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Audiobook Review: THE CITY & THE CITY by China Mieville, narrated by John Lee

The audiobook of The City & The City by China Mieville, produced by Random House Audio, and read by John Lee was delightful. For years now I’ve loved China’s writing, which is complex, rich, and very weird. The City & The City is all of these things, but much more accessible than his previous work. The familiarity of the overlying murder mystery plot helps to make China’s mind-twisting cities comprehensible. Much has already been writing about the central idea behind this novel, so I’ll confine myself to stating that this story blew my mind into infinitesimal tessellate pieces in the loveliest way possible. It’s a page-turner police procedural murder mystery and a speculative fantasy that will change the way I see the city as an archetype and any given city in particular.

The audiobook is a success, though nothing to rave about. It does a good job of delivering the novel’s complexity and making it enjoyable. However, there was no sense of the audiobook adding more to the manuscript. This was not because of the recording quality, which was quite high. Nor because of the little production polish; really I can’t think of music or commentary that would go well with such a unique fantasy. Rather it was because John Lee does a solid but not exciting reading. Lee is a veteran of many audiobooks, and those who listen to many books will recognize his voice almost immediately. I’ve been very impressed by many of his readings. This one is not his strongest. His tone is fairly fixed, appropriate for the hard-boiled-detective note that China’s protagonist often hits. His handling of the imaginary languages that China invents is commendable. His range is good, with all characters sounding unique and believable. Lee’s accents, however, leaves much to be desired. All of the characters of China’s imaginary cities speak with a flat American accent that was sometimes colored by Lee’s native Irish accent. This is jarring, especially when North American characters speak. A Canadian character sounds just like those of the imaginary cities save for the occasionally prolonged vowel (e.g. ‘out and about’ becomes ‘oot an aboot’). Worse, the only American male character is given an accent that sounds like John Wayne humping Colonel Sanders. It sounded more like a European mocking a American accent than any real accent. Even though I found myself frowning at the accents, it did not subtract from my overall enjoyment of the story. Likely those who are not as obsessed with dialects of English, as I am, will be much less affected.

All and all, China’s wonderful story augmented a serviceable performance to produce an enjoyable audiobook.