NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Robin Miles narrates a multidimensional battle between good and evil, an attack on the literal soul of a city. The avatars of New York continue to fight for their right to exist, both as individuals and as metaphysical entities. Miles gives a masterful performance, truly transforming the essence of each of the five boroughs, and the city itself, into their physical representatives. She smoothly portrays the distinctive variations in the boroughs’ dialects and accents, making each vibrant and distinctive. Smart use of technical effects renders the invading city of R’lyeh alien and unnatural; Miles’s voicework makes it even more chilling. Long after the final battle for eight million souls has been fought, Miles’s dynamic and powerful performance will linger in listeners’ minds. K.M.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
"It's a glorious fantasy, set in that most imaginary of cities, New York. It's inclusive in all the best ways, and manages to contain both Borges and Lovecraft in its fabric, but the unique voice and viewpoint are Jemisin's alone."—Neil Gaiman on The City We Became
"The City We Became takes a broad-shouldered stand on the side of sanctuary, family and love. It's a joyful shout, a reclamation and a call to arms."—The New York Times
"The City We Became is a masterpiece of eldritch urban fantasy."—Buzzfeed News
"Jemisin's fantastical stories are anchored in complex societal systems and fully-imagined new worlds-all with fault lines lying in wait-that aim to help us better understand our own."—TIME on The City We Became
"Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold."—Entertainment Weekly on The City We Became
"A love letter, a celebration and an expression of hope and belief that a city and its people can and will stand up to darkness, will stand up to fear, and will, when called to, stand up for each other."
— NPR on The City We Became
"Thrillingly expansive without ever becoming abstract or high-flown."—The Los Angeles Times on The City We Became
"Three consecutive Hugo Awards and a cover blurb from Neil Gaiman -yes, it's time for you to pick up a novel by Jemisin, whose speculative fiction has a degree of inclusivity rare in the science-fiction world."—The Washington Post on The City We Became
"As always, Jemisin's writing is visionary and immersive...[Jemisin is] a science-fiction/fantasy GOAT."—GQ on The City We Became
"The City We Became is a raucous delight, a joyride, a call-to-arms, a revolution with plenty of dancing. Eat your heart out, Lovecraft."—Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January on The City We Became
"Some of the most exciting and powerful fantasy writing of today... Jemisin's latest will attract ... even those who don't typically read genre fiction."—Booklist (starred review) on The City We Became
"The most important speculative writer of her generation...She's that good."—John Scalzi
"As raw and vibrant as the city itself."—Library Journal on The City We Became
"A love/hate song to and rallying cry for the author's home of New York... Fierce, poetic, uncompromising."—Kirkus (starred review) on The City We Became
"A fierce, opinionated vision of a storied metropolis facing down existential threats."
— Shelf Awareness on The City We Became
"This contemporary fantasy of living cities in a multiversal struggle demonstrates [Jemisin's] accomplished storytelling and characterization. Highly recommended for anyone interested in some of the most exciting and powerful fantasy writing of today... Jemisin's latest will attract both media attentions and curious readers, even those who don't typically read genre fiction."— Literary Hub on The City We Became
"One of the most celebrated new voices in epic fantasy."—Salon.com
Salon.com
One of the most celebrated new voices in epic fantasy.
Literary Hub on The City We Became
This contemporary fantasy of living cities in a multiversal struggle demonstrates [Jemisin's] accomplished storytelling and characterization. Highly recommended for anyone interested in some of the most exciting and powerful fantasy writing of today... Jemisin's latest will attract both media attentions and curious readers, even those who don't typically read genre fiction.
John Scalzi
The most important speculative writer of her generation...She's that good.
Buzzfeed News
"The City We Became is a masterpiece of eldritch urban fantasy.
Neil Gaiman on The City We Became
It's a glorious fantasy, set in that most imaginary of cities, New York. It's inclusive in all the best ways, and manages to contain both Borges and Lovecraft in its fabric, but the unique voice and viewpoint are Jemisin's alone.
author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January on The Alix E. Harrow
"The City We Became is a raucous delight, a joyride, a call-to-arms, a revolution with plenty of dancing. Eat your heart out, Lovecraft.
Entertainment Weekly on The City We Became
Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold.
TIME on The City We Became
Jemisin's fantastical stories are anchored in complex societal systems and fully-imagined new worlds-all with fault lines lying in wait-that aim to help us better understand our own.
GQ on The City We Became
As always, Jemisin's writing is visionary and immersive...[Jemisin is] a science-fiction/fantasy GOAT.
The New York Times
"The City We Became takes a broad-shouldered stand on the side of sanctuary, family and love. It's a joyful shout, a reclamation and a call to arms.
The Los Angeles Times on The City We Became
Thrillingly expansive without ever becoming abstract or high-flown.
The Washington Post on The City We Became
Three consecutive Hugo Awards and a cover blurb from Neil Gaiman -yes, it's time for you to pick up a novel by Jemisin, whose speculative fiction has a degree of inclusivity rare in the science-fiction world.
Booklist (starred review) on The City We Became
Some of the most exciting and powerful fantasy writing of today... Jemisin's latest will attract ... even those who don't typically read genre fiction.
Library Journal
★ 10/01/2022
Picking up where The City We Became left off, the avatars of the boroughs of New York City are locked in a war of puppets and subterfuge with the Lovecraftian horror of The Woman in White and their own rogue Staten Island. The Enemy has been operating in the shadows, and New York will be her masterpiece of destruction. But New York and New Yorkers have always adapted to change and have never given in to anyone. R'yleh sends in her agents of bureaucracy and bland mediocrity, and New York tells them to get stuffed—until the Queen of Queens figures out what it's really all about and convinces the Great Old Ones they have been their own worst enemy all along. This is urban fantasy where the city itself is both the band of adventurers and the setting where the adventures happen. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers who loved the deep dive into myth and roots of American Gods by Neil Gaiman, those fascinated with conspiracy theories about politics and corruption, and anyone who loves a good adventure where plucky underdogs rise up and triumph in spite of themselves.—Marlene Harris
NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Robin Miles narrates a multidimensional battle between good and evil, an attack on the literal soul of a city. The avatars of New York continue to fight for their right to exist, both as individuals and as metaphysical entities. Miles gives a masterful performance, truly transforming the essence of each of the five boroughs, and the city itself, into their physical representatives. She smoothly portrays the distinctive variations in the boroughs’ dialects and accents, making each vibrant and distinctive. Smart use of technical effects renders the invading city of R’lyeh alien and unnatural; Miles’s voicework makes it even more chilling. Long after the final battle for eight million souls has been fought, Miles’s dynamic and powerful performance will linger in listeners’ minds. K.M.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-08-02
In this follow-up to The City We Became (2020), the human avatars of New York City battle an extradimensional threat to the multiverse.
As New York attempts to persuade the other living cities of the world to join them in the fight for all humanity against R’lyeh, the alien city housing genocidal Lovecraft-ian horrors and represented by the sinister Woman in White, the city's avatars confront new challenges. Padmini, the avatar of Queens, faces deportation to India. Savvy city councilwoman Brooklyn campaigns for mayor against Sen. Panfilo, a xenophobic White man who promises to bring New York back to traditional values—he's secretly supported by the Woman in White and publicly defended by a band of violent skinheads. Manny is being pressured by his powerful family to abandon his role as Manhattan’s avatar and become the emerging city of Chicago’s primary avatar instead, a decision that would also mean abandoning New York’s primary avatar, Neek, with whom Manny is in love. Meanwhile, Aislyn, Staten Island’s avatar, discovers the downsides of turning her back on the rest of the city and allying herself with the Woman in White. As in the previous book, this is a fantasy inspired by the very real division between those who embrace difference (and are only intolerant of intolerance) and those who seek a creativity-killing homogeneity, seeing it as a return to a supposedly moral past that never existed. The story also explores how perceptions about a place imposed on it by outsiders—who have only the most distorted views about it from popular culture—can have genuinely damaging effects. It's cathartic to imagine fighting these slippery, inimical forces with magic, to believe for a moment that some complex problems have direct solutions—that passion, faith, and the will to fight can make miracles happen. Perhaps the possibility of confronting those problems head-on might serve as inspiration for all of us facing variants of this issue in the real world and help us model ourselves after Jemisin’s characterization of New Yorkers: tough, nasty, but ultimately kind people who defend their own while embracing newcomers into their midst.
A ray of hope in a dark time.
