Is China Mieville Anti-Audio?

March 9, 2006 12:58 PM

Knowing his politics, is there some obscure economic/philosophical reason why China Mieville's books don't have audio versions? Or do I just not know where to look?
posted by halespawn to media & arts (8 comments total)

I have an mp3 of China reading an excerpt from The Scar, although I'm not really sure where it came from. But at least I can say that he's clearly not anti-reading-out-loud.

I think the lack of audio material in this case is more a function of the limited market. Write to his publisher?
posted by bcwinters at 1:29 PM on March 9, 2006

I don't have an answer, but I've often wondered why there's so few sci-fi audiobooks. There are certain authors who come up again and again on "best sci-fi" lists: Gene Wolfe, Dan Simmons, Vernor Vinge, etc. These names come up so often, there MUST be an audience for their works. But they're never recorded.

My guess is bcwinter's is right. The market is too limited. Yes, hardcore SF fans love Gene Wolf, but hardcore SF fans are too small of a market to prompt publishers to bring out audiobooks.

This is sad for me, because I've pretty much stopped reading sci-fi. The writing generally isn't good enough to satisfy me. But I do sometimes miss other-worldly stories. I think I would be a bit less critical listening to someone read me a sci-fi tale at night, on my iPod, while I was lying in bed.
posted by grumblebee at 2:02 PM on March 9, 2006

Socialists are anti-audio?

Sci-fi, or in this case Fantasy, is a niche market. Crichton and Koontz sell enough product to justify the expense. Mieville? Doubtful.
posted by skallas at 2:20 PM on March 9, 2006

I guess that could be, but I seem to recall some sales figures (in Locus or something) putting Richard K. Morgan into roughly the same readership class, numbers-wise, and he seems to have audio versions all over the place. Same publisher, too, at least on the Yank side of the Atlantic. Weird.
posted by halespawn at 2:31 PM on March 9, 2006

Length of his books might also factor into any cost/benefit analysis.
posted by OmieWise at 3:18 PM on March 9, 2006

China Mieville doesn't seem to have his own homepage like Ken Macleod and others of this ilk do, so maybe he just isn't as up on the whole SF podcasting thing a-la Doctorow as he should be.

I will now write his publisher a letter encouraging audiobook production. I adore the Audible version of Stephenson's The Diamond Age, something of that caliber for Iron Council would be Teh Awesome.

Socialists aren't anti-anything that gets our message out, :)

and grumblebee, there's some AMAZING literary SF out there with an excellent caliber of writing - to list it is outside the ambit of this question though.
posted by By The Grace of God at 2:12 AM on March 10, 2006

The Audible version of Diamond Age was awesome.
posted by graventy at 6:17 AM on March 10, 2006

there's some AMAZING literary SF out there with an excellent caliber of writing

I assume you mean stuff like "Strange and Norrell" (fantasy), "Oryx and Crake" and "The Time Traveler's Wife." And classics like "1984" and "The Time Machine." If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them -- if not in this thread, then via email.
posted by grumblebee at 7:03 AM on March 10, 2006