Red City, Marie Lu
Red City, Marie Lu
List: $32.99 | Sale: $23.10
Club: $16.49

Red City

Author: Marie Lu

Series: New Alchemists #1

Narrator: André Santana, Eunice Wong, Natalie Naudus, Sid Sagar

Unabridged: 15 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/14/2025


Synopsis

The Godfather meets The Magicians in the sweeping adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu. Perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab, Red City is a dark and deadly contemporary fantasy of magical warfare, star-crossed ambition, and the pursuit of perfection at any cost, set in a glittering alternate Los Angeles. This program features multicast narration.

Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world’s elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more.

Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city—and the paths of their lives—will be irrevocably transformed.

The daughter of a poor single mother, Sam would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. Plucked away from his family as a boy to become a Lumines apprentice, Ari is one of the syndicates' brightest rising stars. Once, they might have loved each other. But as the two alchemists face off across opposite sides of an ever-escalating conflict, ambition becomes power, loyalty becomes lies, and no transformation may be perfect enough for them both to survive the coming war.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

About Marie Lu

Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 15 novels, including Legend, The Young Elites, Warcross, Skyhunter, and Stars and Smoke. She graduated from the University of Southern California and initially jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as an artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing games, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.marielu.com

About André Santana

André Santana is an audiobook narrator on a journey to tell great stories. Brazilian-born and Seattle-raised, he now lives in NYC where he's recorded 150+ titles across genres. In his work, you'll hear a flair for human and connected performances crafted around the voice of the text. André believes that humanity lives inside the heartbreak, comedy, drama, and other dimensions books deliver, and that a great audiobook meets that with intention and artistry. His work has been celebrated with several Earphone awards, Audie nominations, by the Voice Arts Awards, One Voice Awards, and more.As a non-binary and Black narrator, he loves both telling stories that match him and disappearing into new characters across the literary multiverse. Find him in the throws of a coming-of-age novel, on spellbinding fantasy journeys with quirky companions, or in the thick of suburban drama.

About Eunice Wong

Eunice Wong is a Juilliard-trained actor, listed among Audible's Best Women Narrators, who has recorded over 150 books, for publishers like Macmillan, Penguin Random House, & Simon & Schuster. She is the winner of 2 Audie Awards (Mystery, Multi-Voiced), 14 AudioFile Earphones Awards (8 for solo performances), and the American Library Association's RUSA Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration. Eunice was also an Audie Finalist for "Audiobook of the Year" [lost to Ms. Streisand!], "Best Fiction Narrator" [against Meryl Streep & Ethan Hawke], "Nonfiction" & "Short Stories."Her theater awards include the Helen Hayes Award for Lead Actress, the My Boston Theatre Award for Best Actress, and a Barrymore nomination for Lead Actress. As a writer, she won the L.A. Press Club Award (1st Place), and the Maggie Award.Flipping to 1st person now (hi!): The job is not to read the words; the job is to transport the listener. I aim always to inhabit characters, emotions, and journeys honestly, spontaneously, and with psychological depth, while staying true to the book's unique voice. My narration styles range from intimate and intuitive, channeling emotions from beneath the surface of the text, to wacky and comic, with distinct and laugh-out-loud character creations.EuniceWong.actor

About Sid Sagar

Sid Sagar is an award-winning actor, writer and narrator. With over 60 audiobooks narratedto date, Sid has lent his voice to a wide range of genres, from literary fiction to historicalepics to cosy crime. He has won AudioFile Earphones Awards for his narration of SalmanRushdie’s Victory City, Natasha Pulley’s The Hymn to Dionysus and Janice Hallett’s TheMysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. Sid effortlessly shifts between tones, dialects andemotional textures. His narration style has been praised for its clarity and warmth, makingeven the most complex material feel alive and accessible. Beyond audiobooks, Sid regularlyworks on stage and screen. He won an Eastern Eye Award for Best Actor for hisperformance in Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger in the West End. Other creditsinclude Cabaret (West End), Ballet Shoes (National Theatre) and Slow Horses (Apple TV+).As a writer, his work includes Middle Men and John from Hemel (BBC Radio 4), BakedBeans (BFI NETWORK), and Biting Point (Hull and UK tour, published by Faber).


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on September 09, 2025

Sorry but, try as I might, I could not get into this book. And I really did try. There were moments when the story picked up for a chapter and I was like "Okay, this is it. I'm engaged." and then it would go back to being so slow and dry. Marie Lu has created an alternative Los Angeles where war rage......more

Goodreads review by Jaime on November 02, 2025

Give me MORE immediately! LOVED this world, and how the alchemy didn’t just act as a magic system, but was so embedded in the history and politics and development of everything. The CHARACTERS? I definitely felt more connected with Sam vs Ari, but I truly felt for her in the way that she emotionally......more

Goodreads review by Robin on October 09, 2025

love the childhood friends to strangers to enemies to almost lovers. love how destroying the thing you sought to become isn’t as easy as it seems and until you can only fall back into your past and continue the cycle this bloody, gritty urban fantasy has a visceral edge i haven’t encountered in fanta......more

Goodreads review by Mai ༊*·˚ on September 17, 2025

4.75 ★— Having grown up with Marie Lu’s YA novels on my shelf as a preteen in the 2010s, reading her adult debut Red City felt like a weird full circle moment for me. I’m so happy to say that I really, really loved this book. I was fully entranced while reading — it drew me in and didn’t let go unti......more

Goodreads review by jenny reads a lot on November 05, 2025

I couldn’t decide which love interest I wanted to root for & which syndicate I wanted to join and I didn’t want it to end! I’m pretty picky when it comes to urban fantasy, so I tend to avoid it for the most part - but a number of friends read and raved about Red City and I knew I needed to give it a......more


Quotes

"Red City is a thrilling descent into a seedy underworld of alchemists and arcane-wielding criminal syndicates with ties to the upper echelons of power. Marie Lu has crafted not only a mesmerizing world, but memorable and convincing characters caught up in the machinations of competing crime bosses and assassins vying for control in Angel City. The only thing I wanted when I reached the end of this engrossing book—was more!"—P. Djèlí Clark, author of A Master of Djinn

Praise for Marie Lu:


"Marie Lu always delivers."—#1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo

"Every book she writes is a knockout. Marie Lu is magic."—New York Times bestselling author Tahereh Mafi

"There is no question of Lu's extraordinary literary talent."—Reactor

"What can't Lu do? Her boatloads of fans can't wait to find out."—Booklist

"The kind of all-consuming fantasy novel that pulls you head-first into a brand new world that begins to feel so familiar you can't wait to get your hands on the next one."—New York magazine on Warcross

"Legend doesn't merely survive the hype, it deserves it."—The New York Times


Awards

  • Amazon.com Best Books of the Year