Perdido Street Station
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Perdido Street Station
Buy Now for £15.07
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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By:
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China Miéville
About this listen
Read by the incredible John Lee
Winner of the August Derleth award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Perdido Street Station is an imaginative urban fantasy thriller, and the first of China Miéville's novels set in the world of Bas-Lag.
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering world. Humans and mutants linger in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the rivers are sluggish with unnatural effluent, and factories and foundries pound into the night. For more than a thousand years, the parliament and its brutal militia have ruled over a vast array of workers and artists, spies, magicians, junkies and whores. Now a stranger has come, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand, and inadvertently something unthinkable is released. Soon the city is gripped by an alien terror – and the fate of millions depends on a clutch of outcasts on the run from lawmakers and crime-lords alike.
The urban nightscape becomes a hunting ground as battles rage in the shadows of bizarre buildings. And a reckoning is due at the city's heart, in the vast edifice of Perdido Street Station. It is too late to escape.
Critic reviews
John Lee, adds to the story with his incredible narration. Brings everyone to life in such a unique way. I’ll simply listen to any books he’s narrated, because he is so incredible.
The characters are equally compelling, especially Lin. Her perspective brings emotional depth and vulnerability to the story, and her struggles with identity, love, and artistic expression are just as gripping as the larger events unfolding around her. Isaac and the supporting cast are flawed, intelligent, and deeply human, which makes their choices carry real weight.
The story begins at a deliberate pace, allowing the world to fully form, and then surges forward in the second half with intensity and momentum. The ending is incredible, surprising yet satisfying, and lingers long after the final page.
Beyond its plot, the novel explores themes of freedom, exploitation, transformation, and the cost of knowledge. It examines power structures, capitalism, artistic creation, and what it means to change, whether by choice or by force. The characters are often caught between ambition and responsibility, love and self interest, progress and destruction.
Miéville’s prose is fantastic. It is dense, imaginative, and precise, capturing both the grotesque and the sublime. This is definitely a book I will read again and again!
Incredible narration on a 5 star novel
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