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Perdido Street Station Audiobook
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(3.00) - 21,339 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE AUGUST DERLETH AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARDS • A masterpiece brimming with scientific splendor, magical intrigue, and fierce characters, from the author who “has reshaped modern fantasy” (The Washington Post)
“[China Miéville’s] fantasy novels, including a trilogy set in and around the magical city-state of New Crobuzon, have the refreshing effect of making Middle-earth seem plodding and flat.”—The New York Times
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies.
Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.
The city is gripped by an alien terror. The fate of millions lies with a clutch of renegades. A reckoning is due at the city’s heart, in the vast edifice of brick and wood and steel under the vaults of Perdido Street Station.
It is too late to escape.
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"Perdido Street Station started out a bit slow for me. It is at least partially due to how foreign the world of Bas-Lag, and how much information about the world/city/races/etc. needed to be conveyed. Once the base information was passed on, we got to the meat of the story and things started moving. In the end, I quite enjoyed the story and will be interested to read more of this world."
— Bill (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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Primal awe and erudite references have always mingled in Miéville’s work—along with a healthy dose of pulp playfulness.
— The New Yorker -
Flawlessly plotted and relentlessly, stunningly inventive: a conceptual breakthrough of the highest order.
— Kirkus Reviews -
Perdido Street Station is brimming with enchantment. Written in intense, evocative prose, set in Dickensian New Crobuzon, peopled with characters of Boschian demeanor and diversity . . . the book flourishes and shuffles the conventions of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
— Tordotcom
Awards
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Winner of the 2001 Arthur C. Clarke Award
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Winner of the 2001 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel
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Finalist for the 2002 Hugo Award for Best Novel
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Nominated for the 2002 Locus Award Nominee
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Nominated for the 2001 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel
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Nominated for the 2002 Nebula Award for Best Novel
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Winner of Arthur C. Clarke Award
Perdido Street Station Listener Reviews
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" The text of Perdido Street Station has problems of focus, and a lack of reasonable conclusion (the conclusion doesn't work well on any level -- an unhappy ending that made sense would be O.K.) But on top of that, John Lee's read doesn't do the text justice at all. There's plenty of heavily ornate exposition of space and place and smell in the text, but the overwrought speaking of it only makes it feel all the more off-putting. There also cases of getting the tone all wrong. The Ambassador of Hell's voice echoes sound ridiculous, the Construct Council's avatar's waver is annoying, as is the fight between the Handlingers and the Moths, completely failing to identify a scene climax, and repeating elongated sounds and screams over and over. Its a difficult text to do justice, and the strange otherwordly things like the Weaver or the Moths are a challenge, but John Lee does not come close to meeting the challenge. "
— jrodman, 9/9/2015 -
" Narrator so annoying. "
— jrodman, 9/9/2015 -
" Amazing book, just takes a little effort to get through the first 1/3 "
— Bretton, 2/14/2014 -
" Well, I read this as part of a book group read and I have to say that this was disappointing. Mieville was really creative in creating this unique world, but in my opinion he was in dire need of an editor. I've heard it said that this book reads like he sat w/ a thesaurus next to him the whole time, and I have to say that I agree with that analogy. Deep down, underneath it all, I think there's an interesting story and I pushed on to find out what happened. Once I got there, I had to ask myself "what the?" It really made me wonder if I could've made better use of my time reading something that I would enjoy? Sorry. "
— Kathy, 1/24/2014 -
" Love this book so much. "
— Mike, 1/11/2014 -
" It's brilliant and it will probably spoil a lot of the lesser (but not altogether awful) offerings of the genre for the rest of your life. "
— Tpring, 10/9/2013 -
" I tried twice to read this novel because of Mieville's reputation, but it's just not happening. "
— Lynn, 2/5/2013 -
" A compelling story of friendship & betrayal among a variety of sentient and pseudo-sentient beings, set in an elaborately fantastic sci-fi world. Each Mieville book I read makes me a bigger fan. "
— Rick, 1/15/2013 -
" Too weird by half. Or maybe three-quarters. "
— Tom, 10/31/2012 -
" Good book. Takes a while to get started. "
— Joshua, 12/24/2011 -
" Fantastic piece of world building. The characters are fascinating and fairly deep, but nothing goes well for anybody. Sad, sad ending. "
— Stephen, 6/23/2011 -
" Sometimes a bit over-descriptive, contained some redundant and off-topic paragraphs or chapters (depending on what you want the book to be), but man, what a fantastic and tremendously strong ending. Also, the ambiance it portrays is great. "
— Tim, 4/6/2010 -
" Good concept, love the visual descriptions. I would love to see this made into a movie. "
— Finchnixer, 3/9/2010
About China Miéville
China Miéville is a British author and literary critic. He is best known for his books of speculative fiction, which won numerous awards, including three Arthur C. Clarke Awards, two British Fantasy Awards, and four Locus Awards for Best Fantasy Novel. His nonfiction includes October, a narrative history of the Bolshevik Revolution; the photo-illustrated essay London’s Overthrow; and Between Equal Rights, a study of international law. He has written for various publications, including the New York Times, the London Guardian, Conjunctions, and Granta, and he is a founding editor of the quarterly Salvage.
About John Lee
John Lee is the winner of numerous Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. He has twice won acclaim as AudioFile’s Best Voice in Fiction & Classics. He also narrates video games, does voice-over work, and writes plays. He is an accomplished stage actor and has written and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit. He played Alydon in the 1963–64 Doctor Who serial The Daleks.