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May 27

rated a book really liked it The City We Became (Great Cities, #1) by N.K. Jemisin (Goodreads Author)

read in May, 2023

I enjoyed reading this! I haven't read much "weird fiction" before (the only one to mind is The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories, which I found rather boring); I appreciated this book's take on "weird" fiction and the modernization of it.

The c I enjoyed reading this! I haven't read much "weird fiction" before (the only one to mind is The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories, which I found rather boring); I appreciated this book's take on "weird" fiction and the modernization of it.

The concept of cities as people / living entities resonates. I am originally from a very small town and moved to Chicago when young, and cities certainly have an individualized energy to them that I have always enjoyed. While I'm not familiar with Staten Island, Jemisin's description of a more rural-like, "simple" life and beliefs rings true. The power of fear in these communities, particularly, rings true.

I like that Jemisin doesn't bog us down with long, technical explanations of how things work. Even Bronca, our link to this world's knowledge, doesn't bother us with that. We're expected to accept magic at face value because it's magic. I do have some quibbles with powers being inconsistently used, but I think for the most part this can be excused as our heroes don't really know how to use their powers.

The elevation of different cultures and ways of thinking elevated the story and provided some A-plus social commentary, without devolving into tweets. I think that's been my #1 criticism of recent speculative fiction I've read - the commentary comes tweet-sized and shaped. Not so for Jemisin's work, where the thoughts are more nuanced, more deeply integrated into the story and characters, and shine the truer for it.

I'll talk about more specifics in the spoiler section below - but two things stick out to me in the book that I'm not super satisfied with. I think things come very easily to our characters, all the way through. At almost no point do I see consequences for anyone in the story - what are the stakes? The problem with the main stake in the story being the end of the world is that it is intangible. There are two plot points that go against this, but one of them is rather lost, and the other quite short-lived.

Secondly, the pacing of the final third or quarter of the book felt a little rushed. The ending in particular, came all at once and resolved in a really unexpected and bizarre (even for weird fiction) way, that I don't think works very well. I do wonder if the story was more complete at some point before the decision was made to write a sequel. Perhaps the sequel addresses some of my concerns.

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK FOLLOW:
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May 26

Thomas B is on page 16 of 204 of The Star Fox

The Star Fox
by Poul Anderson

progress:

Thomas B started reading

The Star Fox by Poul Anderson