The World We Make by N K Jemisin
I would like to thank Nazia from orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Orbit
Published - Out Now
Price - £20 hardback £10.99 Kindle eBook
Every great city has a soul. A human avatar that embodies their city's heart and wields its magic. New York? She's got six.
But all is not well in the city that never sleeps. Though Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading--and destroying the entire universe in the process--the mysterious capital "E" Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and "law and order" may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction.
Warning there wil spoilers for the first half of this duology the great The City We Became by N K Jemisin
So how do you destroy a city without invading it? They’re vast, vibrant and powerful but you can attack from within and without. Having extra dimensional beings with malice also helps. In the conclusion to the Great Cities duology N K Jemisin delivers a smart and very interesting tale exploring that idea which I think is worth attention.
To briefly recap previous events. Cities can after many years become alive due to the way life and humanity mix. At that point human avatars are chosen and given the power of a city. Often a mysterious enemy uses these moments to end them. Fortunately for New York and it’s boroughs despite the betrayal of Staten Island the other six of the group including newly added Jersey City brought the primary Neek back from a. Coma and saw off a huge attack. But above New York sits the invisible realm of R’lygh and more dangers await.
The enigmatic Manny starts to wonder about the past life he no longer remembers; Neek feels a further attack is coming; Queen’s rep Padmini loses her job and faces potential deportation and Brooklyn starts to entangle themselves with a politician rising a populist wave and wanting to take New York back to the good old days with very selective memories. R’Lygh now occupies Staten Island and the other great cities are unimpressed with their youngest member.
My caveat to this book is that as Jemisin explains on the afterward the events of 2020-21 with a pandemic and a president out of control impact where this story goes. I can definitely understand that as you read the book - this and it’s predecessor are primarily light fantasy with a political focus but when monsters and death need absolutely no help from cosmic horror I can see how the tale lost its focus. This comes across as the first half of this book is really in the spirit of the first- new plot points such as ICE, a greedy politician who wants to make New stork Great again, a mayoral campaign and finally meeting other cities all make the story get very big. But then very quickly in the latter half I found a huge gear shift with events rapidly escalating to a big climactic multi-city conclusion and resolution of this tale. I really enjoyed this book but it’s almost like a TV series knowing it’s ending prematurely and deciding just to focus on the major plotlines being resolved. They are but with loose ends and questions we may never know all the answers to.
However, I like reading for the journey and not the final battle and for me there is plenty of interesting ideas here well worth your time. The ideas of police corruption, casual racism and populism all destroying our view of what a great city should be has turned to be very prescient indeed. It’s the kind of big ideas I like to see in contemporary fanatsy not just people having an adventure and let’s hope we get more of it.
On top of that there are just regular moments of joy sitting back and watching Jemisin make scenes sing - from battles on the river; a confrontation with a group called the Proud Men and a mysterious empty city no one remembers it’s just a joy of language and often rhythm to words to pick up pace; make you feel the emotion and most importantly what a city on this scale feels like from commuters to kids to traffic. Jemisin now has all six powerful entities with their powers and watching city magic work out how to fight back is again a major plus.
I also really liked meeting the other cities who are equally as arrogant as New York (it is a fact of all cities that ours is best) but special shout out to London who is not who you expect but also very much that city.
The World We Make is a satisfying conclusion to this duology and full of interesting ideas explored by one of the genre’s best writers. It does feel like it has ended more swiftly than the plot originally sounded but we do get a fun, fascinating and thoughtful ride along the way and for me that’s what reading should always be about. I can’t wait to see what Jemisin wants to do next. Recommended for fans of the first book!
