Explore the Urban Landscape in 'The City We Became' Novel

Kindle Customer: What a thought-provoking read! Quite a bit ago, I read a speculative book on fourth-dimensional creatures, and this story is loaded with such species. It's also quite an adventure to rediscover New York City through strenuously exercise my Social Imagination. Probably would have given it 5 stars if Whitey weren't such pervasive soul-sucking quantum Draculas. Still, I'll probably read it again, as well as the other books in the series. Smart, eerie fun!!

United States on Oct 07, 2023

Ari's Nanna: I started this series with some trepidation, maybe because it's set on Earth. I've fallen for NK's other worlds so hard that I was concerned that an Earth-based novel would disappoint; would turn out to be a clone of every other sci-fi I've ever read. Thankfully, I was wrong. Thankfully, I bought the first two simultaneously so I can read straight on. As usual NK has completely failed to be predictable or boring.

United Kingdom on Jul 29, 2023

Tas C.: I found parts of the first half of the book to be a bit slow moving but things definitely accelerated in the second half of the book. It's not that the entire first half of the book was slow or uninteresting but there were certainly part of the storyline within the first half of the book that I struggled to really get into.

Considering that the novel is set in NY city, I was about a quarter of the way into the book until I realised that I needed to be reading this book through a more imaginative and fictional lens. This is because when I was reading the extra-dimensional experiences of that avatars; initially, I was struggling to envision how the events were playing out within a realistic city setting. After coming to this realisation, N. K. Jemisin's writing style made it easy for me to envision how these extra-dimensional experiences were playing out, due to how descriptive her world building elements are within her books - such as in this and The Broken Earth Trilogy.

As the book progressed, the storyline began to move a lot quicker with new and diverse characters being introduced. I wish that the book was a little longer so that we could have gotten to see more...

United Kingdom on Apr 17, 2023

LA in Dallas: I have a problem that will make it difficult for me to appreciate The City We Became. I have never been able to see a city as a thing. I lived in Dallas, Texas, for 21 years. I remember the schools I studied at, Brookhaven Community College and Southern Methodist University. I remember the school I taught at, UT Southwestern Medical Center. I remember the hospital area of Dallas, Harry Hines Boulevard and the businesses and institutions along it. I remember the functionally nonexistent public transport. I remember the highways -- I-635 circling the city, east-west roads I-30 and 114 and north-south roads 75 and the Tollway crossing to form the crosshair whose bullseye was Downtown Dallas, and I-35 striking out diagonally toward Denton and Houston. I remember the velocitous terror of driving through the Mixmaster at 60 mph, hoping not to be flung off in some random direction. I remember timing my trip home in the evening so as to see the reflection of the sunset from the prismatic skyscrapers of Downtown. I remember the Arts District and the Symphony screaming, "See? We are TOO sophisticated and artistic!" I remember the gay bars of the Oak Lawn district (never been inside one, but...

United States on Oct 23, 2022

Paul T.: The thing that impressed me most about 'The City We Became' was the imaginative power behind it. Not simply in the basic concept of a city coming to life. That is pretty impressive by itself, though the basic concept of the inanimate coming to life has been around in one form or another for a long time - though rarely (if ever) on this scale! But Jemisin doesn't just come up with the idea, she holds it together and develops it throughout the book.

There are occasions when authors, even good ones, can't sustain their idea. The plot becomes a bit thin, the idea starts to feel unwieldy, cracks appear. Under the pressure of developing events, the fabric of the created universe starts to tear, and the reader's willing desire to suspend disbelief (an essential to enjoy fantasy, if not fiction of all sorts) is pushed beyond its limits. When the internal consistency of a world fails, because the author just can't make it work, then the story has gone beyond the limits of imagination.

It never happens here. The concept is huge, bizarre, surreal - but it never gets inconsistent, the parts never fail to mesh together. The imagination never fails. And that is a massive...

United Kingdom on Jun 01, 2021

A. Lord: 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.

United Kingdom on Dec 05, 2020

Umberto Rossi: There are some features of the novel I might object to: the total disappearance of Italian-Americans from NYC (at least New York as represented by Jemisin), the fact that the only white character is bad (but it's a complex character which is a victim even when she acts as a villain--or an accomplice of the Arch-Villain), the presence of the occasional ideological complaint (like some comments on Gauguin and Picasso...). And yet I think this is one of the best crossover novels I've recently read... I might also talk of avant-pop, here. And having read it in two days, I want to read the other two novels of the trilogy as soon as possible, which should mean The City We Became is good stuff, after all. Moreover, I appreciated the way Jemisin plays Lovecraft against Lovecraft--though I cannot say more about that as it would be Spoiler City!

Italy on Aug 23, 2020

Callum: It’s 4 a.m. and I just finished The City We Became. I can’t remember the last time I stayed up in to the early hours of the morning to finish a book. I’ve never purposely drank an energy drink at 11 p.m. to make sure this happens, but The City We Became deserved it because it is simply one of my favorite books I’ve ever read.

Let me back up and give a quick synopsis for the book before we dive in to the review:

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT 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.

This book excels on every front: it has characters that are simultaneously totally real and complete stereotypes of the boroughs they represent. It has such solid world building in its use of NYC, you can see the sights, smell the streets,...

United States on Mar 28, 2020