The Physiognomy
The Well-Built City Trilogy, Book 1
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Christian Rummel
-
By:
-
Jeffrey Ford
About this listen
Offering a freshly imagined world of bizarre creatures and strange customs, this unique and sardonic allegory explores the power and price of science and the ambiguity of morality.
Humorless and drug addicted, physiognomist Cley is ordered by the Master of the Well-Built City to investigate a theft in a remote mining town. Well-versed in serving justice, arrogant Cley sets out to determine the identity of the thief using the pseudo-science of judging people by their features, but becomes distracted from his task by a beautiful girl from town. When the young-but-wise woman rejects him, he looses faith in his abilities, and in a drug-induced frenzy he remakes her features. The subsequent horror of what he has done, what he represents, and the shallow life he leads forces him to seek atonement and true justice, risking the Masters wrath, which may entail death by head explosion.
Listen to the rest of The Well-Built City Trilogy.©1997 Jeffrey Ford (P)2010 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Shadow Year
- A Novel
- By: Jeffrey Ford
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On New York's Long Island, in the unpredictable decade of the 1960s, a young boy spends much of his free time in the basement of his family's modest home, where he and his brother, Jim, have created Botch Town, a detailed cardboard replica of their community, complete with figurines representing friends and neighbors. Their little sister, Mary, smokes cigarettes, speaks in other voices, inhabits alternate personas... and, unbeknownst to her siblings, moves around the inanimate clay residents.
-
-
Couldn't stop listening!!!
- By Marjory on 12-12-10
By: Jeffrey Ford
-
Noctuary and the Spectral Link
- By: Thomas Ligotti
- Narrated by: Jon Padgett
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chiroptera Press presents Noctuary & The Spectral Link by the legendary Thomas Ligotti, a consolidated volume of two horror collections, back in print after over a decade.
-
-
Excellent audio book of a classic!
- By Karl Haikara on 08-03-24
By: Thomas Ligotti
-
Veniss Underground
- A Novel
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Ron Butler, Scott Brick, Emily Woo Zeller, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mysterious and magical city of Veniss, a surreal metropolis that sits over an underground labyrinth of tunnels and mines. In this tale, epic and mythological in scope, VanderMeer takes the listener below the surface of the earth to the dark and decadent future. It’s a world where Living Artists craft works out of biological material, and humans are either tossed out or recycled into something wholly unrecognizable.
-
-
A great follow up to Ambergris
- By Emmitt on 08-06-23
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
The Cipher
- By: Kathe Koja
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nicholas, a would-be poet, and Nakota, his feral lover, discover a strange hole in the storage room floor down the hall - "Black. Pure black and the sense of pulsation, especially when you look at it too closely, the sense of something not living but alive." It begins with curiosity, a joke - the Funhole down the hall. But then the experiments begin. "Wouldn't it be wild to go down there?" says Nakota. Nicholas says "We're not." But they're not in control, not from the first moment, as those experiments lead to obsession, violence, and a very final transformation.
-
-
An Interesting Book of Weird...
- By Rachael on 04-21-20
By: Kathe Koja
-
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
- By: Patricia A. McKillip
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteen when a baby is brought to her to raise, Sybel has grown up on Eld Mountain. Her only playmates are the creatures of a fantastic menagerie called there by wizardry. Sybel has cared nothing for humans, until the baby awakens emotions previously unknown to her. And when Coren--the man who brought this child--returns, Sybel's world is again turned upside down.
-
-
Sooooooo thrilled to have it (finally) at Audible
- By Ljsc on 03-05-12
-
The Recognitions
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 47 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wyatt Gwyon's desire to forge is not driven by larceny but from love. Exactingly faithful to the spirit and letter of the Flemish masters, he produces uncannily accurate "originals" - pictures the painters themselves might have envied. In an age of counterfeit emotion and taste, the real and fake have become indistinguishable; yet Gwyon's forgeries reflect a truth that others cannot touch - cannot even recognize.
-
-
Breathtaking, Dizzying, Stimulating, Funny
- By andrew on 11-17-10
By: William Gaddis
-
The Shadow Year
- A Novel
- By: Jeffrey Ford
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On New York's Long Island, in the unpredictable decade of the 1960s, a young boy spends much of his free time in the basement of his family's modest home, where he and his brother, Jim, have created Botch Town, a detailed cardboard replica of their community, complete with figurines representing friends and neighbors. Their little sister, Mary, smokes cigarettes, speaks in other voices, inhabits alternate personas... and, unbeknownst to her siblings, moves around the inanimate clay residents.
-
-
Couldn't stop listening!!!
- By Marjory on 12-12-10
By: Jeffrey Ford
-
Noctuary and the Spectral Link
- By: Thomas Ligotti
- Narrated by: Jon Padgett
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chiroptera Press presents Noctuary & The Spectral Link by the legendary Thomas Ligotti, a consolidated volume of two horror collections, back in print after over a decade.
-
-
Excellent audio book of a classic!
- By Karl Haikara on 08-03-24
By: Thomas Ligotti
-
Veniss Underground
- A Novel
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Ron Butler, Scott Brick, Emily Woo Zeller, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mysterious and magical city of Veniss, a surreal metropolis that sits over an underground labyrinth of tunnels and mines. In this tale, epic and mythological in scope, VanderMeer takes the listener below the surface of the earth to the dark and decadent future. It’s a world where Living Artists craft works out of biological material, and humans are either tossed out or recycled into something wholly unrecognizable.
-
-
A great follow up to Ambergris
- By Emmitt on 08-06-23
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
The Cipher
- By: Kathe Koja
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nicholas, a would-be poet, and Nakota, his feral lover, discover a strange hole in the storage room floor down the hall - "Black. Pure black and the sense of pulsation, especially when you look at it too closely, the sense of something not living but alive." It begins with curiosity, a joke - the Funhole down the hall. But then the experiments begin. "Wouldn't it be wild to go down there?" says Nakota. Nicholas says "We're not." But they're not in control, not from the first moment, as those experiments lead to obsession, violence, and a very final transformation.
-
-
An Interesting Book of Weird...
- By Rachael on 04-21-20
By: Kathe Koja
-
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
- By: Patricia A. McKillip
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteen when a baby is brought to her to raise, Sybel has grown up on Eld Mountain. Her only playmates are the creatures of a fantastic menagerie called there by wizardry. Sybel has cared nothing for humans, until the baby awakens emotions previously unknown to her. And when Coren--the man who brought this child--returns, Sybel's world is again turned upside down.
-
-
Sooooooo thrilled to have it (finally) at Audible
- By Ljsc on 03-05-12
-
The Recognitions
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 47 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wyatt Gwyon's desire to forge is not driven by larceny but from love. Exactingly faithful to the spirit and letter of the Flemish masters, he produces uncannily accurate "originals" - pictures the painters themselves might have envied. In an age of counterfeit emotion and taste, the real and fake have become indistinguishable; yet Gwyon's forgeries reflect a truth that others cannot touch - cannot even recognize.
-
-
Breathtaking, Dizzying, Stimulating, Funny
- By andrew on 11-17-10
By: William Gaddis
-
Area X
- The Southern Reach Trilogy - Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick, Bronson Pinchot, Xe Sands
- Length: 26 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dive into the mysteries of Area X, a remote and lush terrain that has inexplicably sequestered itself from civilization. Twelve expeditions have gone in, and not a single member of any of them has remained unchanged by the experience - for better or worse.
-
-
Book 1: intriguing! Book 2: Zzzz. Book 3: WTF!
- By KR on 02-03-15
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with ten new tales of cosmic horror in Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies. In these stories, he continues to chart the course of twenty-first century weird fiction, from the unfamiliar to the familial, the unfathomably distant to the intimate.
-
-
Finally more John Langan in audiobook form
- By Anonymous User on 09-10-23
By: John Langan
-
Dhalgren
- By: Samuel R. Delany
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 34 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there...the population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. And into this disaster zone comes a young man - a poet, a lover, and an adventurer - known only as the Kid.
-
-
A classic I return to every few years
- By kwdayboise (Kim Day) on 04-08-17
By: Samuel R. Delany
-
Tender Morsels
- By: Margo Lanagan
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik, Michael Page
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Liga lives modestly in her own personal heaven, given to her by natural magic in exchange for her earthly life. Her two daughters, gentle Branza and curious Urdda, grow up in this soft world, protected from the violence, predation, and village prejudice that once harmed their mother. But the real world cannot be denied forever - magicked men and wild bears break down the borders of Liga's refuge. Now, having known heaven, how will these three women survive in a world where beauty and brutality lie side by side?
-
-
Rich, inventive tale--but not for children
- By Ronni on 07-19-09
By: Margo Lanagan
-
Tooth and Claw
- By: Jo Walton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the tale of a family dealing with the death of their father, of a son who goes to law for his inheritance, a son who agonizes over his father's deathbed confession, a daughter who falls in love, a daughter who becomes involved in the abolition movement, and a daughter sacrificing herself for her husband.... Except that everyone in the story is a dragon, red in tooth and claw.
-
-
An Austen/Aesop Collaboration
- By Tango on 03-08-15
By: Jo Walton
-
A Case of Conscience
- By: James Blish
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Father Ruiz-Sanchez is a dedicated man - a priest who is also a scientist, and a scientist who is also a human being. He has found no insoluble conflicts in his beliefs or his ethics...until he is sent to Lithia. There he comes upon a race of aliens who are admirable in every way except for their total reliance on cold reason; they are incapable of faith or belief. Confronted with a profound scientific riddle and ethical quandary, Father Ruiz-Sanchez soon finds himself torn.
-
-
Moldy Oldie still gets it done
- By Bob V. on 03-22-09
By: James Blish
-
A Stranger in Olondria
- Being the Complete Memoirs of the Mystic, Jevick of Tyom
- By: Sofia Samatar
- Narrated by: Josh Hurley
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When reading and writing are the most important things in the world. Jevick, the pepper merchant's son, has been raised on stories of Olondria, a distant land where books are as common as they are rare in his home - but which his mother calls the Ghost Country. When his father dies and Jevick takes his place on the yearly selling trip to Olondria, Jevick's life is as close to perfect as he can imagine. Just as he revels in Olondria's Rabelaisian Feast of Birds, he is pulled drastically off course and becomes haunted by the ghost of an illiterate young girl.
-
-
samatar is great
- By Kochobey on 01-06-18
By: Sofia Samatar
-
Litany of the Long Sun
- Book of the Long Sun, Books 1 and 2
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Litany of the Long Sun contains the full texts of Nightside the Long Sun and Lake of the Long Sun that together make up the first half of The Book of the Long Sun. This great work is set on a huge generation starship in the same future as the classic Book of the New Sun (also available in two volumes from Orb).
-
-
Utterly brilliant in it’s tedium
- By John on 04-14-22
By: Gene Wolfe
-
Dangerous Visions
- By: Harlan Ellison
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell, Simon Vance, Steven Jay Cohen, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark short story collection that put the more character-based New Wave science fiction on the map, Dangerous Visions won several prestigious awards and was nominated for many others. This now-classic anthology includes thirty-three stories by thirty-two award-winning authors, over half of whom have won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards.
-
-
Pre-Star Trek pre-Star Wars brilliance!
- By Darrell James on 06-29-24
By: Harlan Ellison
-
Song for the Unravelling of the World
- Stories
- By: Brian Evenson
- Narrated by: Mauro Hantman
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A newborn’s absent face appears on the back of someone else’s head, a filmmaker goes to gruesome lengths to achieve the silence he’s after for his final scene, and a therapist begins, impossibly, to appear in a troubled patient's room late at night. In these stories of doubt, delusion, and paranoia, no belief, no claim to objectivity, is immune to the distortions of human perception. Here, self-deception is a means of justifying our most inhuman impulses—whether we know it or not.
-
-
Short but satisfying
- By Prometheus on 10-28-23
By: Brian Evenson
-
The Book of Elsewhere
- A Novel
- By: Keanu Reeves, China Miéville
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner, Asia Kate Dillon, China Miéville, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.” And he wants to be able to die. In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.
-
-
Confusing at first but quite amazing
- By Brett on 07-27-24
By: Keanu Reeves, and others
Critic reviews
- World Fantasy Award, Best Novel, 1998
Related to this topic
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
-
The Signal
- By: Eric Buchman, Gabriel Urbina, Sarah Shachat
- Narrated by: Paget Brewster, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two astronomers have detected a strange, pulsing signal from deep space. Within hours, the US government goes into lockdown, restricting airspace and scrubbing scientific data. Was the signal an intercepted communication revealing alarming plans for an enemy’s military strike? Or has humanity at long last found proof of extraterrestrial life?
-
-
A great new twist on the “alien conspiracy” genre
- By Amazon Customer on 12-08-24
By: Eric Buchman, and others
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
-
The Signal
- By: Eric Buchman, Gabriel Urbina, Sarah Shachat
- Narrated by: Paget Brewster, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two astronomers have detected a strange, pulsing signal from deep space. Within hours, the US government goes into lockdown, restricting airspace and scrubbing scientific data. Was the signal an intercepted communication revealing alarming plans for an enemy’s military strike? Or has humanity at long last found proof of extraterrestrial life?
-
-
A great new twist on the “alien conspiracy” genre
- By Amazon Customer on 12-08-24
By: Eric Buchman, and others
What listeners say about The Physiognomy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephanie
- 02-04-18
stomach-churning and beautiful
There is never a dull moment in this characters personal narrative. It's unlike anything I've ever read/heard. The narrator does a fantastic job with the read and is great at each characters separate voice.
It's really hard to compare it to anything else. It's got characters you'll love to hate and some gruesomeness. I wasn't sure at first but easy to see why it won the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mackenzie S. Kooiker
- 10-11-17
Recommended for China Mieville fans
A very good piece of surrealist fiction in the same vein as China Mieville's Bas-Lag series-weird and surreal, with vivid characters (likeable and hateable, and all the in-between) and the same sort of atmosphere but with a Victorian gothic underpinning instead of a steampunk sci-fi basis.
The narrator is excellent, bringing just the right level of cringy loathability to his narration by Clay without turning him into a caricature, and using subtle but significant voices and accents to differentiate speakers without becoming annoying or farcical.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Katherine
- 01-25-11
Sometimes brilliant, always bizarre
The Physiognomy, with its original ideas, setting, characters, and symbolism, is sometimes brilliant, and always bizarre (which is probably why it won the 1998 World Fantasy Award). The focus on the debunked science of physiognomy is especially appealing and the characters, though they are not likable, are fascinating, too. Physiognomist Cley ??? who computes personalities with calipers, wears formaldehyde as cologne, is addicted to drugs, and is afraid of the dark ??? is one of the most narcissistic, sarcastic, and generally nasty characters you???ll ever meet. Master Drachton Below, who developed the Well-Built City as a perfect representation of his elaborate version of the mnemonic device called The Method of Loci, and who enjoys reviving dead human bodies by fitting them with mechanical devices and neural implants, makes a great villain. I listened to Audible Frontier???s version of The Physiognomy which was read by Christian Rummel. All of the characters were expertly and entertainingly rendered by Mr. Rummell, who perfectly captured the arrogance of Cley and the malevolence of The Master.
The plot of The Physiognomy starts confidently and with purpose, but when Cley???s troubles begin to accumulate, the story dissolves into a series of bizarre, vaguely-related occurrences which feel more like one of Cley???s time-distorted hallucinations than a plot. Like the hallucinations, the imagery is excellent (e.g., the hellish symbolism of the sulfur mine), and the prose never falters, but the things that happen to Cley, and his subsequent changes in personality, feel vague, arbitrary, and unbelievable.
It???s disappointing when a book which starts so well fails to completely satisfy, but I???m not giving up on Jeffrey Ford or his Well-Built City trilogy. I loved the idea of the city based on The Method of Loci and I am hoping to learn more about it in the next book which is propitiously titled Memoranda.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 06-22-13
Just not very good
What would have made The Physiognomy better?
I just did not like the first book, but since I got the whole series why not listen to tthe second. I was not connecting with the main character in the first and the secon book is no diffferent.
Has The Physiognomy turned you off from other books in this genre?
no
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!