Perdido Street Station

By: China Mieville

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins

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.

©2003 China Mieville (P)2009 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

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

Dark and Grusome

What did you love best about Perdido Street Station?

The characters were a product of their environment.

What other book might you compare Perdido Street Station to and why?

This book was unlike anything I have read before. Box Trolls. I could see a clay-mation version of this story. It would take a century to make, and it would have the same feel as Box Trolls.

Have you listened to any of John Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I found myself sitting in my driveway, finishing a chapter, a few times. That is uncommon for me.

Any additional comments?

A great book, read by an eloquent man. What more could you ask for while commuting?

Fascinating Nightmare World

I read this book several times, buying the Audiobook to enjoy the familiar story in a new format. day whst you will about Mieville's excessive word count, he truly creates his fictional world, the bits that seem excessive to the storyline filling in details that add to how real a place New Crobuzon becomes in the mind of the reader. The narration was sufficiently upper crust sounding to fit the verbose gravity of the story. This is no easy listen, the story has so many layers and facets to it. Choice, government, crime and punishment, technology, religion, science, relationships, society, culture and more are the themes of this dystopiam tale. Mieville has created so many different races and types of peoples. it's fascinating....I highly recommend this book.

Great Story

one of my favorite stories. china Mieville found a niche when he wrote these stories. not sure which is my favorite Bas Lag novel of the three. I really hope he finds more tales to tell.of that fascinating place.

Brilliant

An amazing creation—the vivid sense of a place more real than most real-world places I have been.

Better than the print version

As astonishingly brilliant as the book is, I enjoyed this version far more. Mesmerizing.

Pricy but "most excellent"

Well I still hate the 2 credit for one book but I read this book years ago and I really enjoyed listening to it and, "in my humble opinion," the narrator is top notch. I actually believe I'll re-listen to this several times.

The New Weird

An excellent book and excellent narration. One of the freshest novels I have read in a long time, chock full of imagination and intricate world building.
While I agree that Audible's files are flawed, this is not a forum for tech support. Contact Audible directly.

favorite book

If you enjoy it, read it/listen to it twice. you'll appreciate it even more the second time. I read it first and wanted to reread it but I loaned my copy to a friend and couldn't get it back bc of Covid 19 so I started a free audible trial specifically to listen to it. the worldbuilding is amazing, the themes are brilliant. the writing is dense but I actually don't mind it at all. the ending is crushing. the weirdness will win you over.

when the story is too much for the reader

this was one of the most imaginative stories I have ever read/heard. the narrator, while not terrible, never seemed to be able to grasp the enormity of the ideas in this story. everything was presented equally almost monotonously; the slow descriptive parts of the story read just like the fast paced action parts, in which there were many. overall it was an amazing story in a fantastic world. although at more than one point I thought I would prefer to read instead of listen.

love this series must read

I own this series and have been reading it know for years. but to be able to sit and listen to the story brought whole new experience and joy to this world