it manifests as a living being. In this story we are introduced to seven characters, six who become the living representations of the boroughs of New York City and one who becomes New York City itself. Unfortunately, there is another entity from a parallel reality that doesn’t want cities to become alive. Our characters have to both figure out what is happening to themselves and not succumb to the alien entity.

I liked this a lot and really enjoyed the concept. I think the constant jumping around did distract from getting to know the characters some and parts of this book felt long. However, I really enjoyed the ideas and overall story presented here, it gives a lot of food for thought.

Characters (5/5): As mentioned above this isn’t really a character driven story but more of a concept and idea driven story. We jump between the different characters so much that it’s hard to engage with them as characters, they end up being more ideas or personifications of the parts of the city they represent. All of the characters are intriguing and well done. The fact that well established cities are a person/character/soul is an amazing concept and very creative.

Setting (5/5): I am going to be honest and say I am not a New York City fan, I’ve been there a few times and I think it’s loud and dirty (I am not a big city fan in general). However, I can see the charm of city living for some. What I really appreciated in this book is how well it explained the boroughs and personalities of parts of New York City so well to an outsider like myself. I learned a lot about New York City, enjoyed the setting and appreciated all the effort that went into making this a believable setting. I think those who love New York City will enjoy how it is represented both, the downsides and upsides of New York City are well represented.

Writing Style (5/5): This wasn't the quickest or easiest book to read, Jemisin's books never are. It was a very good story though and had some amazing world-building, so I appreciate the quality of story-telling here. In general I have found while Jemisin’s books do take effort and concentration to read, they are generally worth it because of the creativity used to put together the story and because of how thought-provoking they are. That is definitely the case for this book. I find myself thinking about it a lot and really looking forward to reading future books in this series.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I ended up loving this even though it took a bit of effort for me to get through. The payoff was definitely worth the time put in to read this. The concept and world-building are amazing here. This is an excellent “idea” book with some fantastical elements involving personification of a city and parallel realities. At times there is a very Lovecraftian feel to the story as well. I ended up really enjoying it a ton and am really looking forward to the next book in the series.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Shrike58
I've been going back on forth on how I want to rate this novel and, to a certain degree, the political moment made up my mind that the four stars made more more sense than three and a half. Why was I considering low-balling this novel? Mostly because, if I didn't already esteem Jemisin, I might
Show More
argue that if I followed the "fifty page" rule I might have set this book aside, as it does take a fair amount of time to come together. Another thing is the matter of expectations, in that this is straight-up urban fantasy, that this is a very different take on Lovecraft "subversions," and that the climax is far from Jemisin's reputation for the implacable playing out of consequences. What winds up carrying the story is the banter amongst the characters, who suddenly find themselves being the avatars of the boroughs of New York City, and how they're going to deal with their surreal change in fortune. If you have a problem with political allegory this might not be the novel for you.

As for what might be the most controversial aspect of the novel, the character of Aislyn, who becomes the avatar of Staten Island, seems to evoke pity and some readers resent her "heel" turn in the plot. Many is the person who, in the name of legitimate grievances, made the exact wrong decision. How that decision plays out has to be the driving force in at least the forthcoming book in the trilogy.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SChant
A rollercoaster-ride of action and adventure as the avatars of the city of New York battle a Lovecraftian tentacled horror. Great fun.

Awards

Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 2021)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 2020)
Audie Award (Finalist — Best Female Narrator — 2021)
Locus Award (Finalist — Fantasy Novel — 2021)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — 2020)
British Fantasy Award (Nominee — Robert Holdstock Award — 2021)
RUSA CODES Reading List (Shortlist — Fantasy — 2021)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2020)
The Kitschies (Finalist — 2020)
Italia Award (Finalist — 2023)
Ignyte Award (Shortlist — 2021)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Science Fiction and Fantasy — 2020)

Language

Original language

English

Barcode

9161
Page: 1.7352 seconds