The City Born Great

A Tor.com Original

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Landon Woodson

“Landon Woodson's captivating singing opens this stand-alone short story...Woodson's agile and engaging narration makes listeners wary of the ominous threats and feel all the anticipation for the battle to come." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner)

In this stand-alone short story by N. K. Jemisin, author of The Fifth Season, winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, New York City is about to go through a few changes.

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.

"The City Born Great" is a Tor.com original.

©2916 N. K. Jemisin (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Poetry

This is essentially the first chapter of The City We Became. Its performed well and has a lot of action. If you already read The City We Became, you can probably skip this as there is very little new. However, if a trilogy of books about anthropomorphic urban sprawls and ancient horrors sounds a little daunting start here. Get your feet wet. Get swept up in the lyrical quality of Jemisin's narrative and 3 dimensional diverse characters.. Jemisin is one of the greatest authors of her generation. I recommend. The narrator is just a bad ass.

A City for Our Times

Heroic in a novel way. I enjoyed the entire trilogy and would have learning more about this intrepid band.

What a wonderful short listen

The voice actor did a phenomenal job sucking you into the stores at the very beginning. Great little story And very well written

Less a Short Story or Novella than a Poem

Billed as a necessary prelude to The City We Became by Hugo Award Winner N. K. Jemison, this work reads more like Performance Art.

I’m not a big fan of Sci-Fi or Fantasy but its New York theme intrigued me so I gave it a try. I’m not sure I completely followed what was going on but the Author created an atmosphere that drew me in. I enjoyed this short work and may give the next one a try.

Beautiful prose, unique story, excited for more!

This is a short story prequel to The City We Became. It was a wonderful, twisty-turny adventure with heart.