The City We Became

The City We Became is a 2020 urban fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin.[1] It is the first in her Great Cities series.[2] It was developed from her short story "The City Born Great".[3] It is her first novel since her triple Hugo Award-winning Broken Earth series.[4]

The City We Became
AuthorN. K. Jemisin
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesGreat Cities series
GenreUrban fantasy
Publication date
March 24, 2020
Media typePrint, e-book, audio book
Pages488

Setting

The City We Became takes place in New York City, in a version of the world in which great cities become sentient through human avatars.

Plot

After the avatar of New York falls into a supernatural coma and vanishes, a group of five new avatars representing the five boroughs come together to fight their common Enemy.

Characters

The avatars
  • New York: a queer Black homeless young man. An artist, hustler, and the avatar of New York City.
  • Manny: a queer, multiracial man in his late 20s. When he becomes Manhattan's avatar, he loses most memory of his former life, representing his role as a new New Yorker. He is a somewhat ruthless strategist. He can allow non-avatar New Yorkers to see the Enemy if he needs to use them.
  • Brooklyn "MC Free" Thomason: a Black, middle-aged former rapper, lawyer, and current city councilwoman. She has a child and a sick father. Her power is rooted in music.
  • Bronca Siwanoy: a queer Lenape woman in her 60s. She has a PhD, a hot temper, a son, and works at the Bronx art center. She is the oldest of the six avatars and thus the holder of the city's lexicon of knowledge.
  • Padmini Prakash: a 25 year-old Tamil immigrant graduate student living in Queens. Her first name means "she who sits on the lotus". She can use mathematic imagination to change physical reality.
  • Aislyn Houlihan: a 30 year-old white woman with brown-hair who lives with her parents on Staten Island. Her father is an abusive, racist cop who calls her 'apple,' though her name means 'dream'. She can become invisible.

Other characters
  • São Paulo: the avatar of the city he is named for. He is brown-skinned, lean, and a smoker. His cigarette smoke can combat the Enemy.
  • Hong Kong: the avatar of the city he is named for. He has a Chinese-inflected British accent.
  • The Enemy: an infectious, otherworldly life form that wants to kill the newly-born city of New York. It appears in many forms, including the Woman in White, Dr. White, contagious fungal fronds, and x-shaped spider-like creatures. The Enemy is revealed to be R'lyeh, the fictional lost city from H. P. Lovecraft's work.
  • Madison: a white woman who drives an antique Checker cab. She helps Manny defeat an outbreak on FDR Drive.
  • Bel Nguyen: A British transgender man and Manny's new roommate.
  • Josephine Thomason: Brooklyn's 14 year-old daughter.
  • Yijing: an Asian woman who works with Bronca at the Bronx Art Center.
  • Vaneza: a young Black and Portuguese woman who works with Bronca at the Bronx Art Center.
  • Jess: a Jewish woman who works with Bronca at the Bronx Art Center.
  • Alt-Artistes: racist artist collective.
  • Aishwarya Auntie: Padmini's older relative, with whose family she lives.
  • Kendra Houlihan: Aislyn's mother. A talented pianist who had won a full-ride to Juilliard, but had to give it up when she became pregnant and married Aislyn's father.
  • Matthew Houlihan: Aislyn's father, a racist cop.
  • Connell McGinnis: a young neo-Nazi that Aislyn's father tries to set her up with. He has rectangular black glasses, a waxed and curled mustache, and many racist tattoos.

Reception

The New York Times' review stated, "In the face of current events, 'The City We Became' takes a broad-shouldered stand on the side of sanctuary, family and love. It’s a joyful shout, a reclamation and a call to arms."[5] NPR wrote that it is, "a love letter, a celebration and an expression of hope and belief that a city and its people can and will stand up to darkness, will stand up to fear, and will, when called to, stand up for each other."[6] A review in Slate said, "The city she sings fizzes so joyously through the veins of this novel that anyone mourning the New York before COVID-19 will likely find The City We Became equally sustaining and elegiac, a tribute to a city that may never fully return to us."[7]

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gollark: [question mark]
gollark: how
gollark: It's never been a concern.
gollark: No.

References
  1. "Coming Soon: The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin". www.orbitbooks.net. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  2. "The City We Became (Great Cities #1)". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  3. Rocket, Stubby the (2019-08-29). "Here's a First Look at N.K. Jemisin's New Novel, The City We Became". Tor.com. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  4. Roberts, Adam (2020-05-14). "The City We Became by NK Jemisin review – a fizzing New York fantasy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  5. El-Mohtar, Amal (2020-03-24). "When a Sinister Enemy Attacks New York, the City Fights Back". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  6. "New York Comes Alive — Literally — In 'The City We Became'". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  7. Miller, Laura (2020-04-01). "N.K. Jemisin's New Novel Is Uncannily Relevant to a City Under Siege". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
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