Book Review: THE WORLD WE BECAME by N. K. Jemisin

THE WORLD WE MAKE by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit Books, November 2022) Hardcover, 357 pages. 

Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Four-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N.K. Jemisin crafts a glorious tale of identity, resistance, magic and myth.

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.

N.K. Jemisin’s Great Cities Duology, which began with The City We Became and concludes with The World We Make, is a masterpiece of speculative fiction from one of the most important writers of her generation.

 

     My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     Both THE CITY WE BECAME and THE WORLD WE MAKE are Jemisin's homage to the city where she lives, as well as an allegory of the dehumanization of cities through the rise of white supremacy and the gentrification of neighborhoods which strip communities of their cultural heritage and uniqueness. Lovecraft was an equally inventive dark fantasy/science-fiction writer, but also known for his bigotry and racism. It only seems appropriate that his mythos would be utilized to tell this story. In THE WORLD WE MAKE Jemisin expands the exploration of a fascinating cast of characters and introduces a mayoral campaign to illustrate the fascistic trends weaving throughout current politics.

     In the Acknowledgments, Jemisin reveals that based on current events (Covid, etc) she lost some of her enthusiasm for the story and altered this to become a duology instead of a trilogy. She even debated not continuing but did not want to disappoint readers by not concluding it. In spite of that, this is a well-written story that further explores the threat outlined in the first volume.

     In my review of THE CITY WE BECAME I listed two reasons why I became interested in exploring more of Jemisin's work and they still hold true after finishing THE WORLD WE MAKE:

1. Jemisin is remarkably inventive, taking aspects of one of the most well-known cities in the world (New York City) and transforming and altering those into something of incredible fantasy. As odd as it seems, this lends everything an air of authenticity that shouldn't be there considering the weird things that are happening. The imagery is vivid and cinematic. 

2) Without overlong exposition or elaboration, Jemisin develops and defines her cast of characters in a story-telling fashion that makes readers feel like they truly know them. She reminds me of the same way that Stephen King and Neil Gaiman manage to evoke that feeling of small town familiarity regardless of the setting, situation, or unusual quirks of the characters. I felt myself being pulled into and immersed in the activities of these characters in the same way that King and Gaiman have that effect on me.