The City Born Great
NK Jemisin
OK, that was confusing...
It turns out that The City Born Great consists almost entirely of the prolog of The City We Became. It diverges at the very end, in a way that is incompatible with the plot of the latter, as far as I can figure out. Thus I am left uncertain how I am to understand this. Is it an alt-history version of the start of The City We Became? Something that happened in another universe? Or merely N.K. Jemisin not yet having figured out what story she wanted to tell?
If I were evaluating it as a story on its own, I would probably rate it higher. But as a part of Great Cities, it is just confusing and unnecessary.