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

"Jemisin is one of the most highly decorated writers in fantasy and science fiction today."
 —New York Times/Ezra Klein Show

"Jemisin molds real world events from the past few years with magic and myth into this fantastical page-turner. If The City We Became is a love letter to New York City, then The World We Make is a love song."
 —USA Today

"The kind of book you lose an entire day to...and emerge shaken and dazzled on the other end. The writing is clear and visceral and intense. It’s some of the most brilliant, unapologetic speculative fantasy I’ve read in years."—Washington Post

"Hopeful and enthralling, The World We Make is more evidence of [Jemisin's] ferocious talent."—Esquire

"Jemisin brings her living-city saga to a satisfying conclusion, maintaining a sense of energy and excitement throughout."—Booklist

"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."—Kirkus

"The conclusion to Jemisin’s Great Cities duology is a searing commentary on present-day politics as manipulated by a primordial evil...This riveting and powerful urban fantasy duology is masterfully written."—BuzzFeed News

"Jemisin explores resistance and identity through magic and myth, expertly crafting a world in which contemporary concerns are met with catharsis."

"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."

One of the most celebrated new voices in epic fantasy.

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.

The most important speculative writer of her generation...She's that good.

"The City We Became is a masterpiece of eldritch urban fantasy.

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.

"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.

Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold.

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.

As always, Jemisin's writing is visionary and immersive...[Jemisin is] a science-fiction/fantasy GOAT.

"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.

Thrillingly expansive without ever becoming abstract or high-flown.

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.

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.

★ 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

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

★ 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.