The City We Became: A Novel (The Great Cities Trilogy Book 1) Kindle Edition

If you picked this up because you liked Inheritance and The Broken Earth, check your expectations at the door: The City We Became is nothing like them. And while saying that this book has rubbed me the wrong way is an understatement, this is hardly motivated by subjective reasons alone:IDEA: Call me simple, but I like my stories human, my characters relatable, my conflict engaging. Cities that are ‘midwifed’ through song and afterwards battle Lovecraftian monsters through human avatars? How can I empathise with that and why should I even care who wins?RACE: I have always found the inordinate amount of attention Americans pay to race to be tiresome, but this book just crosses a line: The first thing we learn about every single character is their skin colour—down to shade and tone. Every single non-white character is cool, every single white character is racist, narrow-minded, prejudiced and even outright evil. The monster is white (this is repeated so many times that it almost gets nailed to your brain). The only borough that sides with the monster (and whose avatar is all of the above plus feeble-minded) is… well, white again.If you want to criticise the racism that surely exists in certain segments of (American?) society, engaging in racial stereotyping yourself is probably the worst thing you can do. Just sayin’.PLOT AND CHARACTERISATION: If you expect something elaborate or—Heaven forbid—structurally bold and experimental like The Fifth Season, you will be sorely disappointed. The plot has a distinct, pulpy feel, almost like a comic book: a cast of diverse, characters of colour battles the white, narrow-minded forces of evil by showing qualities typical for New Yorkers. Basically, Luke Cage Meets the Evil Republican, with all the character depth the title implies.LANGUAGE: I am anything but a fan of purple prose, but entire sections full of f***ing, dumb-f***, big-ass, etc. just to give the book a ‘street feel’ gets very old, very fast.SHOW, DON’T TELL: I have always respected Jemisin as an extremely effective, emotionally evocative writer, who can infect you with her feelings and viewpoints almost against your will. Which is why it is extremely surprising that at some point during the writing of this novel, she seems to have forgotten all about ‘show, don’t tell’ and instead chooses to hammer slogans to your brain with a power tool.LOVECRAFT: While the intertextuality with Lovecraft is hard to miss, its point is more elusive. I think the explanation is very prosaic: This book is just the pinnacle of Jemisin’s perennial crusade against Lovecraft (and his shameful white fan base apparently). And while Lovecraft was certainly bigoted and xenophobic, and his books are undoubtedly inspired by fear of miscegenation and ‘otherness’, he cannot really do anything about it, because 1) he is the product of his time and upbringing; 2) he is dead; 3) he has been DEAD for 80 years, and dead people CANNOT apologise, change opinion or become better persons. What is your excuse, Nora, for doing practically the same, but reversed, in 2020 and even being smugly unsubtle about it?(I can rant about this and other issues with this book for a couple of more pages, but I think you get my drift.)

I'm an avid reader of science fiction: Ursula Le Guin, H.P. Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov. I'm also from New York— and a native of the uptown Manhattan neighborhood where this novel takes place. I was really looking forward to it. But it's basically a racist rant. Every villain is white, and worse if male. There's no character development beyond pure identity politics, on every damn page. The writing is terrible. And there are no ideas. The tree cried when it died uselessly to produce the paper used to print this bigoted garbage, and it is in my view a crime against literature, no, against the idea that we have a common humanity, to promote it.

A note for posterity : this review was written roughly a week after publication, April 1, 2020. The year that March came in like a Lamb and went out like a Lion. New York City is currently the epicenter of the Covid-19 virus in the United States.And, I say that because the primary storyline of "The City We Became" involves a multi-tentacled foreign invader attaching to various surfaces, popping out of people's skin, and disrupting traffic and general way-of-life. It is variously likened to an afro, or a porcupine, and it is going to require New Yorkers coming together to stop it.And, I know that the central metaphor is for something completely different -- when we meet the avatar of the invading whiteness she is calling the police on two non-white people in the park; one technique for keeping the white at bay is literally throwing literal money at it. Hey, as NK Jemisin said in her 2018 Hugo award acceptance speech, "[I've been] advised to tone down my allegories. . .I didn't." -- but I'm reading a book here while I'm essentially locked into my house in my city (Baltimore) and the similarity can't be ignored.That's one thing good books and good stories do : they make the specific universal. And so this book lets me consider the coronavirus, and stitch New York onto Baltimore and consider where we are living and dying and being invaded. . .and I can see the battles between the "real" Baltimore and the white tendrils that I can view from my front porch. And I know "my" Brooklyns and Bronxes and Staten Islands.So the book itself is an urban Lovecraftian horror(?) story. Also reminiscent of Jeff Vandemeer (more specifically the Ambergris stories), but Lovecraft plays a large role here. . .references to the non-euclidean geometries, Lovecraft's places, and HP himself abound. This book is in a dialogue with his writings, not overtly, and adds just another spice to the stew.At the top level, this book is a romp with a "we're getting the band back together" vibe. It is filled with various side-quests, while always moving inexorably towards the final Boss fight. I must say that I was hoping for some kind of awesome robot "Form Voltron" moment, but what we get is more true and sensible.

I love NKs other books but this was a bit of a struggle to read.Massive 'over the top' focus on cultural, racial and gender diversity aspect of the story. It does not resonate and becomes boring / overpowering for big sections of the book. Perhaps this is a relflection of cultural new york / US tensions but i've lived in many countries around the world and generally people just dont dwell in this very much compared to the US. In general a potentially great story watered down to just being OK..I will buy the next books in the series and hope for a bit more focus on the story and less on characterization... quite enough of that already thanks Ms Jemisen :)

You know those people from the big cities that love their city so much and look down on the rest of the world? Never have I seen a metrophile go to these lengths. This is a 400 page masturbatory fantasy. I am sure other New Yorkers will get it but I struggled. It was like a miniature version of those Americans you see standing around chanting usa usa. I think we have found a new ism. Not from here ism? Poignantly pointed out when the cost of what they are trying to achieve is shrugged off so easily. Colonialism anyone?Avoid

I've not been able to read anything longer than a tweet since the lockdown started. There is way too much reality that needs attention, leaving nothing for fiction.But this book, this book does what all the best fantasy should do, and holds up a mirror to much of this present moment (issues like BLM that were pre-Covid yet have belatedly exploded into oblivious white consciousness now) and actually helps process it.And it's also a cracking story. I couldn't put it down and have since been devouring my way through N. K. Jemisin's back catalogue.Oh, and another thing. There is a one star review of this book knocking about. Read it. If you are the kind of person who can imagine themselves writing a review like that, you will probably not enjoy this book at the present stage of your development.Or to put it differently, can you imagine yourself describing someone with an anxiety disorder as "feeble minded"? If yes, then you are the kind of person I refer to.Everyone else, read this novel now.

I love Jemisin's work, in particular her two previous trilogies. Her imagination, rigour, and ability to shape a multi-volume narrative of imaginary worlds are outstanding. This is the first volume of a new trilogy set in a contemporary version of her adopted home town, New York. Problem: her judgements are problematic when applied to a real place. Her usual weaknesses - like a lot of sci fi writers she struggles with character and dialogue - come second here to her overwhelming wokeness. Broadly to be a good character in this novel you must be more than one of: LGBTQ++; ethnic minority; female; foreign; left-wing. In general the following are bad or very bad: NYPD and other authority figures; white people; men; people or boroughs voting Republican (adios Staten Island!); more than one of these and rapist/racist is a given. Meanhile she is American enough to write about foreign cities (Sao Paolo and Hong Kong) while embarrassedly admitting she hasn't got round to visiting them.

A good story in that it lingers in the mind and keeps generating ideas. It's strength is in the idea of a city becoming alive, with nuance and complexity that keeps the possibilities going. It does not feel such a long book, partly as well written and partly as the plot is quite simple.The contentious issues relate to the stereotypes that are at the heart of the book. Do they reflect New York? I could not say but are interesting. And what about the uniformly, if varied, negative "white" stereotype? In a year of Black Lives Matter we arguably need this kind of challenge to open the eyes of those of us who are white. But stereotypes can get the in the way of reality and of coming together. Is this a subtheme for the trilogy? I hope for greater depth in the coming books.

The opening should draw you in. For me, the prologue was the worst part of the book.I also noticed the white/non-white bad/good characters. It may not have been intentional but it stood out.That said, it was an interesting read. The five principal characters are engaging and the villain is well drawn. The whole premise is intriguing - why should one world/universe/city take precedence over another? Why is the villain the villain?The worst part (for me) was that I disliked the most important character.