Scan barcode
edgeworth's review against another edition
5.0
Railhead ended with interstellar thief Zen Starling and his robotic friend and lover Nova escaping the encroaching forces of the Network Empire by riding their train through a newly-built teleportation gateway to an entirely alien railway network. That sentence sounds completely bonkers if you haven’t read Railhead, but the general gist is that it’s a space opera set in a far-future universe where people travel on intelligent trains, moving between different star systems by virtue of a network of mysterious gateways; there’s some confusion as to whether they were built by a long-vanished alien race, or by the Guardians, the pantheon of god-like AIs who have exercised benevolent rule over the human race for centuries now.
Black Light Express is a fast-paced, enjoyable sequel to Railhead. Reeve has a lot of fun in Stark Trek mode during the first half, inventing all kinds of bizarre alien species for Zen and Nova to encounter as they travel upon what turns out to be the original interstellar network. As always, he shows a great flair for creating morally grey characters, and for expanding upon characters who were seemingly introduced to serve purely as villains – like Kobi Chen-Tulsi, a spoilt rich jerk in Railhead but somebody a bit older and wiser now. I also enjoyed seeing more of the Guardians, which were brushed upon in Railhead but are explored more thoroughly here.
Reeve also explores the concept of unconventional love, whether it’s Zen and Nova or the even stranger relationship between Malik (one of those morally grey antagonists from Railhead) and the human “interface” of the Guardian Mordaunt 90. This is a particularly interesting thing to see in the YA genre, in which authors these days are very cognisant of the fact that their target audience includes what you might call at-risk teenagers. The obvious example I’m thinking of is the need for closeted gay kids to see valid, celebrated gay relationships on the page and on the screen – but it’s quite easy to just throw in a couple of gay characters. Instead, by depicting unconventional relationships with a sci-fi slant that will never apply at all in the real world, Reeve has come up with a creative and thoughtful metaphor that young readers can interpret more broadly: a statement that love knows no boundaries, is not necessarily linked to sex, and can manifest in surprising and unexpected ways.
But that’s just a small part of it, one which I thought was particularly original and worth noting – Reeve’s not writing some manifesto on love. Black Light Express is still mostly adventures and explosions and all-powerful AIs and alien ruins and snarky trains. I don’t love the Railhead series quite as much as I loved the Mortal Engines series, but I’m pretty sure that’s just the nostalgia factor. These books are brilliant examples of YA sci-fi which deserve a place in every school library, and Reeve remains of Britain’s most criminally underrated authors. I hope we get a third entry in the series next year.
Black Light Express is a fast-paced, enjoyable sequel to Railhead. Reeve has a lot of fun in Stark Trek mode during the first half, inventing all kinds of bizarre alien species for Zen and Nova to encounter as they travel upon what turns out to be the original interstellar network. As always, he shows a great flair for creating morally grey characters, and for expanding upon characters who were seemingly introduced to serve purely as villains – like Kobi Chen-Tulsi, a spoilt rich jerk in Railhead but somebody a bit older and wiser now. I also enjoyed seeing more of the Guardians, which were brushed upon in Railhead but are explored more thoroughly here.
Reeve also explores the concept of unconventional love, whether it’s Zen and Nova or the even stranger relationship between Malik (one of those morally grey antagonists from Railhead) and the human “interface” of the Guardian Mordaunt 90. This is a particularly interesting thing to see in the YA genre, in which authors these days are very cognisant of the fact that their target audience includes what you might call at-risk teenagers. The obvious example I’m thinking of is the need for closeted gay kids to see valid, celebrated gay relationships on the page and on the screen – but it’s quite easy to just throw in a couple of gay characters. Instead, by depicting unconventional relationships with a sci-fi slant that will never apply at all in the real world, Reeve has come up with a creative and thoughtful metaphor that young readers can interpret more broadly: a statement that love knows no boundaries, is not necessarily linked to sex, and can manifest in surprising and unexpected ways.
But that’s just a small part of it, one which I thought was particularly original and worth noting – Reeve’s not writing some manifesto on love. Black Light Express is still mostly adventures and explosions and all-powerful AIs and alien ruins and snarky trains. I don’t love the Railhead series quite as much as I loved the Mortal Engines series, but I’m pretty sure that’s just the nostalgia factor. These books are brilliant examples of YA sci-fi which deserve a place in every school library, and Reeve remains of Britain’s most criminally underrated authors. I hope we get a third entry in the series next year.
anotherother's review against another edition
4.0
Manages to continue smoothly from where the previous book left off, and keep its atmosphere and tone, while telling a very different story. Full of interesting and fun ideas.
foreveryoungadult's review against another edition
Graded By: Mandy C.
Cover Story: Light at the End of the Tunnel
BFF Charm: Yay and Nay
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Talky Talk: Science Fiction Adventure
Bonus Factors: Return to the K-bahn, Shades of His Dark Materials
Relationship Status: Adventure Companions
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: Light at the End of the Tunnel
BFF Charm: Yay and Nay
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Talky Talk: Science Fiction Adventure
Bonus Factors: Return to the K-bahn, Shades of His Dark Materials
Relationship Status: Adventure Companions
Read the full book report here.
norma_cenva's review against another edition
5.0
Just now I got notified that book 3 is out, and when I went to check out when the Audio-version will be available I saw that Book 2 was not reflected in my reading list as "Read" - WHAT? How can this be!!! Many things can be said about this series. The world-building here is absolutely phenomenal! The characters are great, and the trains (You get me if you read this, if not just go with it) well they are are in a separate category all together x I am so excited for book 3, am thinking of re-reading book 1 & 2 while I wait x
laurenla's review against another edition
4.0
Second in a series, complex sci fi with living trains & layers of alien societies, enjoyable but start with the first book.
r1dh4's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
In some ways, Black Light Express was better than the first book of the series. The plot is pretty compelling and begins from the first page, and the increased changes in perspective added movement that was kinda lacking in Railhead (though, I will say that there were still some disorienting perspective shifts in this book, too). I really liked the new characters introduced, especially Chandni, and I liked the continued development of the Great Network as well as the Web of Worlds.
However, there were other elements of the book beyond the story that brought down my rating of this book. I found it weird that almost every LGBT character died between these two books, except for one (so far). Also, I didn't like Zen's attitude towards the Hive Monks throughout the book, especially after the Monks continuously helped him; to me, it came off as kind of ungrateful and prejudiced. I guess you could argue that he grew a bit more from this towards the end, but this thread in general didn't feel well-executed to me. Also, while I really appreciated the diversity of the cast of characters, I felt like when the book pulled from South Asian cultural influences it felt kind of forced. I'm not completely sure how to explain this, besides the fact that it felt weird to me to read about my culture from someone who seems to only have a surface-level knowledge of it. This was also something I noticed in the first book, but I wasn't sure how to address because the representation isn't inherently negative.
In all, would I recommend this series to someone? No. Am I going to finish it? Probably, at least to see how this ends.
In some ways, Black Light Express was better than the first book of the series. The plot is pretty compelling and begins from the first page, and the increased changes in perspective added movement that was kinda lacking in Railhead (though, I will say that there were still some disorienting perspective shifts in this book, too). I really liked the new characters introduced, especially Chandni, and I liked the continued development of the Great Network as well as the Web of Worlds.
However, there were other elements of the book beyond the story that brought down my rating of this book. I found it weird that almost every LGBT character died between these two books, except for one (so far). Also, I didn't like Zen's attitude towards the Hive Monks throughout the book, especially after the Monks continuously helped him; to me, it came off as kind of ungrateful and prejudiced. I guess you could argue that he grew a bit more from this towards the end, but this thread in general didn't feel well-executed to me. Also, while I really appreciated the diversity of the cast of characters, I felt like when the book pulled from South Asian cultural influences it felt kind of forced. I'm not completely sure how to explain this, besides the fact that it felt weird to me to read about my culture from someone who seems to only have a surface-level knowledge of it. This was also something I noticed in the first book, but I wasn't sure how to address because the representation isn't inherently negative.
In all, would I recommend this series to someone? No. Am I going to finish it? Probably, at least to see how this ends.
maidmarianlib's review against another edition
5.0
So cool. I love the setting and characters, the unique character types are so engaging and really outside of the standard. Some great revelations too about the world and how it came to be. Some great villains!
colossal's review against another edition
4.0
Zen and Nova have passed through the new gate into a whole new part of space with strange aliens and a whole new rail network. But they've left chaos in their wake, with the new Noon Empress in a difficult position, Chandni Hansa literally on ice and Malik marooned on Desdemor. There are mysteries to unravel on both sides of the new railgate, with new enemies and old friends as well as the secret of the Railmakers themselves.
I love the expansion of the Railhead universe in this book. The Web of Worlds is a fascinating place with interesting aliens, and like the first book, Philip doesn't hesitate to put his characters in extreme jeopardy while playing meaningful roles in the universe. I will say though that I didn't care for some of the turns of character here, particularly towards the latter half of the book. Some don't make a lot of sense ( also ) and others feel like railroading (heh) of otherwise sensible characters ()
Still, it's entertaining and creative and will certainly have me buying a subsequent volume if it appears.
I love the expansion of the Railhead universe in this book. The Web of Worlds is a fascinating place with interesting aliens, and like the first book, Philip doesn't hesitate to put his characters in extreme jeopardy while playing meaningful roles in the universe. I will say though that I didn't care for some of the turns of character here, particularly towards the latter half of the book. Some don't make a lot of sense (
Spoiler
the betrayal by a point-of=view character of some of the others is rationalized, but I don't buy it at allSpoiler
the Twins actions don't make a lot of sense from the point-of-view of a super-intelligent AI ... a 5-year old with access to nuclear weapons perhapsSpoiler
the whole Zen not being able to follow Nova seems like nothing more than setting up a plot-point of reuniting the couple in a subsequent volume.Still, it's entertaining and creative and will certainly have me buying a subsequent volume if it appears.
bibliophilicemily's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0