Travel Documents 83: New York 2140
Genre: Near Future, Adventure, Hopepunk, social justice, ecological justice
The Dust Cover Copy
As the sea levels rose, every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island. For the residents of one apartment building in Madison Square, however, New York in the year 2140 is far from a drowned city.
There is the market trader, who finds opportunities where others find trouble. There is the detective, whose work will never disappear -- along with the lawyers, of course.
There is the internet star, beloved by millions for her airship adventures, and the building's manager, quietly respected for his attention to detail. Then there are two boys who don't live there, but have no other home -- and who are more important to its future than anyone might imagine.
Lastly there are the coders, temporary residents on the roof, whose disappearance triggers a sequence of events that threatens the existence of all -- and even the long-hidden foundations on which the city rests.
The Scene
Worldbuilding
As the City has risen out fire and flood before, so She rises out of deep flood waters with new problems and new tricks up her sleeve. Set against a backdrop of world-wide change and climate adaptation, the worldbuilding is full of tech that's just around the corner, applied in fascinating and clever ways. It's got tons of new social and legal situations, all of them interesting. It's a powerful and complex setting, new and yet very true to the indominable spirit of New York herself. In a very real way, you can see this scenario happening.
I appreciate this work for its powerful message: we'll never fix all the problems. But day by day, we can make changes for the good. In that spirit, New York has three classifications for buildings and housing: Underwater, Intertidal, and Dry. New tricks have been created for making buildings watertight. New ways of taking care of each other have come up: co-op living, garden floors feeding the tenants in every residential building. New York's new nickname is The Super-Venice. In this book, there is a history of some very bad years behind the old gal, but things are getting better... and now the rich who fled the city are wandering back to buy up real-estate again.
The real-estate they abandoned, and the New Yorkers and the Water Rats fought to save. Made watertight. Turned into city farms, building co-ops, and safe places to live.
Are the everyday people going to let it happen?
To use a Newyorkism: Fuck they will! Fuck outta here!
The Crowd
Characterization
The cast of characters has a little bit of everything, and a lot of fun. There's the tough and hard-working Vlade, absolutely focused on his work keeping his beloved building from melting into the drink...but nursing a longtime love in a subtle, awkward way. There's a futures trader nursing a new romance with no subtlety at all. He thinks he's slick, and he is not. That's weirdly endearing. There's two adventurous treasure-hunting kids and their grandfatherly friend the historian. There's the hard-bit cop with heart of gold, the two everyday guys with big dreams and some amazing skills, and a whole cast of wonderful characters. They can be a little tropey at times, but they draw you into their very relatable lives and show you just how we could live, work, and make a difference in all our myriad ways, with all our myriad abilities.
The Lingo
Writing Style
I'm torn about how to describe this style. The story really is great. It's evocative, powerful, full of wonderful descriptions...when it's being told. Unfortunately the author has two bad habits: he thinks that dropping random bits of New York history into the storyline is a way to draw you in--it isn't, it's distracting--and that long discursive sections from 'the Citizen' where he gets to philosophize at length and with relish is a good idea. It isn't. It's only saved from being insufferable by the author's larding of sidelong humor, self-conscious fourth-wall breaking jokes about the reader getting annoyed with info-dumps, and New York patois into these sections. I see what the author's trying to do, make this book edutainment that's as much a lesson as a good read...but if I hadn't been listening to the audiobook and really enjoying the narration, I probably would have skipped these sections. And being yanked bodily out of an engaging story to hear about the execution of poor Topsy the elephant or a New York fire got on my nerves.
The Moves
Plot
Leaving aside the info-dumping, this story is a wonderful 'what if', setting up wonderfully crazy circumstances in a perfectly believable way that leads you on to a powerful, triumphant denouement. It's a wonderful work to read in dark times; it tells us there will be a dawn.
Overall Rating
A fun, energetic, and enjoyable read, ending on the rudely loving note of, 'Yeah. Fucking New York.' Grab your copy and make your day better.