The City We Became (The Great Cities, #1)

by N. K. Jemisin

'A glorious fantasy, set in that most imaginary of cities, New York' Neil Gaiman on THE CITY WE BECAME

'The most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writer of her generation... Jemisin seems able to do just about everything'
NEW YORK TIMES

'Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Five New Yorkers must band together to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.


'The most critically acclaimed author in contemporary science fiction and fantasy'
GQ

'N. K. Jemisin is a powerhouse of speculative fiction'
BUSTLE

• ISBN10: 0316509884
• ISBN13: 9780316509886
• Publish Date: 27 July 2021 (first published 24 March 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

I am super stunned I disliked this book. The Broken Earth trilogy is one of the best things I've ever read. I liked Jemisin's older works quite a bit too. I don't buy many books that I haven't already read from the library, but I snapped this one up in a sale so I could read it now instead of continuing to wait in my library wait list. To my major disappointment, it was just straight up boring.

For most of the book, the same pattern keeps playing out. We meet a new character. We learn some bits and pieces about them. Then the bad guy shows up. There are words tossed back and forth. There is some physical danger that the good guys get the upper hand on by figuring out a magical trick. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat x5.

Even worse than that is that no one has to work for anything or make any decisions. I was reminded of my feelings about Susan Cooper's [b:The Dark Is Rising|210329|The Dark Is Rising (The Dark is Rising, #2)|Susan Cooper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349051230l/210329._SY75_.jpg|1530651] and my review for that book could almost be applied without change to this one. Knowledge just gets magically downloaded into characters' heads. It feels like infodumps are magically given to the characters so they can turn around and infodump to the reader. Over and over, characters just know what to do because of mystical knowledge. No one has to work for anything because magic makes coincidences happen to ease their path forward. One character falls in love with someone he's never met because magic just puts those feelings in his head. No one makes choices or has to think or search for any answers, it is all just at their fingertips. The only person who actually exhibits any agency is a monumentally stupid character, rendering it completely unsatisfying because she makes absolutely dumb and childish decisions.

For the first half of the book I thought I was going to 3-star this review, but the more I started dreading picking it back up, the more I revisited that idea. I have the sequel reserved from the library, but the idea of sitting through another near-500 pages of this feels painful. I am also not sure what else there is to say in a sequel, the story seems to have wrapped up with this volume. I think I am going to have to wait for whatever Jemisin writes after this series to pick her back up again.

[nannah]

DNF @25%.

I feel so bad at not being able to finish this, but I’m just not enjoying it and I have 300+ more pages to go. Not being from NYC (or just not being a city person in general) might have a huge thing to do with it, because the book reads like a huge homage to the city. It’s full of inside jokes and references to places I don’t know, and I feel like an outsider. Maybe that’s done on purpose, because not everything is for everyone, obviously.

What I love is the diversity, the creativity, the representation of evil as white. Some of the writing is absolutely gorgeous, and some of the humor actually made me laugh. While most of the characters didn’t seem real to me (yet), because they’re just physical representations of actual boroughs and their lines and actions really seem staged and rehearsed, I’m sure they would’ve become fleshed out later. I also love that the evil latched on to people whose prejudices and hatred were already either fully formed or taking root in their minds.

But yeah, I still couldn’t go on. A major issue was that everything just “seemed to fall into place” for the protagonists. They “felt” the right thing to do, because they were cities, they just felt for the right things to say, etc. Things played out very inorganically that way. The worst was the villain (so far, just having been introduced to the Woman in White), the lovecraftian horror wreaking havoc in NYC. She was more laughable than frightening. And while I appreciate making a point about how racist Lovecraft was (I believe he “monsterized” people of color, which is the point being made? Correct me if I’m wrong), things just fell flat in this story on its own.

Maybe I’ll try it again sometime, though! I definitely will read another Jemisin novel, because I hear great things about her works.

[Quirky Cat]

The City We Became is the first in a new series by N.K. Jemisin, a brilliant author that we all should cherish more. Or at least, that is how I feel about it. The Great Cities series is science fiction with a strong city focus.

Every city has a soul, though most people don't know how to listen for it. In New York City's case, it has five souls. Each one is carefully hidden away to best protect all we know and love. However, a great danger is rising, and it will take all five souls to protect the city and stop this horrible darkness.

“People who say change is impossible are usually pretty happy with things just as they are.”

N.K. Jemisin has done it again. The City We Became is a bold and brilliant read, one that I'm sincerely struggling to describe. I'm so happy I grabbed it when I had a spare credit for BOTM club, though honestly, I really should have read this beauty much sooner.

What I can say is that The City We Became is by far one of the most unique books I've read this year. Since this will likely end up being my second to the last novel read this year, I would like to think that is saying something!

“This is the lesson: Great cities are like any other living things, being born and maturing and wearying and dying in their turn.”

I love the idea of a city having human avatars. More than that, I adore that New York has more than one. It makes sense on so many levels, and I honestly couldn't get enough of this story or the characters it portrayed.

There is something so essential and so human about this read. It's not perfect because people aren't perfect. But it was the perfect read for me, and sometimes that is more than good enough.

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[justine_manzano]

I first heard of The City We Became by N.K. Jeminsin from the writing community I work with, WriteHive. They’d done a group read of the book a few months before in the Book Nook channel of our little Discord server. At the time, I hadn’t had time to join in, but everyone in the Book Nook was raving. So I knew I had to check this one out. That was before I looked at the synopsis, and was all in.  

Book Summary:

In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power.

In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her.

In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.

And they're not the only ones.

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.

What I Enjoyed:

This book was a love letter to New York City, the good and the bad, and it made my heart swell, at a time where New York City is still riding the end of a wave that nearly killed it. The city that never sleeps was hit, perhaps the hardest of all American cities, and we’re still struggling to get back on our feet. To read a story in which each of the boroughs of our city have personalities that mirror the positive, (the get up and go, the hustle and bustle, the musicality, the toughness, the sharp wit, the rugged independence) and the negative, (the ruthless nature, the do or die--literally--of the corporate climb, the shadows of racism, the obliviousness) of my city made me miss the city that was even more. I was certain it would rebound even stronger. Because that’s what New York does--it thrives. 

What works about the personification of the city in this way is that it creates some really excellent characters that you can’t help but root for. There’s Manny, a grad school student who gets to reinvent himself the moment he walks into the city proper--except, not through the traditional way. He literally forgets who he was before. There’s Bronca, an older lady whose life was steeped in the violence and beauty of the Bronx, who is prepared to stomp her way through any threat. There’s Brooklyn, who hears the music of the city, but doesn’t let it define her, carving out a life for her child and her father, and taking care of the rest of the city with business savvy and connections. 

The magic system was outrageous, but I believe that was because it was intensely inventive. Magic and power that is based on the understanding of what makes NYC the city that never sleeps: money, traffic, rap, combat boots, and a native connection to the land are all used as a power at some point in the story, each avatar of the city getting their own draining but effective ability against the enemy. 

And who is the enemy, exactly? That’s where the really fun part takes off. Some of you may not know this, but H.P. Lovecraft, creator of Cthulu and many other fun Edritch creatures, was a MAJOR racist. Everything in The City We Became rails against racism, with the heart of the city being made up of Lenape Natives, Black Americans, Tamils, and one definitely white person, with some questionable priorities (avoiding spoilers best as I can). But there are such heavy references to Lovecraft, and this story draws heavily on his influence, while completely turning his ideas on their ear, and I love that. In the year of Lovecraft Country, both of these takes by Black Americans are so welcome in our current landscape. 

What I’d Avoid: 

There were a few things in this book that I didn’t care for as much, although as a whole I was a fan.

There wasn’t more than maybe one white ally in this entire book, and I know that isn’t a true representation of this city. But I think that was the point. I don’t think white people like me were supposed to be terribly comfortable reading it. That’s not the part I would avoid. That’s just the lead up. 

The part I would avoid is a problem inherent in when you give a character the traits of an entire city. No group is a monolith. And that is true of NYC too. To make an entire borough come off as racist, an entire borough come off as dangerous and edgy, or even an entire borough come off as nervous nerdy mathematicians felt a bit odd. And that’s the weird thing about this story conceit. It’s clever, but when one tries to really gaze into what this all means, it ends up feeling like stereotyping...which is a strange thing in a book as anti-racist as this. Maybe I’m missing the point here. Which is cool. I can accept that’s a possibility. This book wasn’t written for me. And that’s fine. 

Separately, there was a bit of Instalove that was a bit much. A character seeing another character and being instantly willing to die for him is a little over-the-top. And I get that these characters are being driven by some pretty powerful magic here, but still. If they’d had even one interaction, I may have been okay with it. But as it was…

What I Can Learn From It: 

While sitting back and listening to the views of this black woman who had a lot to say about New York City, I learned a lot about the way people that are not like me view the city I’ve lived in all my life. I also learned a lot about allowing myself to be as weird as I want to be as far as magic systems. This story is also SO voicey. It has a voice that pulls you in from page one. And it sounds like a New Yorker’s voice. The authenticity of the voice in this very bizarre story is amazing. 

Would I Recommend It: 

Absolutely. This was such a cool book with so many incredible twists. I can’t wait to see what the book’s planned sequel has in store. 

[elvinagb]

Wow. Such amazing world building and on top of a real place (but so unreal too).

I was very disappointed by the fantasy aspect of this book (which is the reason why I bought this book). It just didn’t deliver, at all. I do think that putting so much emphasis on racism is (unfortunately) necessary sometimes to make people face the truth. Because those things exist. And the main characters were all portrayed stereotypes of their neighborhoods, so I am ok with the heavy portrayal of, well, stereotypes.