- Mahogany S.
- Thursday, June 23, 2022
What we are, what we’re made of, is many worlds coming together. Reality and legends. This world where we’re just people, and that world, where we can be miles-wide cities that just happen to be sitting a couple of feet across from each other because the laws of space, physics, don’t work the same way.
N.K. Jemisin continues a story that was begun in her collection of short stories, How Long Til Black Future Month, which included "The City Born Great". Every "Great" city has a living avatar that represents it. However, New York is an anomaly. It has six, and they must work to find each other and protect the city from a destructive force that is determined to stop it's "birth" process. I don't want to say too much about the workings of the plot because there are delightful surprises to be had within.
The character development in this novel is fantastic. You get to see the world from each characters perspective as they take over the story. Each person has their own story to tell as well, and it feels authentic and relevant to the tale. There are also vivid descriptions of the places in New York that the characters interact with.
This is not the Broken Earth Trilogy or the Inheritance Cycle (series by the same author). It is something different. Set in present day with current issues, this book dives deep into the human psyche and asks what would you do if you woke up and could sense the city and even control it to some extent. Would you be afraid? Would you embrace these changes whole-heartedly? Would you pull away from others? The City We Became examines all these possibilities and more. I'm looking forward to part two.
Orbit, 2020
Format: Book, eAudiobook, eBook
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.
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