City of Echoes

City of Echoes
Creative
Author	Judy I. Lin
Art by	Ashley Mackenzie (jacket illustrations)
Coloring by	Ashley Mackenzie (jacket illustrations)
Lettering by	Deena Micah Fleming (book design)
Publication
Issue	1
Publisher	Amulet Books
Date of publication	July 22, 2025
ISBN	978-1-4197-7604-5 978-1-4197-8050-9 (exclusive edition)
Series	Avatar Legends
Pages	320
Image gallery (1)

City of Echoes is the first novel in the Avatar Legends series, focusing on the life of Jin during the Hundred Year War and exploring events during the Coup of Ba Sing Se. It is written by Judy I. Lin and was released on July 22, 2025.

Overview

There is no war outside of these walls.

This is what the citizens of Ba Sing Se are told to believe, but Jin knows better. As a refugee whose parents were killed by the Fire Nation, she is haunted by her past. Now, she does her best to keep her head down in the Lower Ring, caring for her ailing grandfather and balancing school with survival. Her one bright spot is her best friend Susu, whose family treats Jin like one of their own, and whose bakery she helps make deliveries for.

Her world shatters when Susu’s father gambles away the bakery and Susu is forced to take a contract in the Upper Ring to pay off the family's debt. Jin vows to help her friend—no matter what it takes. A chain of events fueled by her desperate promise leads Jin to Xuan, an arrogant boy from the Middle Ring with ties to the Silver Fangs, a major player in the city’s black market. The deeper Jin delves into her double life, the more she learns about Susu's own entanglement in a conspiracy darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined.

As whispers swirl of the Avatar's presence within the city's walls, the Fire Nation creeps ever closer. With Ba Sing Se teetering on the brink of revolution, Jin must defy the powerful forces that control her city and risk everything for the friend she’s determined to save.

Chapters

Part One Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Part Two Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Part Three Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Chapter Forty Chapter Forty-One Chapter Forty-Two Chapter Forty-Three Chapter Forty-Four Chapter Forty-Five Chapter Forty-Six Chapter Forty-Seven Chapter Forty-Eight Epilogue

Production notes

Series continuity

• The book retcons Jin's background. According to the old Nickelodeon website, Jin's parents were refugees who moved to Ba Sing Se, and in the text can be interpreted as still being alive. In the book, Jin reached Ba Sing Se with only her grandfather, her parents dying in the burning of Daying.
• Jet's attack on the Pao Family Tea House is shown from Jin's perspective in the novel.
• Jin remembers that her parents had their first kiss at a fountain in Daying that looked just like Firelight Fountain in Ba Sing Se. This is a variation on the information given on the old Nickelodeon website, which said her parents often snuck out to go to Firelight Fountain as teenagers.
• All of Jin's appearances in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" are shown from her point of view in the novel.
• Following Jet's death in "Lake Laogai", a remembrance ceremony for him is shown from Jin's perspective. Smellerbee and Longshot's perspective on the events surrounding the aftermath of his death are also developed.
• The Dai Li base at Lake Laogai is flooded in the events of the novel. This is consistent with what Jinora finds during her spiritual projection in "In Harm's Way".
• After the Coup of Ba Sing Se, the Joo Dees become Supreme Bureaucratic Administrators, an idea first introduced in the comic "Going Home Again".
• Events surrounding the liberation of Ba Sing Se are shown from Jin's perspective.

Trivia

• The novel is the first in the Avatar Legends series, and thus also the first novel not be focused on an Avatar.
• Barnes & Noble released an exclusive edition of the book which includes a luxe cover with foil accents, a unique foil case stamp, and an eight-page behind the scene glimpse of the editorial process with Avatar Studios.
• Nancy Wu, who previously narrated the Chronicles of the Avatar series, narrates the audiobook edition of the novel.
• A preview was available on Indigo from June 24, 2025.
• Influences and inspiration for Judy I. Lin while writing City of Echoes include: F.C. Yee's Genie Lo books as well as his Chronicles of the Avatar novels, and Chinese historical dramas such as Love Like the Galaxy and The Story of Ming Lan.
• Judy I. Lin used Avatar Wiki as a resource to make a timeline of Jin's life while writing the novel.
• In an interview, Judy I. Lin stated that she changed Pao's name to Fung and changed his title from owner to manager in order to showcase classism between the Upper and Lower Rings.
• In an interview, Judy I. Lin talked about other ideas she pitched for this book. Among these, one included a story expanding on the Freedom Fighters in Yu Dao. She also mentioned she would like to write about Ty Lee, her time with her sisters, and how she learned chi-blocking.