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Cities of the Red Night

The Red Night Trilogy, Book 1

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Cities of the Red Night

By: William S. Burroughs
Narrated by: Ray Porter
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About this listen

From one of the founders of the beat generation and the 1960s counterculture comes this opening novel of a series available now in audio for the first time. An opium addict is lost in the jungle; young men wage war against an empire of mutants; a handsome young pirate faces his execution; and the world's population is infected with a radioactive epidemic. These stories are woven together in a single tale of mayhem and chaos. In the first novel of the trilogy continued in The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands, William Burroughs sharply satirizes modern society in a poetic and shocking story of sex, drugs, disease, and adventure.

©2013 William S. Burroughs (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction
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Of course there's no one better to read Burroughs than Burroughs himself. But if you can't get hold of Bill's drawn out reading of his own work then this is certainly the next best thing. Excellently read by Ray Porter, who brings it all to life, and highly recommended by me.
P.s. Though it's book 1 of a trilogy, it does stand up superbly, just by it's self.

Of course...

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Ray Porter renders the opening of the red night trilogy with precisely the sort of irreverent panache befitting a narration of Burroughs' trademark brand of storytelling. Alongside the masterful evocation of numerous fantastic and absurd characters, it is ridiculous in the most wonderful way.

The first third of his magnum opus.

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This was my first foray into Burroughs's literary universe, and it's a harsh landing. It starts out strangely, but quickly finds it's footing in a serious of storylines that I really enjoyed. But around two-thirds through it takes a hard turn into completely unhinged territory, which I sort of gave up following.
I really enjoy Burroughs's writing style, and his setting feels very unique. The reading was also great, but in the long run I really struggled with the plot. It's just so confusing, and it's really hard to tell if there even is a 'red thread' to follow through the various jumps and skips.
I'm not sure I would recommend it - At this point I'm enticed to try the two companion books in this trilogy, but it's a hard sell unless you're really into freaky fiction with lots of opiates and freewheeling homosexuality.

Hard to follow

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If you like gay sex, you'll like this book. Mucho intense and not for the light of heart.

A lot of penises and smells described

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I found it to be an unusual and imaginative story, and was read really well. However I found that I didn’t really get into it, so didn’t get a lot from it.

Didn’t get into it

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