The World We Make by NK Jemisin
Dec. 29th, 2022 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightreadsThe 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.
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Date: 2022-12-29 05:59 pm (UTC)thanks, this is a good heads up. Because I found the first book disappointing, but it was mostly because I didn't realize it wasn't a standalone until almost the end, and therefore the character development of Staten Island lady was deeply aggravating to me. Because if that was a standalone, if that was as far as it went? Then, like, of course she's an over-the-top stereotype narrative, and I get it, but if you have this obvious abuse victim (who is buying into both her own oppression and the oppression of others, because very in your face stereotype) then you have to push her harder -- give her more opportunities to get out or learn that she fails to take. I had no problem with her choosing the wrong side, but there wasn't enough time for her evil choice to be meaningful, because she was so abused she never had any options.
But then it turned out it was the first of two books and all my annoyance at her character arc turned out to be misguided, and I was left feeling just weirdly frustrated for no good reason.
(I also rolled my eyes constantly at making the hilarious parochial exceptionalism of New Yorkers into a metaphysical and magical reality (I almost expected there to be some magical avatar of bodegas), but whatever, I'm from Boston, I'm used to ridiculous localized exceptionalism.)
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Date: 2022-12-29 06:40 pm (UTC)She does get more agency in this book, to a point. It's one of those frustrating situations where a total redemption arc would have been unearned, but at the same time the messy, equivocal arc she does get lacked narrative satisfaction.
I can't help thinking that both books are really a product of Jemisin's recent work in comics more than anything. They just have that feel to them.