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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Welp. What a journey this book was! I picked this up as I was reading the Adventure Writing Prize longlist and I do bloody love a train ride so I figured I knew what I was getting in for, adventures on a train right? Well... yes... but also no... it ended up being a weirdly beautiful, slightly creepy dystopian meditation on fear.
Set aboard a heavily fortified train crossing a mysterious, deadly expanse known only as the Wastelands (somewhere between Russia and China), the novel follows a small group of travellers and crew who all have secrets, griefs, or reasons for being there. The Wastelands are said to warp the laws of nature, no one really knows what’s out there, but everyone agrees it’s dangerous. There are eerie landscapes, strange creatures glimpsed in the fog, and the train must never stop for fear of what may be lurking outside getting in.
We meet multiple different travellers but the protagonist is Zhang Weiwei, a young orphan who was born on the train and who’s never seen the outside world. She rides the train across the Wastelands and back again, learning about it's passengers, its crew and the train itself. On this crossing however, when strange things begin to happen, malfunctions, mysterious sightings, people behaving oddly, she becomes more and more curious about what’s really going on outside the sealed windows. Alongside her are a grieving woman running from something, a disgraced naturalist with a secret agenda, and a stowaway who may know more than they're letting on. The Wastelands themselves even seem not so much a setting, but a vast inscrutable presence trying to find their way into the train too.
This is a locked train mystery in the sense that the cast is small and fixed... but the mystery is not something happening within the locked train but outside of it. There’s a kind of creeping tension throughout, nothing explosive, but you feel it building. You’re never quite sure what’s real or imagined, and that’s part of the point, the train just seems 'off' and it becomes a slow unravelling, both of the characters and of the world they thought they understood.
The writing is gorgeous, controlled and full of quiet dread. But fair warning, this is not HS2... it’s very slow-paced and more focused on mood and introspection which might frustrate you if you came looking for an action-packed adventure. It’s not a page-turner in the traditional sense, but it is nuanced, immersive and subtly unsettling. I enjoyed it in the sunshine but I am sure I would have got even more from it if I read it in a suitably eerie setting!
Set aboard a heavily fortified train crossing a mysterious, deadly expanse known only as the Wastelands (somewhere between Russia and China), the novel follows a small group of travellers and crew who all have secrets, griefs, or reasons for being there. The Wastelands are said to warp the laws of nature, no one really knows what’s out there, but everyone agrees it’s dangerous. There are eerie landscapes, strange creatures glimpsed in the fog, and the train must never stop for fear of what may be lurking outside getting in.
We meet multiple different travellers but the protagonist is Zhang Weiwei, a young orphan who was born on the train and who’s never seen the outside world. She rides the train across the Wastelands and back again, learning about it's passengers, its crew and the train itself. On this crossing however, when strange things begin to happen, malfunctions, mysterious sightings, people behaving oddly, she becomes more and more curious about what’s really going on outside the sealed windows. Alongside her are a grieving woman running from something, a disgraced naturalist with a secret agenda, and a stowaway who may know more than they're letting on. The Wastelands themselves even seem not so much a setting, but a vast inscrutable presence trying to find their way into the train too.
This is a locked train mystery in the sense that the cast is small and fixed... but the mystery is not something happening within the locked train but outside of it. There’s a kind of creeping tension throughout, nothing explosive, but you feel it building. You’re never quite sure what’s real or imagined, and that’s part of the point, the train just seems 'off' and it becomes a slow unravelling, both of the characters and of the world they thought they understood.
The writing is gorgeous, controlled and full of quiet dread. But fair warning, this is not HS2... it’s very slow-paced and more focused on mood and introspection which might frustrate you if you came looking for an action-packed adventure. It’s not a page-turner in the traditional sense, but it is nuanced, immersive and subtly unsettling. I enjoyed it in the sunshine but I am sure I would have got even more from it if I read it in a suitably eerie setting!
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
relaxing
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Really enjoyed this, both the historical fantasy and the unexpected mild horror vibes that kept me engaged and gave the story an uneasy feeling. I thought the end was lovely.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Another book that I mostly picked up because of the cover and it was so good and not at all what I expected
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
3.5 stars. a story about colonialism, hunger for power, and anti-industrialism. i wish the characters were a bit… more, but other than that definitely worth reading! such an interesting premise and concept- so incredibly creative.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced