New York 2140
Narrated by Suzanne Toren, Robin Miles, Peter Ganim, Jay Snyder, Caitlin Kelly, Michael Crouch, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Christopher Ryan Grant, Robert Blumenfeld
Why Listen to This Audiobook?
Nine narrators voice nine lives tangled in a half-drowned Manhattan — Robinson's most ambitious cast finally gets the production to match.
- Great if you want: climate fiction with political bite and ensemble depth
- Listening experience: dense and sprawling — rewards patience, not momentum-seekers
- Narration: nine-voice cast mirrors the novel's interlocking POV structure perfectly
- Skip if: Robinson's tendency to lecture over plot will frustrate you
About This Audiobook
Two coders disappear from the roof of a Manhattan apartment building in 2140, when the city's streets are navigable only by boat and the world has adapted to sea levels that would have seemed catastrophic two centuries earlier. Kim Stanley Robinson's New York uses the climate-changed city as its central character, exploring how human ingenuity, social inequality, and financial engineering continue to structure daily life even in the drowned version of the world.
The large ensemble cast — nine narrators — maps onto the novel's multiple parallel storylines, each representing a different perspective on the same flooded city. Robinson's approach to climate fiction is characteristically optimistic about human adaptability, and the audio format's ability to distinguish perspectives through voice makes the ensemble structure navigable. Booktrack edition adds a musical score throughout. At nearly 23 hours, this is ambitious literary science fiction that rewards patient listening.