Railsea

by China Miaeville and China Mieville

"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 & 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-colored mole she's been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train, at first it's a welcome distraction. But what Sham finds in the derelict--a kind of treasure map indicating a mythical place untouched by iron rails--leads to considerably more than he'd bargained for. Soon he's hunted on all sides, by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters, & salvage-scrabblers. & it might not be just Sham's life that's about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea. Here is a novel for readers of all ages, a gripping & brilliantly imagined take on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick that confirms China Mieville's status as "the most original & talented voice to appear in several years" (Science Fiction Chronicle)"--

• ISBN10: 0345524543
• ISBN13: 9780345524546
• Publish Date: 15 May 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Del Rey Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[elvinagb]

Once you get past the weird names, for people, places, and things, and past the even weirder subterranean creatures this is a really great story. Reminiscent of Moby Dick and other epic sea faring stories this is a world we both recognize and have a hard time wrapping your mind around. Classic China Mieville.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

I’ve only really enjoyed on China Miéville novel ([b:The City and the City|4703581|The City and the City|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320475957s/4703581.jpg|4767909]) but I am a fan of what he does for literature and speculative fiction. His latest novel Railsea is his second attempt at a YA novel and while I’ve not read his other YA novel [b:Un Lun Dun|68496|Un Lun Dun|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170692699s/68496.jpg|2959401] I must say I wasn’t really impressed with this one. I really loved the complexity of [b:The City and the City|4703581|The City and the City|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320475957s/4703581.jpg|4767909] so I was looking forward to see Miéville’s take on [b:Moby-Dick|153747|Moby-Dick|Herman Melville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327940656s/153747.jpg|2409320]. Granted I should have read Moby Dick before this book but I found this book was too simplified and weird writing without some intelligent plotting just ends up making the book weird.

Set in a dying dystrophic world that is now desert; Railsea is an adventure novel that tells the tale of three young orphans joining the train to hunt for Mocker-Jack; the giant Mole. The book mixes adventure elements that remind me of Treasure Island with Miéville’s own genre; which he calls ‘weird’ and is a mix of fantasy and steampunk. The main protagonist; Sham was pretty average in this book but the train captain Abacat Naphi peaked my interest, I think she was the Ishmael in this book; even considering Mocker-Jack as her nemesis.

I thought this book might be more of a children’s book rather than a YA novel; iO9 said it best when they said this book was for “kids who cut their teeth on Thomas the Tank Engine, then Lemony Snicket”. It just felt odd and too simplified but a twelve or thirteen year old would probably enjoy it as a gateway into the YA fantasy/steampunk genre. The main issue I had was this book was the over use of the ampersand there is way too many in the book; even a large amount of sentences starting with ‘&’. It just never looked or felt write when reading it and I found I got really annoyed with it.

This book is for young teenagers and China Miéville fans, anyone else interested in trying this author might want to look elsewhere. I’m a little disappointed with this book but would be interested to see how my other friends find it; if they read it. There are some interesting elements in this book but for me I felt more frustrated by it. I hope others love and enjoy this book more than I did, Miéville has a lot to offer the literary world but I personally think; skip this one and go read [b:The City and the City|4703581|The City and the City|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320475957s/4703581.jpg|4767909].