Railsea, by China Miéville

There’s no way to prepare the reader for a China Miéville experience – unless perhaps to familiarize oneself with the great writers of Science Fiction and Science Fantasy – Herbert, Gibson, Banks, Modesitt, Peake, etc. The immersive experience is similar; the detailed, cohesive imaginings of new worlds; the leaps of faith required by the reader; the new language and references. In this novel, the acclaimed, prolific Miéville uses trains and rail travel, from the simplest handcars to massive armoured trains, to create a Steampunk tour de force. He turns the normal rules of rail transportation on its head: the land becomes the railsea of the title, the tracks run across this heaving wilderness like bridges… (Continue reading…)