4.5*
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The World We Make picks up where The City We Became left off: with our main characters, that are now living embodiments of New York, facing the threat of the Enemy, a being from another dimension seeking to take down the city through the xenophobic and bigoted members of the community who are seeking to change what New York is. It's a wild ride from there.

To start off, this is a political book, which I know is controversial, but I personally did not have any problems with the political commentary. It's straight-forward, profound, and very relevant in the current political climate, but it also doesn't take away from the actual fantasy story; if anything, it strengthens the story, giving it higher stakes and a deeper connection to reality. I imagine you'd hate the book if you disagree with the political standpoint, but as a socialist through and through, I'd say this feels less like a book with a political agenda and more like someone simply wrote a book from the same perspective as I view the world.

The characters are one of the strongest parts of this book. They all have very distinct personalities and voices, they're super realistic, and you just can't help but feel so much for them. No matter what your personal issues and insecurities are, there's going to be some aspect of some character you can relate to. That's another aspect I really liked; although these people are mega powerful city avatars and whatnot, they're also so human. We get multi-dimensional war, but we also get sexual tension and family issues and troubled pasts and mother's love and pressure from parents and the the threat of deportation and a thousand other little things. It's the entire human experience.

The plot is where I think The World We Make doesn't quite reach the level of the first book. I did immensely enjoy it, the combination of weird eldritch horror stuff and contemporary culture is so sick but found it to be a bit underwhelming. It was a quick and easy read, which I liked, but it also made me feel like there was room for more complexity. I was emotionally invested from time to time, but never particularly stressed, and by the time I got to the endgame, I didn't really care much about it.

The World We Make is a unique, very well written book, weird and funny and powerful at the same time. I'm incredibly fond of this universe and these characters. Getting another installment in this series was a great time, even if it didn't fully live up to my expectations.

"All human beings, across every culture, gather in numbers and tell stories and come up with new ways of doing things. Creativity and social living are the only real constants that every single human species has had... The only way to get rid of cities is to get rid of that part of our nature."

"The World We Make" is the second book in the "Great Cities" trilogy. It takes place three months after hte events of "The City We Became", in which New York is 'born', as a living embodiment of six people, making up the five boroughs of the city, plus one person who represents the city as a whole. In the second book, the group has to come of with an even stronger Enemy, who will try to destroy the city and swallow it whole.

I'm not going to say much about the plot, so as not to spoil the first book. It's a good, solid sequel, although I admit I enjoyed the first book a little more – probably because the ideas in the book were so novel and the world-building unexpected and really satisfying. But I definitely recommend both novels if you like urban fantasy with a high concept plot and great characters.

trigger warning
<spoiler> mention of colonialism, mention of genocide, mention of domestic violence, trauma, grief, mental illness, xenophobia, racism, gun violence </spoiler>

Now that New York cities has its seven personifications, and the first battle is over, things seem to find their grooves when everything goes astray again.

This sequel to the City We Became feels very relevant. It's politic in all the right places.
It follows the same pattern as book one did: Prologue and Epilogue from a first person narrator, the primary of New York City, and the main part of the narrative is multi-POV between the other six entities of the big apple, all with own struggles that tie in to the bigger story about a multiverse-destroying lovecraftian something that needs to be defeated, because it's either that or annihilation.

While at first I was wondering how a sequel would fit in there because book one felt so much like a standalone, now I see that is was a duology all along. What was begun now has finished.

Liked the writing a lot and am excited to pick up more by this author in the future.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

3,75 / 5 ⭐


A pesar de que la primera parte de esta nueva serie me dejó algo frio cuando se publicó hace casi tres años, me he animado a darle una oportunidad a esta segunda y última entrega. Como la propia Jemisin indica al final del volumen, lo que inicialmente iba a ser una trilogía finalmente se queda en bilogía.

Lo cierto es que he salido mucho más satisfecho que con la primera entrega. Aquel libro necesitaba de muchas páginas introductorias con las que familiarizarnos con los distintos avatares de los barrios de Nueva York y esto hacía su lectura se hiciera algo lenta hasta un final algo decepcionante.

En esta nueva obra todo eso nos lo ahorramos y vamos directamente al grano. Y, concretamente, a la parte de crítica política, social y económica que no deja de ser el fondo de toda la trama de las dos novelas. El populismo trumpista aparece en escena mientras que la mujer de blanco que ya vimos en la primera novela reaparece con nuevas intenciones de acabar con este mundo tal y como lo conocemos.

En esta entrega ampliamos el alcance del problema y aparecen en escena unas cuantas ciudades del resto del mundo. Staten Island se convierte en uno de los focos del problema y el resto de los avatares tendrán que lidiar con sus problemas personales mientras evitan que este universo desaparezca. En definitiva, una novela de superhéroes con un prisma mucho más social y actual. Una historia donde la autora libera buena parte de la rabia de buena parte de la población norteamericana y mundial ante la situación límite que viven en su día a día por culpa del sistema en el que nos encontramos.

Si te gusto la primera novela seguramente esta te guste igual o más. Si aquella no te resultó interesante es posible que esta sí lo haga gracias a los beneficios de ser la segunda y última parte de la historia, tener un inicio mucho más incisivo y una conclusión más cerrada. Yo he pasado un rato muy entretenido.

This was an interesting read. I knew what I was getting myself into picking up this sequel, but I still found I had more trouble getting i to the story than I expected. Her prose is good and the pacing is sort of there compared to other works, but it’s not on par with the first book in the series. I found the writing a tad repetitive and slow. I’m a fast reader that likes to rush through books. This book, however, requires slow reading and and thoughtfulness to really understand and get into. Which is fine, but really not something I feel I have the patience for at this time. I want to move fast, and a book like this requires me to slow down, which means I get bored and have a hard time connecting with the story. I was probably in another mindset reading the book before this because it doesn’t seem probable that there would be such a difference in style here. So I’m calling this feeling a personal thing.

I can see that this is a book many will love, and there are many interesting plot points and a wonderful take on NYC and the intricacies of modern politics.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Having just read The Atlas Paradox, where philosophical concepts were bandied around willy-nilly, I was slightly apprehensive of going back into Jemisin's high-concept series. But my fears were ill-founded. Jemisin's writing is better than Blake's for a start, and she handles the more speculative elements of her story with aplomb. You can tell that she struggled a little with this story overall (apparently this was meant to be a trilogy and we barely got the duology, due to the pandemic) but the characters stay faithful and the plot still resolves satisfactorily. I've still not got round to reading the Broken Earth series but it's leap-frogged up my TBR again after reading this.

This duology feels like Jemisin’s love letter to New York. Beautifully diverse and queer with vibrant and immersive writing, you feel like you’re there with the characters. Such a unique concept for a story, I’ve never read anything like this.

So how do you destroy a city without invading it? They’re vast, vibrant and powerful but you can attack from within and without. Having extra dimensional beings with malice also helps. In the conclusion to the Great Cities duology N K Jemisin delivers a smart and very interesting tale exploring that idea which I think is worth attention.

To briefly recap previous events. Cities can after many years become alive due to the way life and humanity mix. At that point human avatars are chosen and given the power of a city. Often a mysterious enemy uses these moments to end them. Fortunately for New York and it’s boroughs despite the betrayal of Staten Island the other six of the group including newly added Jersey City brought the primary Neek back from a. Coma and saw off a huge attack. But above New York sits the invisible realm of R’lygh and more dangers await.

The enigmatic Manny starts to wonder about the past life he no longer remembers; Neek feels a further attack is coming; Queen’s rep Padmini loses her job and faces potential deportation and Brooklyn starts to entangle themselves with a politician rising a populist wave and wanting to take New York back to the good old days with very selective memories. R’Lygh now occupies Staten Island and the other great cities are unimpressed with their youngest member.

My caveat to this book is that as Jemisin explains on the afterward the events of 2020-21 with a pandemic and a president out of control impact where this story goes. I can definitely understand that as you read the book - this and it’s predecessor are primarily light fantasy with a political focus but when monsters and death need absolutely no help from cosmic horror I can see how the tale lost its focus. This comes across as the first half of this book is really in the spirit of the first- new plot points such as ICE, a greedy politician who wants to make New stork Great again, a mayoral campaign and finally meeting other cities all make the story get very big. But then very quickly in the latter half I found a huge gear shift with events rapidly escalating to a big climactic multi-city conclusion and resolution of this tale. I really enjoyed this book but it’s almost like a TV series knowing it’s ending prematurely and deciding just to focus on the major plotlines being resolved. They are but with loose ends and questions we may never know all the answers to.

However, I like reading for the journey and not the final battle and for me there is plenty of interesting ideas here well worth your time. The ideas of police corruption, casual racism and populism all destroying our view of what a great city should be has turned to be very prescient indeed. It’s the kind of big ideas I like to see in contemporary fanatsy not just people having an adventure and let’s hope we get more of it.

On top of that there are just regular moments of joy sitting back and watching Jemisin make scenes sing - from battles on the river; a confrontation with a group called the Proud Men and a mysterious empty city no one remembers it’s just a joy of language and often rhythm to words to pick up pace; make you feel the emotion and most importantly what a city on this scale feels like from commuters to kids to traffic. Jemisin now has all six powerful entities with their powers and watching city magic work out how to fight back is again a major plus.

I also really liked meeting the other cities who are equally as arrogant as New York (it is a fact of all cities that ours is best) but special shout out to London who is not who you expect but also very much that city.

The World we make is a satisfying conclusion to this duology and full of interesting ideas explored by one of the genre’s best writers. It does feel like it has ended more swiftly than the plot originally sounded but we do get a fun, fascinating and thoughtful ride along the way and for me that’s what reading should always be about. I can’t wait to see what Jemisin wants to do next. Recommended for fans of the first book!

The World We Make was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 so I am sad to say that I was somewhat dissapointed by this book.

In this sequel we continue on in the struggle the New York avatars have with the white woman and her influence on the politics of it all. Aislynn is still friends with the white woman and it damages the hold the others have on New York.

I'll be honest and say that I read the first three chapters and then apparently skipped to chapter 15 or so. I did not notice I skipped 12 chapters of the story. They were talking about the summit and then they were at the summit. The fact that I was not all confused and just read on (only noticing that I accidentally skipped a good portion a few chapters later) doesn't speak well for the story. Of course I went back to see what I missed. It didn't feel like a lot.

Jemisin herself admits that she was done with this story, turning it from a trilogy to a duology in the afterword. And I think that it kind of shows. The heart of the characters and story felt missing for me.

Having said that, I do think the basics of the story and how it wraps up works for the story. And once I am over my dissapointment I will revisit this duology and read it in one go. Because it still holds a special place in my heart regardless.

The City We Became was a fantastic read which tugged at my heartstrings for all things NYC, so I was very excited to get my hands on The World We Make. While I did enjoy it, unfortunately it wasn't the long awaited page-turner I was expecting.

Pretty much all the things I loved from TCWB have crossed over into TWEM including all the boroughs and the magic of the city itself. However, the author notes in her acknowledgments that she struggled to finish this book and it can be felt within the pages. Jemisin, like us all, has been drained by the effects of the pandemic and the many other unfathomable things occurring within our world over the last couple of years and sadly this therefore story suffered. It completely makes sense why, when the reality is in ways stranger than the fiction she was trying to write.

So a trilogy became a duology and while at times this condensing can be felt, all is not lost. It was still a really enjoyable book full of emotion and tension and the quirkiness of her well-developed characters. Sure some plotlines were left unfinished but I am hoping that maybe this was a subconscious thing and that someday she will come back to fill in the blanks.

Reading both TCWB and TWEM has shown me what an amazingly skilled writer Jemisin is, especially how well she crafts her characters and her world building, so I know I will definitely be checking out her back catalogue and keeping an eye out for what's to come!

I wish I could be faster to review this one but alas last month was a challenge for me due to university. But I finally got around to it! Thank you to Orbit UK and Netgalley for giving me an opportunity to read the sequel of one of my favorite books of the year.

The World We Make is definitely more high stakes in terms of plot, and more diverse in terms of characters. By that, I mean there were a lot of other Cities appearing instead of just the original boroughs. This one is not my favorite compared to The City We Became. I find this one lacking in terms of my favorite aspects of the first one: the humor, the relationship between the characters, and the characters' different personalities that matches with their boroughs. I'm aware that in this one, it is more focused on Neek, but I love the other avatars a lot and I kind of want more for them in this one.

That is not to say that I didn't enjoy this one. I love seeing the gang back and the avatars doing their cool things, and I love some of the action scenes such as the one with Veneza.

I have a lot of feelings about N.K. Jemisisn's The World We Make. Jemisin is one of my all-time favourite writers; like many people, I feel she is one of the most talented SFF writers today, and I would give my right arm to meet her. The City We Became was one of my favourite reads of 2020, and I was counting down the days till the sequel's release.

I think before I try and put my thoughts down, it is interesting to note that Jemisin struggled to write The World We Make. This series has become a duology instead of the intended trilogy. I think this reluctance does come through in the pages of The World We Make, which in turn makes this sequel not as strong as Book one, in my opinion.

What I loved about The World We Make is the friendship that holds the city together. How they have all grown to care for and adore one another as they fight the Woman in White. I adore Manny so much, which is not a surprise to anyone! I mean, tortured soul trying to keep the group together YES PLZ! and his complex relationship with Neek was catnip for me. but I think here lies the problem and why we can tell there were supposed to be three books instead of two. We get small glimpses into each pov character's life but nothing is fleshed out or explained and it's only in a neat coda at the end that we see how all is played out and it felt too neat... there needed to be a third novel. I mean, is there going to be a war with Chicago? The whole book Manny is struggling with his identity, and all is fixed with a text...

Overall though I can't give The World We Make less than 4 stars. Jemisin's writing is wonderful, and the last 100 pages of the book were slick and full of drama which I loved. This won't be my favourite of Jeminin's work that spot will always be The Kingdom of Gods however as always I loved Jeminin's character work and soul in all that she writes.

The World We Make

Second Book in The Great Cities Duology.

I don't want to put too much detail in this review so I don't spoil the first book.
I enjoyed this book so much more than the first book. The world building is amzing and such loveable characters wish this had been the 3 books it was originally supposed to be. I read along with the audio books and I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE AUDIO !

Thank you to Netgalley, Little Brown Book Group and N. K Jemisin for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest Review

I loved this book as much as I loved the first one, a very very unique and enthralling storyline, with lovable characters!! I couldn’t put this down !!

Thank you to the publisher Orbit and to NetGalley for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

"The City We Became "was one of my top books of 2020 with its original, dynamic story about New York City coming to "life" in the form of seven people to battle an invading alien force called the R'yleh. I was delighted to get approved for the ARC of its sequel, and the final book in the series, "The World We Make". This was a brilliant book and completely worthy to follow the first, I loved the character development (especially Neek, because we saw so little of him in the first book, and Padmini for her strength) as well as the commentary on race, immigration, abuse, relationships and white supremacy. The only thing I felt let it down was the ending, but that's probably because this series was originally a trilogy and that reflected on the final few chapters. However, if you're looking for powerful, character driven speculative fantasy in a city, this is the one to read.

The World we Make
Earc: NetGalley
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group UK, Orbit
Publication Date:3 November 2022
Genre:Sci Fiction and Fantasy

The enemy in this duology is the obliteration of all the characters' prior knowledge. The most anticipated book of the previous two years is this second volume of NK Jemisin's Great Cities duology. The book tackles many pressing social issues, such as police brutality, various forms of racism, coercive gentrification, manipulation of legal loopholes, cultural homogenization, and abuse of charity. Is. Although the current socio-political situation is changing, Western political and social problems have continued relentlessly in recent years, including an actual coup attempt against a country once thought to have a stable government. What I mean is that it's hard to read about something so close to reality in a fantasy book. However, the book's protagonists at least have mighty urban powers to use against their problems (and sometimes their situations are more dangerous but politically uncharged ethnic monsters). ).

Some of the overall threats are a little too abstract for my taste, but I like how they are resolved, and Staten Island also had a good trip with this book. We also got some Manhattan background and finally figured out where he came from before the city, which added a nice extra layer. The reason this trilogy was downgraded to a two-part series. Admit it, and thank her for working tirelessly to give it a dignified ending.

So if you enjoyed the first book, The World We Make is worth reading, and it will probably fix any minor problems you may have had with it. It's a book with a lot of heart and energy, and some villains are too real.

#NetGalley #bookstagram #bookreview #goodreads @Little, Brown Book Group UK, Orbit #TheWorldWeMake

One of my favourite writers but a DNF here. The story is bizarre in a non-compelling way. Perhaps you have to be from New York to enjoy this. It's a whole lot of aimless adventure.

NK Jemisin is one of my favourite authors and I loved The City We Became so I was thrilled to get a chance to read and review The World We Make.

There's something in the author's note at the end that really made this book make sense for me, During the writing of this series, the world went to hell (or suddenly dropped a chunk further into it), and it got harder to write a speculative fiction about a world which was descending into neofascism when that doesn't feel speculative anymore.

The thing is, this book gave me hope. As always the characters were richly drawn and gloriously real, the plot was careful and clever, that all goes almost without saying, but what sticks with me most about this is the message it sends. The hope it holds that we can be better. And it sucks to be in a place where that's what feels speculative, where it would be almost easier if a multidimensional squigglebitch were responsible for so many of our problems, but the value of human connection runs deeply through this story, and that's the feeling I came away with. And it's a powerful, brilliant book that can do that.

The World We Make concludes Jemisin's Great Cities sequence, the first part of which, The City We Became, was published in 2020. The author explains in the Acknowledgements why, in the end, this couldn't be a trilogy (basically, truth overtaking fiction) and why it was a tough book to write. However it is still, in my view, a brilliant accomplishment. Jemisin has - across two books - studied the essence of a confident yet wounded modern city - New York - through the lens of fantasy writing at its best. And it's fun to read too!

Jemisin's premise, if you haven't read the first book (you should!) is that "great" cities wake up. Past a certain point, they focus their essence into a human "avatar" (or in New York's case, seven of them - one for each borough and one for the whole. Yes, seven - if you want to know why not six read the first book). That has just happened for New York (there is a reason why it is so recent, which was one of my questions about The City We Became, though not something that particularly bothered me).

If that was all there is to it, we would not have far to go. But it's not. The Cities, NY especially, are under attack from a cosmic-horror style threat personified as The Woman in White and which has something of an affinity with gentrifying, authoritarian trends in the city. And, as becomes obvious here, in the wider multiverse. This threat was staved off somewhat in the previous book as the boroughs came together (mostly) but returns in The World We Made. Part of the meat of this book is the much closer detail we get about that threat and its motivations, which suggest some quite murky morality around the - what world shall I use? Ecology? - of the cities in the branching multiverse.

That murkiness is reflected as Brooklyn, Bronca, Padmini (avatar of Queens), Manny and the rest seek wider help to defend their city, and find some of the other great World Cities less than supportive. I loved the way that Jemisin transforms a potential weakness of her metaphor - that a typical city contains millions, and will have had hundreds of years of history, so its avatar is surely going to be a babble of incoherent voices and intentions - into a hymn to the creativity, the creative destruction, even, of our great cities. They aren't, we are reminded, gentle things or. Making a cameo, London blithely admits to killing people and taking their stuff. But she has changed. All is movement and change here, good movement and change, in contrast to the stasis and bland sterility beloved of The Woman and her city.

This second book is, though, not all focussed on the comic menace or on supernatural (superurban?) struggle. The avatars are ordinary people too, and Jemisin's portrayal of their bickering, of who fancies who and of the pressures on some - pressures from family, from legacies of abuse or even just from work (Padmini's lost a job and has the immigration service after her) is very well done, indeed the human detail really drives this plot rather than the city-ness and creates a level of reality that the Woman finds hard to wholly comprehend (though she seems fascinated by it, I think).

That's lots else. Brooklyn, goaded beyond endurance by the corruption and racism of the city authorities, campaigns for Mayor - giving Jemisin scope for some satirical scenes but also opening up the team to wider attack from political extremists in a subplot that very much exposes the underbelly of US politics and society. Manny calls in allies, and we learn a bit more about his history and background - also rooted in the Black American experience. And Aislyn is faced with choices she can't duck over what the Woman is doing to her beloved Staten Island.

Less hectic, perhaps, than the first book, and more considered, The World We Make still rises to a heart thumping climax. It's vividly written and has a glorious sense of place, and above all, of engagement with the complex issues and messy compromises that make a real city a place worth living in and indeed, fighting for. Jemisin's writing is gorgeously inventive, and I felt that she truly inhabits her characters.

Finally, just look at that design from Lauren Panepinto. It's not just pretty - in the right conditions, it does things. This is a book you need to hold in your hand, not just have on your e-reader...

N. K. Jemisin is one of the biggest name in the speculative fiction field and is one of the best contemporary authors. I love her and this book confirm my opinion and made me love her works more and more.
The World We Make is the follow up of The City We Became and the second part in this duology.
The City We Became was a book that i loved, it was powerful and gripping. This one met all my expectations and I was totally involved in the evolutions and reflection.
I read it slowly not because it's boring but because i felt a sort of emotional overcharge.
Well plotted, well written, gripping, thought provoking and highly entertaining.
One of the best book i read in 2022
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine