Book Review: The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by N.K. Jemisin

 

 

The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by N.K. Jemisin

Hardcover, 437 pages

Published March 2020 by Orbit 

 

“Come, then, City That Never Sleeps. Let me show you what lurks in the empty spaces where nightmares dare not tread.”

There is a feeling when you go to a city the first time. The city I call home took a little bit of time, but Portland, Seattle, and Santa Cruz are places that I felt the energy of right away. This novel is an exploration of that feeling, based on a fantasy that the souls of these cities are starting to manifest. This concept feels closest to 90s Clive Barker or Neil Gaiman type dark fantastic too me, that said the voice is purely one of a kind.

Three Hugo awards in a row are no joke. That has never happened before and I circled that trilogy a couple of times but never quite read those books. The type of space fantasy that Jemisin was in conversation with is not my favorite corner of the genre. I mean I have read that stuff in the past but it wasn't until this book and its concept that I decided I had to check her out. I'm sorry it took me this long.

The concept of cities coming life and being aware is not new in Science Fiction, in fact, the novel that William Gibson called cyberpunk patient zero in John Shirley's 1978 masterpiece City Come A-Walkin' did just that. While the starting points are similar the landscapes of the novel are very different. The heart of The City We Became is Jeminsin's point of view. You often hear critics throw out the trite observation that the city of a piece is a character. In this novel that is literal, but Jeminsin's perspective on the city is also a character.

This novel wears its heart on the sleeve and opinions of the city jump off the page in a way that is impossible to ignore. That is why one of the few negatives I have seen mentioned in reviews is that some readers found the novel preachy. To me, this is a feature not a bug, a strength not a weakness. I like my sci-fi loud, proud and opinionated. I am not saying I agreed with all of it, and certainly can see why some readers found this to be a little on the nose.

The City We Became is the story of cities coming to life and since the focus of novel is New York, it is not just alive as one person but each borough of the city has life. In this sense, this novel has action and weird fantastic elements with monsters and multiverses but when you get down to it The City we Became is a character-driven novel.

Even the conflict of the characters is driven by the author's perception of the different boroughs which is why there is lots of conflict with Aislyn who represents Staten Island. Brooklyn seems to be a stand-in for the author. All the characters take on the personality of the city in their own way. I think it is amazing that Jeminsin has distilled the city into these characters and it is a neat magic trick.

You gotta love a fantasy novel that can have a character say “I don’t know where the old girl found a bikini that big, but she’s got maximum Don’t Give A Fuck mode engaged, and I’m surfing on her bitch wave.” and have it fit the tone just fine.

The prose is written with power and style, the characters are well-drawn and detailed. My only problem with the construction of the story was the 45 page or so chapters. That might be on me but I don't like to stop reading unless it is a planned break. As good as it all was there were times I wished the chapters were about half the length. Overall this is not a light or breezy read although there is plenty of fun to had along with the delightfully opinionated genre mash-up.

I was impressed by this and think you should check it out but here out we are going to talk about a twist that actually got me so I think it would be best to not read the rest if you have not read the book yet... Read it. Good stuff.


OK let's get into the fantasy aspects. Well I consider these light spoilers The author has talked about some of these aspects in promo events. When the city comes to life it chooses a champion or avatar. "The enemy" is attempting to stop these births, which happen when the cities when enough stories or legends are told about it. I love on page 304 when the distinction between dead and lost cities was made. That was a genius way to set up stakes.

So who is the Enemy? We know that she attacks covered in white with tentacled monsters, the reveal of who she is was well done and really got me on page 391. That is when the enemy is revealed to R'leh the mythical city below the ocean where the old ones slept. This was foreshadowed in plain sight on page 341 when The Enemy tips her hand to Aislyn when she asks her if she has read Lovecraft. Much like Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff this novel is in conversation with Howie P.

It is more subtle here obviously, but in many ways, it is much more Lovecraftian in a pure sense. It is interesting because it addresses the Lovecraft mythos but also in a way where Lovecraft himself was writing about the fantastic reality in the novel. Victor LaValle's genius novella The Ballard of Black Tom also dealt with Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook. While Lavalle mirrored it and told it from black character's point of view this novel has characters talk about it.

This is the enemy talking in the novel on 341. "Lovecraft was right, Aislyn. There's something different about cities, and about the people in cities. Individually, your kind are nothing. Microbes. Algae. But never forget algae once wiped out nearly all life on this planet."

So you see this is the City never sleeps vs the City that has slept with Cuthulu dreaming. So the question is The Enemy R'leh itself or Cthulu? Not sure but that means this novel is 200% Lovecraftian. Think about that, in 2020 we have a bestselling Lovecraftian novel by a black author and a hit show on HBO made by black filmmakers (Misha Green and Jordan Peele).

This aspect of the novel was a surprise to me, and welcome. I like the subtle take on Lovecraft however I think that will be less subtle in the books to come. Well done.