Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - The World We Make

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin

10 reviews

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I really loved this sequel. My minor issue with it is that some aspects of it just kind of end a bit conveniently. Some parts, that’s amusing. Others, it felt like a slightly hastened storyline.

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quarkie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Gosh, reading this book reminded me why the previous one was also a 5 star read. Jemisin's writing is pure poetry. It has this amazing lyrical flow to it, such that it is easy to get lost in. I read this book in 2 days. It was amazing.

What I liked: Each character has such a strong point of view, and is so multi-dimensional. They feel so effortlessly real. Jemisin puts them in so many (terrible, awful, amazing, beautiful, human) true-to-life situations, and they respond in a way that feels both real and true to their characters. I feel like I know each character - not that I know a specific individual that is just like them, but they serve as true avatars of not only their boroughs but for their populations. So many of the thought processes and comments that characters make are so relatable, and I see them played out daily. Nothing in the book "just happens" - everything has a cause as well as an effect. The storylines are tight and pacing is great. And I just can't get over how beautifully written it was.

What I didn't like: I think my only complaint was that while some of the pop and political cultural references feel fresh now (in 2024), but I'm not sure how well some of them will age.

Concepts that will stick with me: In a way, this book personifies racism, xenophobia, and gentrification by turning it into a singular entity that can be taken on and beaten. This is a comforting thought. It explores the concept of "personality gentrification", or as I came to think of it, gentrification of the soul. It also deals with what happens what the gentrifier meets with gentrification. It also shows how someone can be seen as "nice" by one set of people (and actually be genuinely nice to them), but also participate in oppressive structures that hurt everyone, including the people they are nice to. It's a haunting exploration of the fragility of xenophobes (especially the well-meaning ones), and the mental and emotional work people have to put in to deal with that.

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salemander's review against another edition

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5.0

just as fun and entertaining as the first one! the world building and creation of these amazingly complex and interesting characters is incredible. the jokes were still a little cheesy but they helped keep what could be a very dark book at times a lot more hopeful.

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

4.5

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rainbowyeticorn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is the third book of the series. The first is a short story, which the following two books including this one being full length novels.

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soitis's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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pandact's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I’m sending this straight to Alex Kasman and MathFiction, because this is some quality speculative fiction! I’d say it’s four stars for literary content, leaving me fully satisfied, and five stars for my favorite audiobook production. The ambience and voice distortions gave me chills, and the narration pretty much voice acting (similar to The Original, but 100% less Audible)! It’s packed with scenes giving every beloved character a good payoff, and all the twists had satisfying, subtle hints that readers of the Broken Earth series will be familiar with. (I love seeing Padmini and Neek interact 🤩)

I liked the references to Lovecraftian lore (including the gory colors that I know from OSP), plus the witty pop culture and self-aware social justice. Most of all, the thing that this book excels at is the reason I love fiction: The Great Cities series is fantastic at giving you a new way of seeing the world. It flawlessly pulls off blending the real world with fictional battles, while also describing concepts from social justice with optimism. Thematically, it makes sense that almost every chapter is a different person as they all build a story, just like the cities of the world are built from the interaction of every person. The World We Make is well worth your time, and I’m going to spend money on it too since I promised myself I would if my favorite character made it (no spoilers)!

Similar stories: Middlegame, Wendell & Wild, Broken Earth, Lovecraft County

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zone_a3's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Although I love Jemisin's body of work as a whole, and I enjoyed The City We Became, this book missed the mark for me. I understand and sympathize when the author's expressed difficulties in tackling this series' premise given the state of the real world at the time of writing, but I would be lying if I didn't acknowledge that it clearly negatively impacted the book.

While there were certainly elements I enjoyed, (every glimpse at other Cities was excellent), when I look back at this book and compare it to its prequel, its faults become very apparent.

In Book 1, there is clear, pervasive, present danger. In Book 2, any time danger starts cropping up, it is immediately resolved with no consequences.
In Book 1, a lot of effort is made to humanize all sides of the conflict. Jemisin makes it very clear that the villain doesn't "turn people evil", but rather people with certain (bigoted, hateful) beliefs are susceptible to evil influence. Useful idiots, if you will. If the villain disappeared in Book 1, many of the problems facing the heroes would persist. In Book 2, however, this nuance is completely gone. Useful idiots have been replaced with brainwashed zombies; and when the villain is defeated, it magically fixes all of the massive institutional problems the heroes were facing.
A large portion of the conflict in this book stems from mature (in many cases, literally multiple centuries old) adults deliberately failing to communicate. This is attempted to be justified, but I don't think it worked.
And of course there's the issue of pacing and the unavoidable plot rush of crunching a planned trilogy down into a single (significantly shorter) sequel. There just wasn't time to explore the ideas Jemisin had set up in Book 1 before Book 2 was over. It really felt like we gasped over the finish line; or maybe more accurately, we stopped short and just moved the finish line up.

I've been really harsh in the spoiler tags, so I want to pull back a bit and reiterate that the book does have good qualities; it just wasn't what I've come to look for from Jemisin as an author.

If you are largely discouraged/depressed by the state of the world, and want to have a bit of escapism to a version of reality where bad people get what's coming to them and evil is an external force which can be defeated, you'll probably have a good time with this book. If you prefer a more difficult, nuanced view of humanity and the nature of evil, with fewer clean, easy answers, you're probably better off sticking with Jemisin's other works.

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grets_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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laguerrelewis's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

N.K. Jemisin does it again (is anyone surprised?)! I was both eagerly awaiting this installment to see what was next for these brilliant characters and incredibly imaginative world, but I had no clue how the story would pick up from its predecessor—and wrap things up in one go. Of course, however, Jemisin is not only a master of fiction, but is also a particular talent when it comes to sequels, and this is no exception. With our avatars more sure footed in their city-powers, the fun of this book comes in their found family dynamic and creative problem solving, which now takes on a grander scale to save the entire multiverse! It’s Epic, and an excellent final return to a fantastical NYC.

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