I sing the city

September 28, 2016 1:09 PM

The City Born Great, short fiction by Hugo Award winner N. K. Jemisin.
posted by Artw (10 comments total)

Oooh, N. K. Jemisin! I'm just in the middle of reading her The Fifth Season, which I am absolutely loving. Very much reminds me of Octavia Butler, with that punch-in-the-gut mixture of intimacy and cruelty, suffering and survival.
posted by LMGM at 1:27 PM on September 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

I've only read the first book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, in N.K. Jemisin's The Inheritance Trilogy. It was brilliant and brutal and heart-breaking. But I needed a break from that trilogy because the first book was so draining emotionally and mentally. This is a good reminder that I need to go back and explore her works again. But after I read Alan Moore's Jerusalem, so probably some time in February of next year.

*sighs*
posted by Fizz at 4:05 PM on September 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

Heh. "BRB after I scale Everest".

Fifth Season is excellent, BTW. But the start of a trilogy again.
posted by Artw at 4:07 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ugh, too many amazing books, so little time, why must they keep writing, WHY1?!
posted by Fizz at 4:28 PM on September 28, 2016

I'd call this masturbatory, but's that criticizing other famous, older, better written masturbatory works about New York City. Girls, for instance.
posted by Sphinx at 4:44 PM on September 28, 2016

Sphinx, would you be willing to elaborate?
posted by ShawnStruck at 8:14 PM on September 28, 2016

I saw her read this live at the Seattle Public Library this summer. She killed.
posted by RakDaddy at 8:40 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Lovely story. Yankee anime.
posted by Devonian at 12:44 AM on September 29, 2016

Interesting short. The mood reminds me very much of "A Tale of Two Cities" from the DC Sandman series.
posted by theony at 1:24 AM on September 29, 2016

Companion pieces from Edge: Geoffrey West on analogues of biological growth in cities and corporations; and Monica Smith on infrastructure as dialogue.
posted by TreeRooster at 4:59 AM on September 29, 2016 [3 favorites]