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The World We Make

N.K. Jemisin

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Similar in premise + setting

These books are ranked using the premise + setting labels extracted for The World We Make. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: living city, city avatars, cosmic threat, political resistance, multiverse conflict, anti-bigotry, urban struggle

Setting labels used: New York City, modern day, contemporary urban setting, global cities, multiverse, alternate reality

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + setting embeddings are close.

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The City We Became

N.K. Jemisin · 2020 · Great Cities

Five New Yorkers must unite as living embodiments of their city to protect New York from an ancient, interdimensional enemy.

Why this is here

Premise labels: living city · city avatars · city soul · defend the city · cosmic invasion · urban personification · coming together · identity crisis · birth of a city

Setting labels: New York City · contemporary setting · real-world setting · urban setting · borough-based · multi-dimensional · multiverse · alternate reality · modern-day New York · city-as-character

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1124

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The City Born Great

N.K. Jemisin · 2016 · Great Cities

A homeless Black queer artist in New York is chosen to help the city be born and defend it from ancient threats.

Why this is here

Premise labels: living city · sentient city · city birth · chosen midwife · reluctant guardian · avatar · ancient enemies · urban magic

Setting labels: New York City · modern day · urban setting · street-level reality

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1198

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Ex Machina, Vol. 3: Fact v. Fiction

Brian K. Vaughan · 2006 · Ex Machina

A superhero-turned-mayor navigates city crises, hidden pasts, and a city full of secrets in alternate New York.

Why this is here

Premise labels: superhero mayor · power and politics · vigilante past · public service · mystery conspiracy · alternate reality

Setting labels: modern-day real world · alternate New York City · post-9/11 · early 2000s · urban setting · alternate history · city politics

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1765

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Eight O'Clock in the Morning

Ray Faraday Nelson · 1963

A man who fully wakes from hypnosis sees hidden manipulators controlling society and must decide how to respond.

Why this is here

Premise labels: awakening · hidden truth · alien infiltration · mind control · subliminal control · conspiracy · secret society · resistance

Setting labels: contemporary society · urban public spaces · media-saturated world · Earth · present-day realism · alien-in-disguise reality

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1913

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The Unmapping

Denise S. Robbins · 2025

When New York's buildings begin shifting nightly, emergency workers, missing loved ones, and a city in crisis must adapt fast.

Why this is here

Premise labels: citywide disaster · moving city · inexplicable phenomenon · emergency response · missing person · bureaucratic crisis · social collapse · survival under chaos

Setting labels: New York City · near future · urban disaster · contemporary setting · alternate reality · surreal city · emergency services · climate-stressed world

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1923

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We Travel the Spaceways

Victor LaValle · 2021

A homeless man in New York follows messages from soda cans on a strange mission, then meets a trans runaway who changes everything.

Why this is here

Premise labels: homeless protagonist · trans runaway · hearing voices · cosmic mission · religious mission · possible delusion · marginalized outsiders · love story · faith and hope

Setting labels: New York City · contemporary urban · real-world setting · street-level life · marginalized city life · Earthbound speculative

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1939

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Deathbird Stories

Harlan Ellison · 2006

A linked collection of dark short fiction where modern gods, human cruelty, and myth collide in bleak, shocking tales.

Why this is here

Premise labels: modern gods · old gods · belief and divinity · god death · new gods · moral trial · human condition · urban terror

Setting labels: New York City · 1970s · urban America · future America · liminal reality · mythic reality · fantasy world · parallel realities

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1941

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Random Acts of Senseless Violence

Jack Womack · 1993 · Dryco

A privileged New York girl’s diary records her family’s fall as a near-future city and country unravel around her.

Why this is here

Premise labels: near-future collapse · urban breakdown · coming of age · class decline · social collapse · survival

Setting labels: near-future Manhattan · New York City · alternate reality · urban dystopia · civil unrest · economic collapse

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1959

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He

H.P. Lovecraft · 2014

A disillusioned newcomer to New York follows a mysterious guide into hidden streets and terrifying visions of the city’s true nature.

Why this is here

Premise labels: city alienation · mysterious stranger · forbidden knowledge · time vision · urban horror · supernatural guide

Setting labels: New York City · Greenwich Village · nighttime city · old streets · urban labyrinth · past and future visions · historical city layers

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1961

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The 22 Murders of Madison May

Max Barry · 2021

A journalist chasing a serial killer across nearly identical realities gets pulled into the multiverse herself.

Why this is here

Premise labels: multiverse chase · serial killer pursuit · obsessive love · alternate realities · reporter investigates

Setting labels: New York City · subway · open house · parallel universes · alternate realities · multiverse · slightly altered worlds

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1990

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Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements

Adrienne Maree Brown · 2015

A multi-author anthology of visionary speculative stories linking social justice movements to imagined futures of liberation.

Why this is here

Premise labels: social justice movements · radical imagination · visionary fiction · alternative futures · liberation politics · organizing · collective action · worldbuilding as activism · speculative resistance

Setting labels: near future · dystopian future · utopian future · alternate history · present day · other worlds · Detroit · Oakland · urban settings

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1997

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334

Thomas M. Disch · 1999

A fragmented near-future New York mosaic follows public-housing residents living under strict social, reproductive, and economic controls.

Why this is here

Premise labels: near-future dystopia · public housing · population control · social realism · linked episodes · urban underclass · government regulation · reproductive control · daily life in decline

Setting labels: near-future New York City · Manhattan · public housing project · urban dystopia · 2020s · future housing project · subsidized housing

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2003

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