
A 30-year-old white woman who lives with her parents on Staten Island. Aislyn Houlihan: the avatar of Staten Island.She can use mathematical imagination to change physical reality. Her first name means "she who sits on the lotus". A 25-year-old Tamil immigrant graduate student living in Queens. Padmini Prakash: the avatar of Queens.She is the oldest of the six avatars and thus the holder of the city's lexicon of knowledge.


She has a PhD, a hot temper, and a son, and works at the Bronx art center.

The City We Became takes place in New York City, in a version of the world in which major cities become sentient through human avatars. It was developed from her short story "The City Born Great," first published in her collection How Long 'til Black Future Month? It is her first novel since her triple Hugo Award-winning Broken Earth series and the first in her Great Cities series, followed by The World We Make, released in November 2022. The City We Became is a 2020 urban fantasy novel by N.
