Splendid news: N.K. Jemisin has a new series coming out! “This story is my chance to have a little monstrous fun after the weight of the Broken Earth saga, so I’m hoping readers will enjoy it, too,” she told Entertainment Weekly. The three-time Hugo Award winner’s next novel will be called The City We Became, and she just gave a preview of the synopsis to EW.
“The city of New York comes to life — literally, as in, the city has developed sentience and an ability to act on its own,” she told EW. “And because there’s a dangerous otherworldly tourist lurking about, trying to supernaturally gentrify the city to death, New York chooses five human champions to fight for it. Problem: they don’t know they’ve been recruited for a magical, interdimensional battle, although they figure it out pretty quickly when possessed toilet stalls attack, backyard pools turn into portals to monsterville, and traffic on the FDR becomes a literal, tentacled, killer.”
The novel is an expansion of her short stoy, The City Born Great, which you can read right here on Tor.com. Set in the same eldritch New York as The City We Became, it follows the city’s self-dubbed “midwife” as he tries to sing and paint its song.
The City We Became comes out March 24, 2020. Check out the book’s cover, and N.K. Jemisin’s thoughts on the art, over at EW.
