Railsea
Cover of the first U.S. hardcover edition of Railsea
|
|
| Author | China Miéville |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult fiction, weird fiction |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
|
Publication date
|
15 May 2012 |
| Pages | 448 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | Embassytown |
| Followed by | Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories |
Railsea is a young adult novel written and illustrated by English writer China Miéville, and published in May 2012. Miéville described the novel as "weird fiction",io9 labeled its mix of fantasy and steampunk elements as "salvagepunk" and the story has been seen as an "affectionate parody" of Herman Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick, also drawing on Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novels Treasure Island and Kidnapped.
Railsea is set on a dystopic world whose lands are covered by endless interconnecting tracks of rails, known as the "railsea". The earth is colonized by ravenous giant naked mole-rats and other carnivorous giant forms of familiar animals, such as earwigs and antlions as well as stranger non-identifiable creatures that reside in the polluted sky. These threats mean that humanity are confined to 'islands' of harder rock through which the animals cannot burrow and the spaces between can only be safely traversed by use of trains.
Sham Yes ap Soorap is a young assistant doctor on a moletrain, captained by Abacat Naphi, that hunts giant moles for meat in a similar fashion to whaling. Naphi is especially obsessed with one mole named Mocker-Jack and after one encounter, they discover an abandoned train. Sham enters it, discovering a corpse and a camera buried in the ground. Sham and Naphi view the images and are shocked to see an image of a single rail leading off into the distance, an apparent impossibility as it is believed that the railsea is endless.
As rumours spread of Sham's discovery, his investigations lead him to Caldera and Dero Shroake. They are the son and daughter of two explorers who ventured to the furthest reaches of the railsea before disappearing. Sham tells them of the content of the camera, and they resolve to retrace their parents steps aboard their own train. Sham returns to the moletrain. Before it departs, he is captured by pirates who demand that he provide them with instructions as to how to reach the Shroakes as they believe that there is treasure to be found beyond the railsea.
...
Wikipedia