The World We Make

The boroughs of New York may have won their last battle with the Women in White, but she is far from gone. Hovering over Staten Island, she’s brewing up new ways to strike out against the city. With her influence, a new mayoral candidate is taking the stage, spewing racism and bigotry, and he is swiftly winning over the populace turning New York on its heels. Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek are going to have to think of a plan fast. Before they lose connections to their city and another universe is destroyed.

Once again the audiobook was a phenomenal listen. Being able to hear the various accents of the characters added to the experience. Not to mention the tactfully placed sound effects and modifications to voices show more that incorporated environment, pitch, and tone. I highly recommended giving this a listen. I’m sure it would be a great read, but the audio will definitely make it all the more enjoyable.

It never ceases to amaze me how N.K. Jemisin can take modern world politics and put a fantasy spin on them. Politics are usually the last thing I enjoy in a book, but the writing just pulls you in and makes you connect on a whole nother level. The amount of care and ingenuity that goes into each battle, and each struggle, makes the reader feel deeply for the characters and the fate of New York. It shows how people can band together to fight for their homes, their culture, and all the things that make them who they are. But it also shows the reverse, the darker sides of humanity, the ones that disregard the individual and want uniformity. The irrational need to purge anyone who is different. The hatred and depth of xenophobia in The World We Make are startling and hit home with the radical thinking that has been brought to light in recent years. It’s terrifying and eye-opening.

The World We Make also expands on the world-building of The City We Became, introducing readers to other awakened cities. Readers will travel around the world meeting a new host of personalities and opinions. It is a fascinating adventure learning snippets about different cultures and how they view the enemy. And while New York may be full of different cultures, they certainly are due to learn a lesson about other cities and how they handle themselves.

Once again N.K. Jemisin has created an engrossing and captivating tale of culture and social awareness. If you pick up this book, brace yourself for the stunning draw of real world politics into a fantasy setting. This book is chilling in how it connects to recent events and will pull readers in with the drive to find out how the characters endure each new challenge. Once you pick up this book, you won’t be able to put it back down again until you’re finished. show less

Like Jemisin herself, I couldn’t quite be bothered to write this review; and yet, we have a task to finish, and finish it we must. I lost track of writing this not because of a lack of love for this book - it was a fantastic read, and delved so much deeper into the mythos of the Great Cities than I ever expected - but because life got away from me, and August became somewhat of a shitshow. Seems fitting, when paired with a book about the awakening of a city gone awry, and the hard work that one has to do to dig oneself out of said mess. And yet, we kept reading, and kept exploring, because what is one to do when the world runs amok but choose an alternate reality for a moment or two before turning back to face the music. We’ll never show more know the alternate reality book that Jemisin planned to write instead of this one that we hold in our hands, but I, for one, came out the other side of New York’s rising with a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment - even if I will probably always crave more of the story. show less

Started my year with the first book, took six months into the year until I finished the second and (almost?) finale of her ‘Great Cities’. I really enjoyed these books and look forward to catching the short story/novella.

Not only a love letter to NYC like the first but with a wider scope and at the same time a sharper focus on 'reality'. I don't think she set out to make this a current events story but with the events being what they are it's there.

Anyway, we meet some of the other cities and that's pretty cool. We get more insight into what's happening during those interactions. Amongst our heroes, there's romance, and worries about visas & bills, and weird, neon eldritch things happen and art is used in battles for neighborhoods. show more So again, NYC, right?

My tastes run more towards epic or portal fantasy, the halfway stuff usually doesn't do it for me. Two big exceptions recently are Lindholm's Wizard of the Pigeons and these books. I have sampled a decent amount of her various works to say that while others may do specific things better, Jemisin is by far the best all around spec fiction writer on the current scene. She has technique, she has vision, she has a fan's heart. show less

The sequel to the outstanding The City We Became, this followup reveals the avatars of the five boroughs of NYC, plus Jersey City, plus Neek (NYC), minus Staten Island (for a while) still fighting valiantly against the invasion and takeover by R' lyeh, a/k/a Sqigglebitch, a/k/a The Woman in White. They are joined by international metropolises as well, and Brooklyn runs for mayor against a very Trump-like candidate. There's plenty of humor, and the author's acknowledgement and her recognition of the devastation of covid alone is almost worth the price of admission. As a generally non-sci fi reader, I appreciate that Jemisin doesn't play with spaceships and AI, but allows human power and greed to seethe through her characters.

Way to subvert the Lovecraftian paradigm!

Jemisin is brilliant at calling out bullshit and being so damn entertaining with the social commentary, or, I suppose, so socially conscious with the entertainment. Twenty four hours after finishing and I'm still doing a little happy dance in my seat. I walk away from this book with all the glee of leaving a blockbuster movie without any of the "oh, wait, that feels really dodgy when you stop to think about it" regrets after.

Library copy

Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd book in The Great Cities duology. I borrowed a copy of this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: I adored "The Cities We Became" and was eagerly awaiting the release of the next book in this series and it was definitely worth the wait! This book continues to take place in NYC, as our newly awakened city and boroughs try to take out the Woman in White once and for all. Previous to this I had read Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy (liked it) and the first book of her Dreamblood duology (wasn't a fan of this one). I am hoping to read her Broken Earth trilogy in 2023.

I love the strange multi-dimensional power that NYC is fighting against. This power takes the form of "sameness" and violence and it is trying to show more make all of New York "corporate white sameness" and take away what makes New York City...well New York City. There are heavy themes of gentrification and xenophobia throughout and this makes for a story with some very heavy political commentary.

The writing here is amazing. This ends up being a fairly complex story with complicated ideas, but Jemisin made it easy to read and understand. I absolutely loved the characters here; there are a lot of them to follow but, again, Jemisin makes that easy to do. I enjoyed how the whole Woman in White invasion ties to a strange metaphysical multiverse and how we get to delve into that in this book as well.

I think the only thing I am a bit disappointed about here is that this is the end of the series. I would have loved to read about other cities and even more about how the boroughs and Neek settle in and go about running NYC. This is an amazing world and, with all the cities all over the world, there are so many amazing stories that could be told. I hope Jemisin changes her mind and picks this world up again at some point.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I absolutely loved this conclusion to the Great Cities duology. This is a fascinating world with some amazing ideas. I love the world, the characters, and the crazy extra-dimensional threat. Things are wrapped up very nicely in this book but I would love to see more books about other cities in this world. Both books in this duology are highly recommended! show less

Despite feeling truncated (Jemisin explains in the foreword that she felt unable to follow through on her original trilogy plan because of all the other recent stuff NYC had been going through), this is a pretty satisfying conclusion to the series; I don't like it quite as much as The City We Became, but I think that's partly just because it's hard to maintain the thrill of novelty once all the setup has happened, and this is very much two halves of one thing so I can't really judge them separately. I like how the cosmology and the nature of the evil forces are elaborated on here, and the supporting cast of other cities comes into clearer focus (I do wonder how that stuff reads to people who are more familiar with those cities, show more especially Chicago). The biggest area where it seems like something was set up for a third book and then abandoned is the mayoral campaign stuff, where it seems like the evil forces are backing a specific politician... but I'm fine with that, because for me the idea of a mystical structure underlying city life is more interesting if it doesn't have anything to do with the official mundane power structure. Not that real-world politics are irrelevant in this story, but I think the other material about non-governmental forces like nonprofits and alt-right influencers is a better fit for the nature of the conflict. show less