Metropolitan cover art

Metropolitan

The Metropolitan Series, Book 1

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Metropolitan

By: Walter Jon Williams
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Aiah has fought her way out of poverty and discovers a limitless source of plasm, the mysterious substance that powers the world-city. Her discovery soon involves her with Constantine, the charismatic, dangerous, seductive revolutionary who plans to overthrow the government and upend the cosmic order.

©2012 Walter Jon Williams (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Cyberpunk Science Fiction Fiction
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Hardwired cover art
The Year's Top Short SF Novels 2 cover art
The Games cover art
Glass Houses cover art
The Accounting cover art
Whispers of Ash cover art
Fire's Daughter cover art
Wild Cards I cover art
The Last Sword Maker cover art
The Safanarion Order Omnibus, Books 1-3 cover art
Getting Wilde cover art
The River Saga: The Complete Series cover art
Level Five cover art
Asgard's Fall cover art
Titanborn cover art
The Fossil cover art

What listeners say about Metropolitan

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Relevant (but overlook its age)

I’m surprised that it was written in 1995, it references technologies of the 50s and 60s which could just as well have been described by Frank Herbert in his novel “Destination: Void” from 1966, but it must have been a conscious choice in order to make the magic, plasma, to be the main supporting character.

The story is as heist. Aiah finds an untapped source of plasma and she finds a buyer, the metropolitan Constantine who use it for his own power games. During their dealings they become lovers.

She works in the plasma control office and use this as a way to hide the plasma source, her own involvement and the coup Constantine plans, partially by getting a mentor among the most senior.

She’s part of the Barkazi, an ethnic group who’re sceptical to the mainstream and keeps their conflicts between themselves and doesn’t involve authorities, except her mother is a loud mouth drama queen that likes the attention damned be the consequences, and who is close to making trouble for Aiah a couple of times.

People in the city are generally not too inquisitive, and everyone keeps mum when inquiried by the creepers, the Plasma Authorities internal investigatiors.

It is a noble principle, don’t involve the cops/ACAB, but it makes the slip ups of Aiah seem inconsequential and seldom adds tension.

The power games of Constantine are just there as a reason for him to accept Aiahs offer, the interest is kept by her internal monologue and some suspense as if she will survive to enjoy her gains.

Not WJWs best work, but I did enjoy it and I didn’t notice the present tense at all. I did muse about mobile phones, as a lot of the story rests on timing of messages left on answering machines.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Ahead of it’s time

Shines a light on the human condition and all our failings and hope beautifully. Narrator speaks like warm honey.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful