Listen free for 30 days
-
Perdido Street Station
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $57.02
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
You may also enjoy...
-
Kraken
- Written by: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.
-
-
Urban Fantasy Circus Ride
- By Anonymous User on 2019-09-22
Written by: China Mieville
-
The Shadow of the Torturer
- The Book of the New Sun, Book 1
- Written by: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" is one of speculative fiction's most-honored series. In a 1998 poll, Locus Magazine rated the series behind only "The Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit as the greatest fantasy work of all time.
-
-
My new favorite book series
- By Liam on 2021-02-14
Written by: Gene Wolfe
-
The City & The City
- Written by: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borl ú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined. Borl must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own.
-
-
Murder-mystery in a mind-bendingly original world
- By Blythe on 2018-04-14
Written by: China Mieville
-
Kings of Paradise
- Ash and Sand, Book 1
- Written by: Richard Nell
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 25 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ruka, called a demon at birth, is a genius. Born malformed and ugly into the snow-covered wasteland of the Ascom, he was spared from death by his mother's love. Now he is an outcast, consumed with hate for those who've wronged him. But to take his vengeance, he must first survive. Across a vast sea in the white-sand island paradise of Sri Kon, Kale is fourth and youngest son of the Sorcerer King. As the first prince ever forced to serve with low-born marines, Kale must prove himself and become a man, or else lose all chance of a worthy future, and any hope to win the love of his life.
-
-
Amazing! Richard Nell is a genius!
- By Ohi on 2021-06-04
Written by: Richard Nell
-
Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
- Written by: Thomas Ligotti, Jeff VanderMeer - foreword
- Narrated by: Jon Padgett, Linda Jones
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Ligotti’s debut collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and his second, Grimscribe, permanently inscribed a new name in the pantheon of horror fiction. Influenced by the strange terrors of Lovecraft and Poe and by the brutal absurdity of Kafka, Ligotti eschews cheap, gory thrills for his own brand of horror, which shocks at the deepest, existential, levels.
-
-
Great Narration and some fantastic stories
- By Jason Cameron on 2023-04-19
Written by: Thomas Ligotti, and others
-
Neuromancer
- Written by: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.
-
-
Narration was dreadful, book was excellent.
- By WarriorsDawn on 2018-12-06
Written by: William Gibson
-
Kraken
- Written by: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.
-
-
Urban Fantasy Circus Ride
- By Anonymous User on 2019-09-22
Written by: China Mieville
-
The Shadow of the Torturer
- The Book of the New Sun, Book 1
- Written by: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" is one of speculative fiction's most-honored series. In a 1998 poll, Locus Magazine rated the series behind only "The Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit as the greatest fantasy work of all time.
-
-
My new favorite book series
- By Liam on 2021-02-14
Written by: Gene Wolfe
-
The City & The City
- Written by: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borl ú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined. Borl must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own.
-
-
Murder-mystery in a mind-bendingly original world
- By Blythe on 2018-04-14
Written by: China Mieville
-
Kings of Paradise
- Ash and Sand, Book 1
- Written by: Richard Nell
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 25 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ruka, called a demon at birth, is a genius. Born malformed and ugly into the snow-covered wasteland of the Ascom, he was spared from death by his mother's love. Now he is an outcast, consumed with hate for those who've wronged him. But to take his vengeance, he must first survive. Across a vast sea in the white-sand island paradise of Sri Kon, Kale is fourth and youngest son of the Sorcerer King. As the first prince ever forced to serve with low-born marines, Kale must prove himself and become a man, or else lose all chance of a worthy future, and any hope to win the love of his life.
-
-
Amazing! Richard Nell is a genius!
- By Ohi on 2021-06-04
Written by: Richard Nell
-
Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
- Written by: Thomas Ligotti, Jeff VanderMeer - foreword
- Narrated by: Jon Padgett, Linda Jones
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Ligotti’s debut collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and his second, Grimscribe, permanently inscribed a new name in the pantheon of horror fiction. Influenced by the strange terrors of Lovecraft and Poe and by the brutal absurdity of Kafka, Ligotti eschews cheap, gory thrills for his own brand of horror, which shocks at the deepest, existential, levels.
-
-
Great Narration and some fantastic stories
- By Jason Cameron on 2023-04-19
Written by: Thomas Ligotti, and others
-
Neuromancer
- Written by: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.
-
-
Narration was dreadful, book was excellent.
- By WarriorsDawn on 2018-12-06
Written by: William Gibson
-
The Goblin Emperor
- Written by: Katherine Addison
- Narrated by: Kyle McCarley
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident", he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir. Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
-
-
Deliciously Deep Geek
- By Patricia on 2022-11-27
Written by: Katherine Addison
-
The Black Company
- Chronicles of The Black Company, Book 1
- Written by: Glen Cook
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hardbitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead - until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her....
-
-
'Adequate' Dark Military Fantasy - With A Twist
- By Langer MD on 2021-07-05
Written by: Glen Cook
-
Children of Time
- Written by: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
SF masterwork in the style of Brin or Vinge
- By Blythe on 2018-09-16
Written by: Adrian Tchaikovsky
-
Senlin Ascends: Booktrack Edition
- Written by: Josiah Bancroft
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Booktrack Edition: The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya. Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the illusions of the Tower.
-
-
good narration but slow start to the story
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-06-25
Written by: Josiah Bancroft
-
Diaspora
- Written by: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behold the orphan. Born into a world that is not a world. A digital being grown from a mind seed, a genderless cybernetic citizen in a vast network of probes, satellites, and servers knitting the Solar System into one scape, from the outer planets to the fiery surface of the Sun. Since the Introdus in the 21st century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software.
Written by: Greg Egan
-
Welcome to the Universe
- An Astrophysical Tour
- Written by: Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today's leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all - from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, wormholes, and time travel.
-
-
Excellent content... annoying narrator
- By mykey on 2019-04-03
Written by: Michael A. Strauss, and others
Publisher's Summary
Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
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.
What the critics say
Winner of the August Derleth Award
"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
More from the same
What listeners say about Perdido Street Station
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- FarSeer
- 2020-02-26
Imaginative triumph
One of the most imaginative books I’ve ever encountered. Filled with novel characters, ideas and poetics. Combining science, philosophy and a steam-punk type feel with exciting world building and a good story. The voice actor, too, was absolutely phenomenal. I will look for more books from both this author and this reader.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christopher Collins
- 2018-03-30
Disgusting
I gave it a try, but this isn't for me. Everything about the world created in this book is disgusting. From the first pages people are spitting everywhere, swimming in rotten water, oozing goop all over the place. The writing is a bit too vivid for me, and I found myself consistently grossed out and turning it off. I don't want to know about a world like that.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul J. Lane
- 2022-03-14
Not what I'd ordinarily read...
I blind picked this book as it was narrated by John Lee.
It takes a little while to get into but then is compelling.
Enjoy!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2021-08-16
Dark depressing yet consistently entertaining
Dark. Not for the faint of heart. Gritty to the point of obsession with filthy details. Over arching story line is constantly exciting, well fleshed, and satisfying however. The narrator is the best I have ever heard.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kate Franks
- 2021-07-05
Riveting and thought-provoking
This one was really hard to put down. I know I will be thinking about it for weeks to come. There are many complex characters and themes to consider.
I was surprised at who had the final word.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2021-04-14
loved it
Fantastic story, great narrator. One of my favourite authors telling a compelling story. The characters are diverse, complicated, and extremely unique.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Blythe
- 2020-01-08
Interesting but depressing and a bit confusing
China Miéville is a fantastic writer (literally, as well as figuratively) and I loved The City And The City in particular. This book however felt as if it was trying to do too much at once, and the result is a bit confusing. Miéville also clearly does not believe in happy endings; almost all the books I've read include a character (or more than one) coming to a sad ending that could, if the author have wanted, been written much more happily. This book's no exception and the end of some of the characters is fairly depressing. So... torn between four stars, for the amazing writing and imaginative setting, and three stars because it was just not an enjoyable or happy book in many ways.
New Crobuzon is a strange, mixed, alien city with many things left unexplained. A mix of "normal" humans and other races all live here together in the shadow of the ribs of some enormous dead creature that is never fully explained. The acceptable punishment for crimes appears to be to turn offenders over to be "remade", literally have their form changed to punish them. So convicted criminals may have limbs removed (or added), new body parts grafted on, unspeakable disfigurations, and often apparently just for the sadistic fun of those doing it. There's great poverty, massive corruption, and a strange magic system never entirely explained.
The book centers mainly around Isaac, a "scientist" studying chaos magic who is hired by a Garuda outlaw to try and restore the wings that were removed as a punishment for a past crime, and Lin, his non-human girlfriend who cannot speak (like all her insect race) and who is hired to create a statue of one of the most powerful drug lords in New Crobuzon. As Lin and Isaac get more deeply involved in their separate commissions they're initially pulled apart more, but then together again as the separate worlds they've been working in start to cross. Add in a somewhat confusing awakening of sapient robots and vicious mass-murdering slake moths that hypnotize their prey with mesmerizing wing patterns, and the whole plot gets quite complicated and probably longer than really necessary until it reaches a conclusive but deeply depressing end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2019-08-15
Worth Diving In
Many of the reviews I read on here before picking this up spoke negatively about how "gross" this book is, and honestly they're not wrong. Miéville describes the monstrous races of New Crobuzon with an unflinching scientific eye. Ever wanted to know how a bug-human hybrid woman has inter-species sex? Too bad, because Miéville is going to fill you in on the mechanics. While this kind of exploration sounds, and often is, rather off-putting, it's also undeniably interesting. Once you get past the initial 'ick' factor you begin to appreciate the fascinating ecosystem that is New Crobuzon.
Miéville's writing is generally excellent. His prose is often baroque and verbose, but in a way that complements the world and the story. Over the top phrases like "psychic effluvia" tend to be endearing rather than distracting. The characters are interesting and well rounded, and the world itself is rendered in ultra high definition. There's a literary depth and quality on display in Perdido Street Station that I don't usually expect from fantasy novels.
I found John Lee's narration to be a little much at first, as he seemed to be over-enunciating in an affected way, but I came to see that this was actually an apt interpretation of the written style. Lee's reading here is top-notch, particularly his dialogue, which really makes these characters jump off the page.
At the end of the day Miéville has created a strange and wondrous world that is worth diving into, not despite, but because of the disgusting abominations that await you there.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!