Book Brief – The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin
Like all great metropolises before it, when a city gets big enough, old enough, it must be born; but there are ancient enemies who cannot tolerate new life. Thus New York will live or die by the efforts of a reluctant midwife…and how well he can learn to sing the city’s mighty song. Book Blurb from Goodreads
N K Jemisin is another author that was on my to be read list. Whilst scrolling through Instagram, I noticed from an artful spread of new releases that she had a new book out. I read the synopsis and it sounded right up my street.
Adding it to ‘want to read’ on Goodreads , comments referenced a short story with a similar theme. Suffice to say, The City Born Great is a prequel to The City We Became due out in March 2020.
What would I do without the aid of social media
This short story (22 pages) explored the premise that cities are living breathing entities, which at a certain point in their lifecycle must be born to develop further.
This New York City is fully realised, vibrant and throbbing awaiting its birth, whilst the villains are doing their utmost to ensure it doesn’t happen. The plot mirrors current events of police brutality and the treatment of minorities and marginalised people. We follow the midwife who is skilled but untrained and doubtful about his requirement in this role.
It was a great opener, a prequel to a novel and for that reason, it’s 3 stars because the promise was there for a bigger story (as justified by the new book due in 2020) and it needed a few more pages to become fulfilling. As it is, it’s a teaser for greater things.
3 stars – Liked It
