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Railsea [Kindle Edition]

China Mieville
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)

Print List Price: $10.99
Kindle Price: $7.99 includes free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
You Save: $3.00 (27%)
Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
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Book 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)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Fiction of the new century' Neil Gaiman 'Mieville's work is thrillingly imaginative... immensely witty and utterly unforgettable' Scotland on Sunday 'One of the most imaginative young writers around in any kind of fiction' Guardian 'Mieville's imagined societies may be fantastic, but they are utterly coherent... wonderfully infectious' Daily Telegraph"

Review

Praise for China Miéville
 
Embassytown
 
“Miéville’s swing-for-the-fences gusto thrills. This is Big Idea Sci-Fi at its most propulsively readable.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
Kraken
 
“The stakes [are] driven high and almost anything can happen. The reader is primed for a memorable payoff, and Miéville more than delivers.”—San Francisco Chronicle
 
The City & The City
 
“If Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler’s love child were raised by Franz Kafka, the writing that emerged might resemble . . . The City & The City.”—Los Angeles Times
 
Un Lun Dun
 
“Endlessly inventive . . . [a] hybrid of Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and The Phantom Tollbooth.”—Salon
 
Perdido Street Station
 
“Compulsively readable . . . impossible to expunge from memory.”—The Washington Post Book World
 
The Scar
 
“A fantastic setting for an unforgettable tale . . . memorable because of Miéville’s vivid language [and] rich imagination.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
Iron Council
 
“A masterwork . . . a story that pops with creativity.”—Wired

Product Details

  • File Size: 2622 KB
  • Print Length: 384 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0230765106
  • Publisher: Del Rey (May 15, 2012)
  • Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005IQZBSW
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Lending: Not Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,585 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
98 of 107 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars one of my top reads of 2012 May 15, 2012
Format:Hardcover
I'm not going to lie and say that Railsea is a book I will be recommending to all readers, but I will, with certainty, be recommending it to anyone and everyone I think would enjoy it. Railsea isn't what anyone expects to see under the `YA' label. Many have argued that it isn't really YA at all, but when a book is pitched as `a novel for readers of all ages', I don't think it's really trying to be. Given its content, I think that `a novel for readers of all ages' is the perfect description for Railsea. It will appeal to Miéville's adult fanbase, as well as make him more accessible to younger readers. The teens who will fall in love with Railsea will be those who probably read a lot of adult sci-fi or fantasy already; they will be smart, appreciate a wry sense of humor, and have a wonderful sense of adventure. Readers must be patient getting into this one, as it will take you a while to feel entirely at ease with the language and story, and to understand the world that Miéville has built, but I assure you that it will be worth the effort.

As China Miéville has said himself: "Part of the appeal of the fantastic is taking ridiculous ideas very seriously and pretending they're not absurd." I couldn't possibly describe Railsea in a more accurate sentence. Railsea is ridiculous, but the respect and authority that Miéville gives to his characters in the story therein left me completely enraptured, enamored, and on the edge of my seat wanting more. To me, Railsea was hilarious. I was constantly laughing out loud in the way that you laughs at someone who you are never quite sure recognizes how clever they are.
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars What did I just read -- and why is it over? May 23, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's a bit difficult to describe my feelings about Railsea.

Allow me to illustrate my problem: I can't figure out what the book is supposed to be. Is it an allegory about corporate greed, about the toll humanity takes on the world around us? It seems so. Is it simply a weird adventure, written from an absinthe dream after falling asleep reading Moby Dick? It easily could be.

It could be that the entire story was an excuse to hurl the reader into this world of water-less ports and sea-less monsters -- it's as good a reason as any, I suppose.

And that's the problem with Railsea: I have no idea what I've just read. I have no idea what I was supposed to get out of it.

But of course, this could be purposeful: in a (spoiler-free) way, I'm mirroring the journey of the book's protagonist, Sham. You see, that's the true wonderful nature of the book -- it presents a world of mysteries, full of people working to solve them.

The intrepid captains who hunt their philosophies (in the form of giant burrowing monsters who represent life-lessons and principles in the eyes of the hunters) are trying to solve the mysteries of their own lives. The brave updivers, who struggle to discover what lies abandoned in the alien-infested cliffs and poisonous air of the upsky. It seems that everyone in the Railsea is looking for information about their surroundings.

So is it an adventure about a boy? An exploration of a setting? A cautionary tale?

It shifts. Near the beginning of the book, during the opening mole-hunting scenes, I was truly reminded of Moby Dick -- and yearned to re-read it, for a very brief time, until the upsky began to get attention, and the cast-off artifacts of alien visitation. Then, I wanted to reread Roadside Picnic.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have to admit that I had a hard time getting into this book at first; in fact, I almost gave up on it. Not because the world was strange- all worlds Mieville builds are strange. It just didn't click with me. But I'm glad I hung on, because around about the middle, things picked up and then I couldn't put the book down.

The world of Railsea is even weirder than most of Mieville's worlds; except for in the cities, the ground cannot be walked upon. Spaces between cities are covered with train tracks that weave, cross, bend, intertwine, join and change gauge with abandon. Step off those tracks, and you risk attracting the attention of the giant, carnivorous, burrowing critters: beetles, worms, moles, tortoises, owls and others. As on the world of `Dune', human footsteps draw danger. Even the trains are vulnerable to attack by these 1960s Japanese horror movie monsters. This is a world of ecological ruin, one where technology ranges from wind powered to steam to diesel to nuclear and where the cities seem to be some combo of Mad Max and Lankhmar.

The book has multiple plotlines; in one, the captain of the Medes, a mole hunting train, is minus an arm and searches for the taker, a gigantic white mole; in another, the main character Sham Yes ap Soorap ("Call me Sham") seeks to tell a pair of children about the fate of their parents; while the semi-orphaned children seek to complete their parents goal, all dovetailing into one wild, breathless finale. The characters are likable, although none are really deep; Sham is the most fully realized as more time is devoted to his story than the others.

The book is hard to pigeonhole: part science fiction, part fantasy, part dystopian fiction, part satire; I think the best term might be `salvage punk'.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Mieville or Melville?
Once again China Miéville has demonstrated why he is in a class, and possibly a genre, all by himself. Read more
Published 18 days ago by manly-but-bookish
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Triumph
Somehow he manages in every novel to weave things which violate the laws of the universe into a "hard sci-fi" context. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Ross Salinger
5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE China Mieville
This book is just so different and so captivating. He's very imaginative with all of his work. It's very different, yet very intriguing.
Published 1 month ago by earthdust
4.0 out of 5 stars Railsea
Railsea kept my interest all through, inventive situations and likeable chars. Found the ending slightly disappointing but all in all a good read.
Published 1 month ago by MaureenThomas
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating world to visit.
The world of Railsea is superbly unique. A complex network of girders and ties covering most of the landscape. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bryan Sorrwar
4.0 out of 5 stars Would love to see a movie made of this!
Mieville plays with the English language the way a disturbed child will play with plastic army men while armed with stolen matches and lighter fluid. Read more
Published 2 months ago by sgtbuk1
2.0 out of 5 stars Weird book. Great first chapter and then fxxzzzz.
Railroad tracks everywhere. Underground critters. Some magic. and a Great White Mole. I was hoping to really get wrapped up in this one on a flight out and back but it just didn't... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Peter K. Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars dazzling sci-fi remake of a classic
My review is really 4.5 stars.

Really whacked-out SF/fantasy from the expert in whacked-out SF/fantasy, China Mieville. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bibliophilic
5.0 out of 5 stars I want to have sex with China Mieville's brain.
No lie, China Mieville is a god among authors. I'm not kidding, I love his command of the English language so much I want to declare his writing a new deity and become a priestess... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Elizabeth Mary Wallace
5.0 out of 5 stars Complex, but Worth the Time and Energy
Railsea is a bit hard to follow in the beginning, but like all of Miéville's novels, if you give yourself time to understand the lay of the fantastical land, you'll... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Samantha Barbosa
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More About the Author

China Miéville is the author of King Rat; Perdido Street Station, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award; The Scar, winner of the Locus Award and the British Fantasy Award; Iron Council, winner of the Locus Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award; Looking for Jake, a collection of short stories; and Un Lun Dun, his New York Times bestselling book for younger readers. He lives and works in London.

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Really Now?
There's nothing new under the sun. Were you upset that The City & The City was basically a police procedural? (i.e. a "rewrite" of thousands of preceeding books?) As long as he brings something new to the table, as in The City & The City, I don't care what it's based on. What... Read more
May 6, 2012 by Nathaniel Catron |  See all 2 posts
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