The Last Days of New Paris

By: China Miéville

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

A thriller of war that never was - of survival in an impossible city - of surreal cataclysm. In The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville entwines true historical events and people with his daring, uniquely imaginative brand of fiction, reconfiguring history and art into something new. 

"Beauty will be convulsive...." 

It's 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer - and occult disciple - Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. 

It's 1950. A lone surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts - and by the forces of hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. 

But Sam is being hunted. And new secrets will emerge that will test all their loyalties - to each other, to Paris old and new, and to reality itself.

Praise for The Last Days of New Paris

“Beautiful, stunningly realized... [The Last Days of New Paris] is a brief vacation in alien latitudes, a midnight layover in an imaginary place.” (NPR)

“A thoughtful, highbrow novella... Miéville’s self-assured style offers up a strong sense of humanity, while the strange Surrealist monsters give Last Days a fun and complementary mad-science component.” (USA Today)

“[A] testament to the necessary, progressive power of art... Both moving and disturbingly timely.” (Newsday)

“A novel both unhinged and utterly compelling, a kind of guerrilla warfare waged by art itself, combining both meticulous historical research and Miéville’s unparalleled inventiveness.” (Chicago Tribune)

“An extraordinarily original work that foregrounds Mieville’s considerable ingenuity and innovation.” (The Millions)

“Hauntingly poetic, strangely beautiful, and erratically intense.” (San Francisco Book Review)

“Dazzling...quite a feat.” (The Guardian)

©2016 China Miéville (P)2016 Random House Audio

Can living artwork die?

Can it live before it dies?
-- China Miéville, The Last Days of New Paris

As a reader who is drawn to art as much as to books, Miéville novella came as a messy, strange treat. The concept is relatively simple. Imagine a New Paris transformed in 1941, by "virtue" of an occultish weapon to fight the Nazis, into a ghetto where Nazi's and French Resistance continue their battles into the 50s along side Surreal artist and Surreal art that has been made living. Oh, and the forces of Hell are also involved in this battle for Paris.

"...a figure with the head of a singing bird, its body a clock with the pendulum swinging, its legs a mass of fish tails dearly done in pen and ink. A sketched out bear face on a coffin, walking on clown feet. A mustached man, rendered as if by a child, his body a buxom leopard's, rooted like a plant. Exquisite corpses, tasting new wine."

It wouldn't be a Miéville novel if he didn't twist and shove even this funky idea into grotesque and quirky corners. It wasn't a great Miéville, but it was still fascinating. Here is a man, built by God or Demon, to create new, weird worlds. Miéville is someone who can read Anne Vernay and Richard Walter's La Main à plume : Anthologie du surréalisme sous l'Occupation and perhaps a couple more books on Surrealist art during the War years and mix it with a bit of Nazi occultism, and BOOM! -- here is your book Del Rey. I think CM is one of the more exciting voices in SF in the 21st century. He is constantly pushing for new ideas, bring in radical politics, philosophy, art, and turn them into stories that are fresh.

He is one SF writer who I find myself buying each new book he publishes new. There are only a handful of living writers who I do that for. That alone, is probably all the review you need.

Art lovers this is a weird one

Stared listening to this book in a long drive
I have many books and just clicked on this without reviewing it info. So I stared it without a clue and it took a while to get into but once I understood the premise it became fascinating
Surrealist art becoming animated after some sort of explosion and an alternate ending to wwII you must listen to the after

Not great

About halfway through I decided that I was tired not understanding just what the hell was being discussed and took to the internet to find out. Turns out that the print version comes with notes that explain things for those of us that aren't art history majors. Without them, so much is just incomprehensible.

Even with that knowledge, the story is greatly hampered by it being a novella. It's rushed and feels more like a concept given a cop-out ending so it could be printed. Not his best by far.

Dada,surrealism, and anti fascism!

So this books hits all the right things for me: surrealism, antifascism, weird fiction, the occult, ect. The writing is the normal amazing China m quality and the story fascinating and fast moving. If you don’t have an interest or background knowledge in dada and surrealism and Marxism this might be a bit less exciting of a book, but I loved it, a lot

No Weirdness

The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville was not his best work. I didn't favor or hated the overall story. It was about art and the Nazi. There wasn't much to get into because there was no weirdness unlike his other novels. It was just okay. There was no high points. The Living Artwork and UFO was cool, but not as cool as I like.

I liked it.

The blurb above made me think that Mieville might be branching out farther than he has here. It is undeniably a China Mieville book, with glorious prose, a deep love of the language, and tendencies towards the grotesque.

Solid reader, good handle on accents, characters, and didn't step on any of the rhythm changes. Would listen again.

Not for everyone, but what is?

First China Mieville novel I've disliked

Maybe if you're an art history buff with a penchant for fighting Nazis, this works for you. but a little too far off the main roads for my taste

No fun

Just not my cup of tea. No character development, and my unfamiliarity with surrealist art and exquisite corpses did not help.