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  • Cities of the Red Night

  • The Red Night Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: William S. Burroughs
  • Narrated by: Ray Porter
  • Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (54 ratings)
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Cities of the Red Night cover art

Cities of the Red Night

By: William S. Burroughs
Narrated by: Ray Porter
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Summary

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.

What listeners say about Cities of the Red Night

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Of course...

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.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

great version of a fun

Ray Porter is absolutely brilliant (again) in one of Burroughs's most readable narratives. Razor sharp and street smart commentary that's still relevant, as well as his usual tropes of sex, drugs and weirdness. Top marks.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

And it all started so well

Back to back Burroughs, after finishing soft machine I couldn't resist starting cities of red night and what could be more intresing than a detective story running parallel to a pirate tale?
The usual ever present ass #ucking and ejaculation remain a Burroughs theme, I was all in and so far so good then book 2 somewhere halfway through and the cut out novel reaper appeared and plunged me into a river of nonsense, pity I was getting along so well too.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Weird intelligent man blowing my mind,

Sex, drugs, time travel and lots of ejaculation... I am so confused! I feel like I have been taken on a mind altering walk through Burroughs 's brain and need a dark room to stay in for a while.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Mind-bending novel, beautifully narrated.

First read the paper version in the early 80's. Ray Porter's narration takes it to a whole other level. Superb.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • LC
  • 14-10-21

Didn’t get into it

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.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

God only knows what this is about

An utter nonsense about sex, cocks, anuses and bodily secretions. Verbal diarrhea. Load of gibberish without conclusion or sense. Only listened through partly because of great narration (completely wasted here) and I was looking for something that will tie this nonsense together. But that didn't happen. Guess this happens in the other two parts of the trilogy. But I will never find out as I will try to stay away from it as far as possible.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A mess of genres with an ugly beauty but unfulfilling

If you like “ejaculate”, “rectal secretions” and “excrement” every other word then this is your book. There is an ugly beauty to parts of this but there is no plot and it has 3 stories running concurrently. A historical, detective noir, sci-fi fantasy, all with unsatisfying climaxes. Ironic, when every character seems to be able to climax at will. It’s a mess, and like most of the Beat authors, outstay it’s welcome. A germ of a good idea that with proper editing and knocking into shape would work but ends up unfulfilling and confusing. Wonderfully narrated by Ray Porter, but overrated

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The first third of his magnum opus.

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.

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