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

by N. K. Jemisin

[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.