
The City We Became
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Narrated by:
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Robin Miles
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By:
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N. K. Jemisin
About this listen
Three-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times best-selling author N.K. Jemisin crafts her most incredible novel yet, a "glorious" story of culture, identity, magic, and myths in contemporary New York City.
In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power.
In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her.
In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.
And they're not the only ones.
Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six.
For more from N. K. Jemisin, check out:
The Inheritance Trilogy
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
- The Broken Kingdoms
- The Kingdom of God
- The Inheritance Trilogy (omnibus edition)
"Shades in Shadow: An Inheritance Triptych" (e-only short fiction)
The Awakened Kingdom (e-only novella)
Dreamblood Duology
- The Killing Moon
- The Shadowed Sun
- The Dreamblood Duology (omnibus)
The Broken Earth
The Fifth Season
The Obelisk Gate
The Stone Sky
How Long 'til Black Future Month? (short story collection)
"A glorious fantasy." (Neil Gaiman)
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Excellent.
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Don't waste the credit
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Critic reviews
"A love/hate song to and rallying cry for the author's home of New York... Fierce, poetic, uncompromising." (Kirkus, starred review)
"The City We Became is a wonderfully inventive love letter to New York City that spans the multiverse. A big middle finger to Lovecraft with a lot of heart, creativity, smarts and humor. A timely and audacious allegorical tale for our times. This book is all these things and more." (Rebecca Roanhorse, author of Trail of Lightning)
"It's a glorious fantasy, set in that most imaginary of cities, New York. It's inclusive in all the best ways, and manages to contain both Borges and Lovecraft in its fabric, but the unique voice and viewpoint are Jemisin's alone." (Neil Gaiman)
"Some of the most exciting and powerful fantasy writing of today... Jemisin's latest will attract...even those who don't typically read genre fiction." (Booklist, starred review)
Featured Article: The best audiobooks about aliens for curious humans
Throughout the history of storytelling, we humans have been curious about the possibility of worlds beyond Earth and its inhabitants. Thanks to our endless fascination with extraterrestrial life, there is a mountain of literature, from novels to memoirs, exploring the potential outcomes of interacting with creatures from other planets. Without further ado, here are 20 of our favorite listens about alien life.

Editor's Pick
Don't mess with New York
"So many writers and creators have attempted and brilliantly succeeded at the city-as-character trope, and New York has been featured heavily in these stories—but how many writers can say they literally made New York a sentient being? Wait—don’t think about that too much: just start listening and experience how Jemisin drops you into this wonderfully weird, wild new fantasy series as if you were arriving for the first time in this bewildering and amazing city itself. I love her ability to adapt her unique voice to any story she tells, and this one—fast-paced, surreal, a little jaded—felt so quintessentially New York, I swear wore a permanent grin for the first few chapters. I didn’t really need a reason to get hyped about this new series beyond the fact that it existed—but as a born-and-raised New Yorker, Jemisin has written the love letter to my city that my weird little nerdy heart didn’t even know it yearned for."—Sam D., Audible Editor
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The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
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The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
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Moonglow
- A Novel
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Moonglow unfolds as the deathbed confession, made to his grandson, of a man the narrator refers to only as "my grandfather". It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and desire and ordinary love, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact - and the creative power - of the keeping of secrets and the telling of lies.
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Wonderful novel, terrible narrator
- By Joyce M. Bernheim on 12-30-16
By: Michael Chabon
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The Terror
- A Novel
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Tom Sellwood
- Length: 28 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The men onboard HMS Terror have every expectation of finding the Northwest Passage. When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the Terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape.
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Very good then, NOT
- By Randall on 07-24-18
By: Dan Simmons
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How Long 'Til Black Future Month?
- Stories
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Shayna Small, Gail Nelson-Holgate, Robin Ray Eller, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights listeners with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.
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Great! One quibble with the audiobook editing
- By L on 03-05-19
By: N. K. Jemisin
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The Power
- By: Naomi Alderman
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Power, the world is a recognizable place: There's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: They can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.
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A necessary read
- By Grace on 11-22-17
By: Naomi Alderman
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A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
- A Novel
- By: C. A. Fletcher
- Narrated by: C. A. Fletcher
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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My name's Griz. I've never been to school, I've never had friends, and in my whole life I've not met enough people to play a game of football. My parents told me how crowded the world used to be, before all the people went away. But we were never lonely on our remote island. We had each other and our dogs. Then the thief came.
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Ah, NOT for animal lovers!
- By Evert on 10-19-19
By: C. A. Fletcher
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The Ten Thousand Doors of January
- By: Alix E. Harrow
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place. Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure, and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world, and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.
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A princess in a castle can't fend for herself
- By Summer on 11-11-19
By: Alix E. Harrow
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Death of the Author
- A Novel
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Liz Femi, Anthony Oseyemi, Jason Culp, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative—a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you’ve seen before.
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Her best yet?
- By Emily on 01-22-25
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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Nightbloom
- By: Peace Adzo Medie
- Narrated by: Jessica Sarkodie, Ekua Ekumah, Sarah Dorgbadzi
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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When Selasi and Akorfa were young girls in Ghana, they were more than just cousins; they were inseparable. Selasi was exuberant and funny, Akorfa quiet and studious. They would do anything for each other, imploring their parents to let them be together, sharing their secrets and desires and private jokes. Then Selasi begins to change, becoming hostile and quiet; her grades suffer; she builds a space around herself, shutting Akorfa out.
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Unique but universal
- By Carly on 09-04-23
By: Peace Adzo Medie
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The Ministry for the Future
- A Novel
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.
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Great ideas, uneven narration
- By depthpsychologist on 12-09-20
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Strange the Dreamer
- By: Laini Taylor
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around - and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old, he's been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.
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Great until the ending
- By Shane A. McGarry on 10-23-17
By: Laini Taylor
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The Conductors
- By: Nicole Glover
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Hetty Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, were Conductors on the Underground Railroad, ferrying dozens of slaves to freedom with daring, cunning, and magic that draws its power from the constellations. With the war over, those skills find new purpose as they solve mysteries and murders that White authorities would otherwise ignore. In the heart of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward, everyone knows that when there’s a strange death or magical curses causing trouble, Hetty and Benjy are the only ones who can solve the case.
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Very Good
- By Mother of Pearl 3 on 08-01-21
By: Nicole Glover
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Strange Practice
- By: Vivian Shaw
- Narrated by: Suzannah Hampton
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Greta Helsing has inherited the family's highly specialized and highly peculiar medical practice. She treats the undead for a host of ills - vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights, and entropy in mummies. It's a quiet, supernatural-adjacent life until a sect of murderous monks emerges, killing human and undead Londoners alike. As terror takes hold of the city, Greta must use her unusual skills to stop the cult if she hopes to save her practice - and her life.
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Keep Google open while you read
- By Christine Ehren on 02-23-18
By: Vivian Shaw
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The Wolf in the Whale
- By: Jordanna Max Brodsky
- Narrated by: Jordanna Max Brodsky
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping tale of clashing cultures, warring gods, and forbidden love: In AD 1000, a young Inuit shaman and a Viking warrior become unwilling allies as war breaks out between their peoples and their gods - one that will determine the fate of them all.
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A Craftily Woven Tale
- By Sarah C Sage on 08-04-20
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The Wrong Unit
- A Novel
- By: Rob Dircks
- Narrated by: Rob Dircks
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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I don't know what the humans are so cranky about. Their enclosures are large, they ingest over 1,000 calories per day, and they're allowed to mate. Plus, they have me: an Autonomous Servile Unit, housed in a mobile/bipedal chassis. I do my job well: keep the humans healthy and happy.
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Futuristic journey without a single misstep
- By Julie W. Capell on 10-03-16
By: Rob Dircks
Admittedly the main idea of this book is wonderful. N.K Jemisin suggests in this novel that cities are multidimensional ententies. Cities like New York have so much history, so much vibrancy so much metaphorical life flowing through their streets that they litterally come to life and manifest an avatar, a personification of what the city is as a whole.
Doing so, however, wipes out and destroys alternate universes where the city presumably doesn't exist or something else exists in its place. This means cities being "born" are vunerable to attack from extra-dimensioanal ententies.
In short, N.K. Jemisin is mixing H.P. Lovecraft with every novel/play/song where the location plays a big role. In theory its a wonderful idea. In practice its very heavy handed as to what constitutes a healthy city and what doesn't. In short, gentrification universally bad, "real" New York good.
Tearing down the old to make way for the new is seen as suspicious at least, dangerous at worst. Never mind the fact that in New York what constitutes as old or new is up for considerable debate. The author picked a date and decided anything more recent wasn't the real New York. Every child does this with the place that they grow up in, hating the changes, good or bad, that inevitably come to a place they love with nostalgic intensity. I suppose New Yorkers are no exception.
Much of what Jemisin says makes sense. For example unique, "family owned" coffee shops making way for corporate soulless Starbucks is literally the sign of the apocalypse. Similarly anything xenophobic, racist or hateful in any way is posionious to the city as a whole. This last statement is one no sane person would disagree with, but the way this idea is shoved into our faces without subltly leaves something to be desired.
Finally, is it just me or is anyone else slightly insulted that New York is the first city in America to come to life? What about Salem, Massachusetts? Or Jamestown, Virginia? Or hell why not the capital of the freaking country, Washington D.C? Aren't there cities in America older than New York with equally diverse cultures and rich histories? New York may be important but it ain't the only game in town.
Heavy handed
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Wonderful story, amazing production
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Amazing performance !
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Robin Miles' Narration was top notch and her ability to inhabit each character so fully was astounding!
The whole premise of the book is very timely in every way and I cannot wait for the next in the series!
I bought this as an Audiobook to listen to when I was driving and after having to pull over to shout at my car speakers I decided I might want to listen to it in a safer space!
I actually need to read this in print or on my Kindle, but Robin Miles voices will inhabit my head when I do!
Wow and Wow! Thank you For Another Special Series
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N.K Jemisin is the fantasy reader you have to read
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So good
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Exceptional
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Loved It!
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Jemisin gets New York
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I believe n.k. jemisin is one of the greatest sci fi authors of the times. I look forward to many more words from her prolific genius
incredible performance
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