Review – The World We Make (The Great Cities, Book 2) by N.K. Jemisin (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 369 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: November 1, 2022
ASIN: B09TZXTJD5
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in The Great Cities series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 5/5 stars
“All is not well in the city that never sleeps. Even though the avatars of New York City 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.”
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 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!
