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The World We Make by NK Jemisin
Dec. 29th, 2022 11:34 amThe World We Make
3/5. Second volume in this duology about New York City coming alive through its human avatars, and the interdimensional tentacled horrors that want to see it die.
A bit of a comedown from the first book, TBH. This is still energetic and magical in that big, colorful urban fantasy way. It’s also extremely on the nose. Like, a race for Mayor of NYC where the bad guy’s slogan is “make New York great again” on the nose. I suspect that’s going to be pretty divisive.
It’s a mixed bag, in general. Speaking to my idiosyncratic tastes, it’s a plus that Robin Miles is having a truly fantastic time reading the audio. And a minus that this book features a race for NYC mayor, and I have intimate professional knowledge of *counts on fingers* four NYC mayoral campaigns and uh. That is not how that works. At all.
And fundamentally, the greatest strength of these books is its greatest weakness: the premise is that these avatars embody the essence of the living city. So they can both be delightfully stereotypical and reductively stereotypical, sometimes in the same sentence. See the conflicted white lady avatar of Staten Island chanting “not in my back yard” to cast protective magic. Also see: on the nose.
3/5. Second volume in this duology about New York City coming alive through its human avatars, and the interdimensional tentacled horrors that want to see it die.
A bit of a comedown from the first book, TBH. This is still energetic and magical in that big, colorful urban fantasy way. It’s also extremely on the nose. Like, a race for Mayor of NYC where the bad guy’s slogan is “make New York great again” on the nose. I suspect that’s going to be pretty divisive.
It’s a mixed bag, in general. Speaking to my idiosyncratic tastes, it’s a plus that Robin Miles is having a truly fantastic time reading the audio. And a minus that this book features a race for NYC mayor, and I have intimate professional knowledge of *counts on fingers* four NYC mayoral campaigns and uh. That is not how that works. At all.
And fundamentally, the greatest strength of these books is its greatest weakness: the premise is that these avatars embody the essence of the living city. So they can both be delightfully stereotypical and reductively stereotypical, sometimes in the same sentence. See the conflicted white lady avatar of Staten Island chanting “not in my back yard” to cast protective magic. Also see: on the nose.