
This Census-Taker
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Narrated by:
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Matthew Frow
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By:
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China Miéville
About this listen
For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, David Mitchell, and Karen Russell, This Census-Taker is a stunning, uncanny, and profoundly moving novella from multiple-award-winning and best-selling author China Miéville.
In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries - and fails - to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape.
When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over.
But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?
Filled with beauty, terror, and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity.
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On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one’s death and the other’s glory. But no matter how spectacular it is, Sham can't shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling the endless rails of the railsea–even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-coloured mole she’s been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago.
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Talented Mr Cowley a mismatch for Railsea
- By H James Lucas on 06-07-12
By: China Miéville
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A Spectre, Haunting
- By: China Miéville
- Narrated by: China Miéville
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1848, The Communist Manifesto was published by two émigrés from Germany. Marx and Engels' apocalyptic vision of an insatiable system that penetrates every corner of the world reduces every relationship to that of profit, and burst asunder the old forms of production and of politics. It is still a recognisable picture of our world—the vampiric energy of the system being once again highly contentious. This is a strikingly imaginative take on Marx and what his most haunting book has to say to us today.
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A great follow up to October
- By Amazon Customer on 01-18-23
By: China Miéville
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Un Lun Dun
- By: China Miéville
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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What is Un Lun Dun? It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up...and some of its lost and broken people, too. When 12-year-old Zanna and her friend Deeba find a secret entrance leading out of London and into this strange city, it seems that the ancient prophecy is coming true at last. But then things begin to go shockingly wrong.
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Great read for all ages
- By lettielikesbooks on 12-06-21
By: China Miéville
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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
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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.
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Confusing at first but quite amazing
- By Brett on 07-27-24
By: Keanu Reeves, and others
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Exodus: The Archimedes Engine
- Exodus: The Archimedes Engine, Book 1
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 30 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Forty thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. Traveling in massive arkships, these brave pioneers spread out across the galaxy to find a new home. After traveling thousands of light-years, one fleet of arkships arrived at Centauri, a dense cluster of stars with a vast array of potentially habitable planets. The survivors of Earth signaled to the remaining arkships that humanity had finally found its new home among the stars.
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The 2024 Six Star Winner !
- By C. Hartmann on 09-22-24
What listeners say about This Census-Taker
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ryland
- 03-13-16
Absorbing fog-wrapped dark fairytale
I listened to this twice, because I loved my first listen so much that I wanted to experience more of the atmosphere. I also wondered if I could find any more definitive answers regarding the questions raised. I could not. I did find much more clarity, piecing together bits and possibilities. It was a wonderfully unnerving puzzle to pick back through. There is an astonishing clarity regarding the world this story is set in, even as it resolutely sticks to its mysteriousness. That's part of the joy of reading this. Certainly a story that begs a second or third reading soon after listening to its last words. It's one of those books that loves being obscure and avoids easy answers, and yet is fully worth the extra time to let the story seep in further.
There are a number of darkly fantastical aspects to the narrator's childhood and figuring out exactly what they all mean for the narrator then and now is a big part of the pull of the narrative. From the start it's made very clear that we cannot trust the narrator, as there is confusion over the events in an innocent but haunting manner. It was well-wrought mix of the gothic and magical realism.
The point-of-view of This Census-Taker actually reminded me of the beginning third of Embassytown (Mieville's best in my opinion), in that Avice, the narrator in Embassytown, also felt innocent and confused and untrustworthy. However, there is certainly much more clarity that is revealed toward the end of Embassytown. This Census-Taker doesn't do that end reveal stuff. There's a reveal, sure, but it only presents further questions.
So yeah, if you need answers and trustworthy narrators, this is probably not for you.. If you love fathomless questions and mystery, give this two listens or more.
The narration for the audio was an excellent match.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Donn
- 02-22-16
A bit wandering, but surprisingly haunting and engaging
At times during the story I found myself drifting off to other thoughts. But overall, this was a haunting story that seems familiar and yet out of place and time. There is quite a bit to take in, and the story is filled with details, so paying attention is crucial to getting the most out of this tale. I've listened to one other book since this one and still it lingers with me. It is a haunting take.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Darwin8u
- 01-14-16
Only Feeding the Darkness
"You'll write it not because there's no possibility it'll be found but because it costs too much to not write it."
-- China Miéville, This Census-Taker
"LORD, if you were to record iniquities, Lord, who could remain standing?"
-- Psalms 130:3 (International Standard Version)
I would probably consider this to be a bridge novella, spanning the gap somewhere between the shores of novel and novella; a scandal with gravity, perhaps. It weighs-in at just a quinternion over 200 pages in a 5.75" x 7.5" format. For Miéville this book is a surprise (as much as any thing new with Miéville) is ever REALLY a surprise. It has the tone and feel of his earlier novels, but this is Spartan and reserved. A couple stories in 'Three Moments of an Explosion' hinted at this style.
Miéville has really dialed back his normal complexity, his labyrinthian plots and prose. This is a guy who knows he can dervish, dance, and dive with his prose, and now KNOWS you know, but is comfortable just sitting there, like a jaguar, all potential energy, ready to pounce. You can feel that confidence and almost relaxed alertness in his prose and in this story. Anyway, I expect I will be pointing to this novel in the future and saying this marks the beginning of a more mature Miéville. He isn't content to just dazzle us with his brain and unleashed torrents. He's good now. He will now slowly unsettle us with his art, his craft, the fog at the edge of our field of view, and the cracks in caves that hold dark stories.
I think part of this is due to time spent at the MacDowell colony reading John Hawkes and perhaps, hanging with Denis Johnson.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Tim
- 04-29-16
No Definite Answer
In the latest short story by China Miéville, "This Census-Taker", you are not really sure if the boy is telling the truth or embellishing his story for attention. The boy is getting abuse by his father and his mother has gone missing. His imagination throws you off a bit because, like a child, you wont get a definite answer. His story is all over the place.
Fortunately, this is the style of China Miéville. In most of his books, he likes to leave the reader guessing. Maybe that is why he wrote "This Census-Taker" as a novella, to make us read it more than once and come to a different conclusion each time.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Luke G.
- 06-15-16
Impossible to overcome distracting sound of narrator
Would have been a good time if not for the affectation of the narrator. I tried to listen bit was too irritated by the accent and rhythm to hear the story.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-17-16
Not impressed.
Another display of over-acting by Matthew Frow. The story itself lulled in so many places, solidifying my belief that short fiction is best read the traditional way.
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