Review: The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

New York City: Five boroughs with distinct personalities, histories, and offerings. It's the year Now, and Something threatens NYC. And it's always gentrification and the real estate/finance bros, the fuckin' white hetero patriarchy, but this Something is definitely using all of that like a wrecking ball swung right where it's gonna hurt you the most. It's up to the 5 newly-conscious avatars of the boroughs, 5 extraordinary if ordinary individuals that have the power to manifest as the finest attributes of their neighborhoods, to wake New York City up and fight off an extra-dimensional assault. But New York City is just being born, and its heroes may not be up to the task. Because NYC is five separate but equally important and different places, and they don't always play nice with one another. Can the boroughs manifest and come together as one in time to fight an unknowable apocalypse no one and nothing can prepare for?

This was number 3 of my top 5 most anticipated novels of 2020, and it did not disappoint. As a reader that loves to write, I firmly believe that when a writer writes what he/she/they thinks is cool that this will translate to the reader. That said, The City We Became is effing cool: it has grit and knows itself and is capable of observation and communication. N.K. Jemisin is one of my favorite authors because she knows how to tell an uncanny story like it's something that can happen anyway (also pronounced: speculative fiction), and she dazzles here with excellent characters and a Baddie that isn't just the cardboard cutout of Evil or else Chaos threatening the Pattern of Zelazny. Jemisin manages to succinctly guide us through a multiverse apocalypse tale's early rumblings without getting lost in pseudo-scientific/philosophical meandering. She penned a novel that is simultaneous love story to NYC (and yo, I'm born and raise Queens, so I know what she's about here) and superhero adventure. My only "complaint" about this book is that, despite its page count, it happens too fast and I'm not sure there was enough happening to warrant a reread. Which, heck, is cool, especially for those of us that dig sf that's quick, smart, and leaves us smiling, but The City We Became does feel too open-ended for a novel that's clearly capable of being standalone. Regardless, this one is definitely for fans of Jemisin, lite sci-fi, and adventure tales.

- Frank

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