The City We Became by N K Jemisin
| The City We Became by N K Jemisin | |
|
| |
| Category: Science Fiction | |
| |
Reviewer: Sophie Diamond
 | |
| Summary: A very unusual cerebral sci-fi social commentary, heavy but very compelling. It will stay with me for a long time. | |
| Buy? No | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 448 | Date: March 2020 |
| Publisher: Orbit | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0356512662 | |
|
Share on: | |
|
| |
New York is being born, the city has reached critical mass and has matured into a living almost-breathing entity and is ready to make it's way out into the world. Before it can be established, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis and other forgotten places. The city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the values are selected to become the living embodiment of the city, some cities have one, some have twelve and New York has six. Together these human-embodiments must defeat the woman in white and save New York from very real destruction. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye to eye, it's a personality clash on an epic scale and unity is both critical and not remotely guaranteed.
I am very unfamiliar with New York outside of Gossip Girl and Sex and the City and its ilk and this is very much not SJP's New York. This is a city being personified by borough, and the personalities chosen aren't always born and bred New Yorkers or even Americans, but they are people who embody the essence of the different boroughs. Manhattan has a killer instinct, the Bronx is down to earth and ready for a fight, Queens takes care of the community, Brooklyn is cool with an attitude and Staten Island keeps to them self, a part from the rest rather than a part of it it. I've never read anything where geography has been personified like this and it's done with a lot of skill and the result is surprisingly emotive. The lesson I really took away from this was that true New Yorkers feel very strongly about their city, they might love it or hate it but it is theirs. I always love it when authors do something new and this is definitely a new way of telling a story. Jemisin is very bold, transforming her story into a metaphorical piece of art which is difficult to look at but contains too much truth to look away from. She has created a book which is really uncomfortable, direct and unapologetic and for that I have enormous respect.
The blurb talks about the soul of the city and ancient and new souls and destruction, it reminded me a lot of the Titans and the Olympians. I thought this would be a bit like a more grown up version of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, something adventure-y. And while there are battles and action in the book, I wouldn't really classify it as action-packed and it is certainly not light hearted. This is a heavy social commentary of New York, particularly in regard to race, gender and sexual orientation, and has slightly baffling interludes of massive science fiction. The book is also very meta, aware of the way it's using constructs and metaphors about the city to fight the sci-fi monster, which the characters themselves acknowledge with ridicule. It makes the story a really compelling argument intellectually but I really struggled to get in to it or to enjoy reading it. I don't read tons of sci-fi so I don't know if a lot of this went over my head because I'm missing critical components of the genre or because it's that little bit too clever. I had to plod on with it rather than being unable to put it down. When I had finished this I didn't feel like I'd read a story so much as been given a metaphorical lecture on tolerance, acceptance and judgement. It was very insightful but not very fun.
The book is the first in a new trilogy and personally I don't think I'll follow it through. I think this is a writer with an enormous amount of talent and vision and objectively speaking I thought the novel was very good but I also didn't enjoy it. I found the subject matter interesting but the structure didn't work for me. The book is very long and doesn't have an easy flow, there was a lot of jumping around and not a lot of getting to the point. When I drilled down into the plot not a great deal actually happened. I also thought some of the sci-fi was a bit comedic and I don't know if that was intentional or just me, but it does break up some of the heaviness.
I have quite a few almost contradictory opinions on this book and would quite like to sit in a seminar with the author and fellow readers and discuss it because it opens up so many conversations. Whether I would recommend it or not would be based on what you're looking for in a sci-fi book, if it's substance this is for you, if it's fun I'd definitely look elsewhere.
For more work by this author, please check out The Hundred-Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy) by N K Jemisin
Please share on: 
Facebook, 
Twitter and
Instagram
You can read more book reviews or buy The City We Became by N K Jemisin at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The City We Became by N K Jemisin at Amazon.com.
Check prices, read reviews or buy from Waterstones
Comments
Like to comment on this review?
Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.
