3.5
Railsea
ByPublisher Description
“Other names besides [Herman] Melville’s will surely come to mind as you read this thrilling tale—there’s Dune’s Frank Herbert. . . . But in this, as in all of his works, Miéville has that special knack for evoking other writers even while making the story wholly his own.”—Los Angeles Times
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. Spectacular as it is, Sham can’t shake the sense that there is more to life than the endless rails of the railsea—even if his captain thinks only of hunting the ivory-colored mole that took her arm years ago. But when they come across a wrecked train, Sham finds something—a series of pictures hinting at something, somewhere, that should be impossible—that 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.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“[Miéville] gives all readers a lot to dig into here, be it emotional drama, Godzilla-esque monster carnage, or the high adventure that comes only with riding the rails.”—USA Today
“Superb . . . massively imaginative.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Riveting . . . a great adventure.”—NPR
“Wildly inventive . . . Every sentence is packed with wit.”—The Guardian (London)
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. Spectacular as it is, Sham can’t shake the sense that there is more to life than the endless rails of the railsea—even if his captain thinks only of hunting the ivory-colored mole that took her arm years ago. But when they come across a wrecked train, Sham finds something—a series of pictures hinting at something, somewhere, that should be impossible—that 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.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“[Miéville] gives all readers a lot to dig into here, be it emotional drama, Godzilla-esque monster carnage, or the high adventure that comes only with riding the rails.”—USA Today
“Superb . . . massively imaginative.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Riveting . . . a great adventure.”—NPR
“Wildly inventive . . . Every sentence is packed with wit.”—The Guardian (London)
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3.5
Nick Poirier
Created about 1 month agoShare
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“Found this book through an instagram post as I was scrambling to find something to read on a plane. I thought I’d be able to blast through it, but honestly it was a much tougher read than I anticipated.
The book takes place in a world covered in railroad tracks overtop loose ground in which giant man-eating animals live (moles, rabbits, bugs etc). Our protagonist works on a “Moler” train, tasked with harpooning giant moles and breaking them down for meat and mole pieces that they sell at market (think a 19ce Whaler on wheels).
I applaud the author’s unique attempt at world building, but I found the elements they employed to build this world to be confusing, simplistic and hard to grab onto.
The opening chapters lean heavily into “rail-creole,” an industrial-era, British-influenced slang that flows horribly and is difficult to follow. It also makes it difficult to distinguish between different characters after they’re introduced at the beginning of the book. The book’s use of “&” instead of “and” (which is often referenced directly in the book) is annoying and makes no sense.
A lot of reviews i’ve read say this is a reinterpretation of Moby Dick, but that reference is both annoyingly obvious and a convenient way of letting the author off the hook in developing the Captain Ahab- analogous character.
The shame here is that there are some very interesting world building elements that are not explored at all (references to aliens, antique technology that references our present-day wares, giant flying creatures etc.).
We’re left with the traditional ‘boy leaves home, experiences life, then becomes a knowledgeable main protagonist’ story at the end.
Cool idea for a story, but the novel leaves a ton on the table, and can’t really figure out what it wants to be.
Also, moles a gross. Google them…”
IarwainBenAdar
Created 2 months agoShare
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Walton Tan
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Aloreemay
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Rjdey
Created over 1 year agoShare
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About China Miéville
China Miéville is the author of several books, including Un Lun Dun, Perdido Street Station, The City & The City, Kraken, & Embassytown. His works have won the Hugo, the British Science Fiction Award (twice), the Arthur C. Clarke Award (three times) & the World Fantasy Award. He lives & works in London.
Other books by China Miéville
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