The World We Make, N.K. Jemisin

 

The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin is the second book in the Great Cities Trilogy.

Started: 11/13/22
Completed: 11/20/22
Recommendation: Highly Recommended, especially the audio version
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

For starters, the audio version is simply wonderful with all the nuanced accents.  The story is excellent and the growth from the first book progresses well.  The characters (both large and small) make strides and come to a better understanding of themselves and each other.  I really enjoyed this insight into others who are so different from one-another but find common ground (literally) in New York city.  Jemisin does an excellent job of tying everything together which switching back and forth between perspectives and ways of thought.  It is a rich and enjoyable read.

The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin

The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin is the third book in The broken Earth series.

Started: 5/2/2020
Completed: 5/5/2020
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book is just fantastic.  It is so clear why this book won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.  The thoroughness of the development of this world is amazing.  The way that Jemisin gracefully links together story lines is amazing.  It is mildly jolting in a good way as each puzzle piece clicks into place and the richness of the design snaps into clarity.  Three books that are deliciously used to build a concept, a sense, of what it means to be human, a soul, or, better, just alive.

The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin is the latest new book by this author and I have enjoyed everything else she has written.  This book was read by Robin Miles and the audio production was amazing.

Started: 4/14/2020
Completed: 4/19/2020
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

mandala -- a symbol that holds significance for both Buddhist and Hindu religions.

Review:

For some reason, I really enjoy humanized concepts.  I enjoyed Piers Anthony's Incarnation of Immortality series.  I immediately felt comfortable with a person embodying a borough of New York.  I am not a New York fanatic...I stayed once in Queens in a school trip, but it was at night and a ton of us in a small house.  I do not pretend that I am a New York guy and I am sure that there are a lot of fun things about New York that went over my head (I had no idea that Staten Island was a borough of New York).  I happened to be in Manhattan when the bomb went off in the World Trade Center (I was staying in the hotel the night before), so I have a tiny, very short term perspective on Manhattan that is linked to a singular event.  I can remember standing in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral and being amazed at this Gothic style church somehow, inextricably linked to the sky scrapers that surrounded it.  I remember looking at the names in the cemetery, briefly, but not taking enough time to remember the details.

This book talks about the embodiment of New York.  There is an avatar for each borough and each avatar experiences New York differently.  The embodiment of the whole of New York is late to the story and is the only one to experience New York as a whole.  This is just a fun story of New York fighting off invasion from an extra dimension.

I think that there is tremendous value in listening to this book.  There was a lot of work that went into the audio version and it is truly a performance.

The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemisin

The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin is the second book in the Broken Earth series.

Started: 4/4/2020
Completed: 4/6/2020
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Wow.  This book tears apart relationships and defines the nature of relationships over and over.  This feels like a world that could really live.  It could really exist.  What a wonderful book.  A certain degree of horrifying, but a very interesting idea and a wonderfully well developed concept.

The idea of a sentient planet is interesting (I once read a book by Hoyle that had a sentient cloud that devoured stars).  The effect of the Moon on the world reminds me of The Three Body Problem and also the Helliconia series.

The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemison

The Fifth Season: Every age must come to an end by N. K. Jemisin was recommended on a list of good books.  This is the first book in the Broken Earth series and have enjoyed other books by Jemisin.

Started: 10/7/2019
Completed: 10/12/2019
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

redolent -- fragrant or sweet-smelling

spavined -- suffering from or affected by spavin.  Being of or marked by a decrepit or being broken-down condition.

Review:

Jemisin builds worlds that are starkly different from our current world, but introduces them so gradually with a pinch of this odd thing or a snippet of that alien concept that one does not even realize how unfamiliar this should all be.  Through this gradual introduction Jemisin has the reader buying into the world and its constructs without even having to think about how odd it is.  This ability to create a consistent and coherent world and then introduce it as though it were a familiar environment is an incredible execution of craft.

The Broken Kingdoms, N. K. Jemison

The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin is the second book in the inheritance trilogy.

Started: 2/5/2013

Completed: 2/13/2013

Recommendation:  Not as good as the first, but a book that stands on its own outside of the trilogy.

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Not quite as interesting as the first as the interplay with the Gods is less in an odd sort of way.  This book takes place 10 years after the previous book and looks at a largely new cast of characters.  The writing is still solid, but a lot of the novelty is lost.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin is a book I stumbled across in the audio section of the library while looking for something to occupy me during a long drive.

Started:  1/15/2013

Completed: 2/2/2013

Recommendation: Fun Read, worth the time

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

The female protagonist was nice and, frankly, the female characters seemed to dominate both the book and the story lines.  Most of the fantasy I read is swashbuckling male stuff, but it was nice to see a new angle.  Don't get me wrong, plenty of sword and sorcery remain for those who live on that, but there wasn't any "save the princess."  In some ways this story reminded me of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant in that the protagonist was weak.  In this story, however, the protagonist is compelling and her story doesn't leave you hating her (like Covenant).

A lot of the story focuses on mortals interacting with gods and the interactions are largely reduced to mortal comprehension.  The author gives a nod to this in the last chapters and offers a reasonable explanation although it was uncomfortable until the explanation was given.  I understand why the author waited, it was pretty necessary for the story, but it stretched my ability to suspend disbelief.

The prose was not compelling, but the audio version brought life to some dreary interactions and while it created some confusion when the protagonist was talking with herself (or sort of interacting with someone else in the future while treating the story as a retrospective) it could be confusing, I'm not at all clear how that could be clarified.