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Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “I've read a lot of books, but none of them have been nearly so enveloping as Railsea by China Miéville. What do I mean by "enveloping?" |
Didn’t Like It “Childish writing, under developed world based on a silly idea. The protagonist is... dumb and the '&'s everywhere drove me crazy” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Captivating and unique, with plenty of philosophical food for thought.”
Cerian B wrote this review Saturday, May 4, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“much more enjoyable than I had anticipated, it's YA feel and Moby Dick influences had put me off, but overall a nicely imagined world, story and characters”
jkdavies wrote this review Saturday, May 4, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Michael E said: 5 stars
Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review Sunday, March 10, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
A satisfying blend of post-apocalyptic sci fi and semi-mythical fantasy with overtones of “Moby Dick”. It took me a good 100 pages to suspend my suspicious disbelief in this world where the railroads are a pervasive technology linking diverse city-states and many monstrous creatures burrow the earth and fly the skies. But the story of a boy on a quest and the people he successfully enlists in his cause made for a compelling tale, essentially a portrayal of the power of an individual to exceed the constraints of fear and superstition.
Our young hero, Sham, apprentices himself as a doctor’s assistant on a “mole train”, a group of people who hunt the giant Moldywarpes by rail. The method of the hunt wonderfully emulates that of 19th century whale hunting with harpoons targeted when the beast breaches. Captain Naphi has a special bent for a particular mole (Mocker Jack), much as Captain Ahab had for his great white sperm whale. Nautical metaphors abound, with the intensive network of rails likened to a “railsea” and pockets of human settlement to islands with harbors. After a while, this mode of thinking takes you over and I was hooked as a reader.
The following paragraph of the skeleton of the plot may be interpreted as spoilerish
Sham’s inauguration in bloody butchering of the mole has some kind of symbolic value, as soon he becomes obsessed with pursuing deeper knowledge of the mysteries of his world. He dreams of becoming a salvor, another profession that takes to the rails to salvage remnants of past civilizations. His quest seems driven by the mysterious disappearance of his father. And it aligns with that of a young brother and sister he meets along the way, who seek to fulfill the work of parents who also disappeared in their work to discover what lies beyond the railsea. What we know from the beginning of this book is that this world is obviously recovering from some apocalypse that befell a more advanced technological civilization. The myths say some terrible angels hold guard at the gates to Heaven at edge of the world, and while treasures are to be found there, there is some threat from an infinite “vale of tears.”
The prose Miéville wields is delightful in its sensuousness and old fashioned tonality. Here is a sample portraying the diversity trains the boy encounters on their way into the metropolis Manihiki:
Here a small train, three carriages only, manoeuvring the rails of the harbor at the end of the great thrumming cables, tugged by two great birds. Well: a buzzard-train, emissary from the Teekee archipelago. Wooden trains decorated with masks; trains coated in die-cast tin shapes; trains flanked with bone ornaments; double- & triple-decker trains; plastic-pelted trains stained in acrylic colours. The Medes passed the clatter & clank of diesel vehicles like their own. Past the shrill fussy shenanigans of steam trains that spat & whistled & burped dirty clouds, like irritating godly babies. & others.
At times, the omniscient narrator of the story speaks directly to the reader, often weaving the metaphors of the railsea into the way he is telling his tale. Here he explains why he uses the ampersand instead of the text “and”:
The lines of the railsea go everywhere but from one place straight to another. It is always switchback, junction, coils around & over our own train-trails.
What word better could there be to symbolize the railsea that connects & separates all lands, than “&” itself?
As in 19th century novels, these forms of interruption help render the sense of sitting in a living room as a storyteller orally unwinds his tale. The original format for metafiction. For some readers this method will irritate as a source of distancing from immersion in the story, but it was charming play to me. For example, after hesitating in prior interludes, here he prepares to carry through on moving the narrative from character to another:
Asked: What should the story do when the primary window through which we view it is shuttered? we might say: It should look through another window.
That is to say, follow other rails, see through other eyes.
The novel has much uniqueness in its vision and is the most accessible of the four Miéville books I’ve read so far. To me, the railsea society’s mythologies about its predecessor civilization has some of the feel of John Crowley’s “Engine Summer”. The coming of age aspect of a youth taking on a lost parent’s quest to understand and dispel the restrictive mysteries of the world is rendered with some of the flavor of Pullman’s “The Golden Compass.” Other readers can have a field day with Miéville acknowledgments of writers who inspired him. Among some 17 writers and artists he cites, the most modern are Penelope Lively, Ursula Le Guin, and Charles Platt. Classic writers include Robert Louis Stephenson, William Dafoe (author of “Robinson Crusoe”), and, of course, Melville.”
“A satisfying blend of post-apocalyptic sci fi and semi-mythical fantasy with overtones of “Moby Dick”. It took me a good 100 pages to suspend my suspicious disbelief in this world where the railroads are a pervasive technology linking diverse city-states and many monstrous creatures burrow the earth and fly the skies. But the story of a boy on a quest and the people he successfully enlists in his cause made for a compelling tale, essentially a portrayal of the power of an individual to exceed the constraints of fear and superstition.
Michael E wrote this review Saturday, March 9, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Our young hero, Sham, apprentices himself as a doctor’s assistant on a “mole train”, a group of people who hunt the giant Moldywarpes by rail. The method of the hunt wonderfully emulates that of 19th century whale hunting with harpoons targeted when the beast breaches. Captain Naphi has a special bent for a particular mole (Mocker Jack), much as Captain Ahab had for his great white sperm whale. Nautical metaphors abound, with the intensive network of rails likened to a “railsea” and pockets of human settlement to islands with harbors. After a while, this mode of thinking takes you over and I was hooked as a reader.
The following paragraph of the skeleton of the plot may be interpreted as spoilerish
Sham’s inauguration in bloody butchering of the mole has some kind of symbolic value, as soon he becomes obsessed with pursuing deeper knowledge of the mysteries of his world. He dreams of becoming a salvor, another profession that takes to the rails to salvage remnants of past civilizations. His quest seems driven by the mysterious disappearance of his father. And it aligns with that of a young brother and sister he meets along the way, who seek to fulfill the work of parents who also disappeared in their work to discover what lies beyond the railsea. What we know from the beginning of this book is that this world is obviously recovering from some apocalypse that befell a more advanced technological civilization. The myths say some terrible angels hold guard at the gates to Heaven at edge of the world, and while treasures are to be found there, there is some threat from an infinite “vale of tears.”
The prose Miéville wields is delightful in its sensuousness and old fashioned tonality. Here is a sample portraying the diversity trains the boy encounters on their way into the metropolis Manihiki:
Here a small train, three carriages only, manoeuvring the rails of the harbor at the end of the great thrumming cables, tugged by two great birds. Well: a buzzard-train, emissary from the Teekee archipelago. Wooden trains decorated with masks; trains coated in die-cast tin shapes; trains flanked with bone ornaments; double- & triple-decker trains; plastic-pelted trains stained in acrylic colours. The Medes passed the clatter & clank of diesel vehicles like their own. Past the shrill fussy shenanigans of steam trains that spat & whistled & burped dirty clouds, like irritating godly babies. & others.
At times, the omniscient narrator of the story speaks directly to the reader, often weaving the metaphors of the railsea into the way he is telling his tale. Here he explains why he uses the ampersand instead of the text “and”:
The lines of the railsea go everywhere but from one place straight to another. It is always switchback, junction, coils around & over our own train-trails.
What word better could there be to symbolize the railsea that connects & separates all lands, than “&” itself?
As in 19th century novels, these forms of interruption help render the sense of sitting in a living room as a storyteller orally unwinds his tale. The original format for metafiction. For some readers this method will irritate as a source of distancing from immersion in the story, but it was charming play to me. For example, after hesitating in prior interludes, here he prepares to carry through on moving the narrative from character to another:
Asked: What should the story do when the primary window through which we view it is shuttered? we might say: It should look through another window.
That is to say, follow other rails, see through other eyes.
The novel has much uniqueness in its vision and is the most accessible of the four Miéville books I’ve read so far. To me, the railsea society’s mythologies about its predecessor civilization has some of the feel of John Crowley’s “Engine Summer”. The coming of age aspect of a youth taking on a lost parent’s quest to understand and dispel the restrictive mysteries of the world is rendered with some of the flavor of Pullman’s “The Golden Compass.” Other readers can have a field day with Miéville acknowledgments of writers who inspired him. Among some 17 writers and artists he cites, the most modern are Penelope Lively, Ursula Le Guin, and Charles Platt. Classic writers include Robert Louis Stephenson, William Dafoe (author of “Robinson Crusoe”), and, of course, Melville.
”
“I was confused by many parts in this book. The book is written in a way that tends to make me skim through the paragraphs, and not grasp all the details. From what I could get, I thought this book was interesting. The setting is certainly very strange. It's a sea of rails. So trains would go on it. Duh.
Thomas wrote this review Sunday, March 17, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Sham Ap Soorap is the main character of Railsea. Sham Ap Soorap is apparently male, and he is on a moling train. He goes into a hole of carnivorous molerats and is attacked and rescued, but one of the crew members is nearly killed and eaten by the colony. Sham is later kidnapped and he must get back to his crew and help a pair of siblings find heaven.”“A bit boring at the beginning, building up suspense. The end, in my opinion, with all the suspense is a bit of an anticlimax.”
Sora K. wrote this review Monday, January 21, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“New Mieville! I didn't know it existed until I was standing in front of it at TWG library! Cool!”
gferguson wrote this review Saturday, January 19, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Childish writing, under developed world based on a silly idea. The protagonist is... dumb and the '&'s everywhere drove me crazy”
Lior Shapira wrote this review Friday, December 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Spin off of Moby Dick. Creative and VERY different. Not your average fiction. Good read.”
sschelkoph wrote this review Thursday, November 8, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“An intriguing view of a distant future with a puzzling past (between today and this book). Creates a vastly altered and foreignn world, where the ground itself is no longer safe except on certain "islands". The earrh is populated by mutated predators, and life is harsh. The islands are connected by a web of railroads: Railsea. Very interesting premise, and a good read. Kind of a bizarre ending, but open to sequels.”
Eric R wrote this review Sunday, September 23, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
