Five New Yorkers must band together to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and New York Times 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.
The Broken Earth trilogy turned into one of my favourite series ever so it was with a little trepidation that I entered New York City here to see what this author had come up with next…
I thought I was somewhat prepared given that I’d read the short story The City Born Great (which I would recommend doing, you can find it in the, “How Long til Black Future Month” collection and you’ll get a plethora of other wonderful tales to boot) but it turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg and The City We Became offers up a sprawling, lively, diverse metropolis that lives and breathes on the page, represented by it’s five awakening protectors..
This story is wildly imaginative but also very down to earth in a lot of ways. The cast of characters embraces all of humanity in one form or another and this is also a hugely entertaining adventure, a kind of Good v Evil apocalyptic possibility with thought provoking levels and a tendency to devour an hour when you only meant to give it ten minutes.
The writing, the plotting, every nuance is immaculately achieved and it is unsurprising that N K Jemisin has won more than one Hugo..this is once again quality of the type we should all wish for and as a reader I embrace it. The City We Became comes highly recommended from me and whatever your preferred genre you may like to give this a go. I can’t wait for the next in the series.
You can purchase The City We Became (Orbit) Here. (Signed Waterstones edition)
Happy Reading!
