Railsea review
Jun. 8th, 2013 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI went to an event at the LRB bookshop a few weeks ago (and had a really nice catch-up with lareinemisere in the process) where China Mieville was speaking. It was great, and made me think I should read another one of his books.
I picked Railsea, which is apparently aimed at the 'young adult' market. I guess I could tell that by the age of the protagonist and the derring-do adventure plot - but he certainly didn't let up on the vocabulary or the weirdness. The book is both fantastic and sensual in the strictest sense of both words - gloriously bonkers, with wonderfully lyrical prose. He writes in a compelling and very effective mixture of very short and very long sentences that creates incredibly evocative pictures of what's going on.
At the LRB event, Mieville said he doesn't understand people who are put off by not knowing what's going on in a book right away, or by having to look up words they don't know - and he certainly tests both those characteristics in his readers with this one! I fell foul of the unexplained use of '&' instead of 'and' throughout - I annoyed me no end because there seemed to be no reason for it, but I should have had faith, as it is explained part way through and the explanation is wholly satisfying. It's also justifiable that its significance would not have been as apparent had the explanation taken place earlier in the book.
There are wonderful similes and metaphors throughout, all built around images to do with trains ("his heart clatternaming on inner rails" - clatternames are the different sounds the trains make on the rails at different speeds - "the secrets dried up in his mouth like unloved fuel tanks") - it's all so much fun and so involving. The world of the book is extremely well realised and seems very complete.
I particularly loved the way the pirate captain specifically did not have a coat full of polecats and weasels, or a beard tied with twists of smoking gunpowder. He's just a man in glasses and a boilersuit, who is nonetheless incredibly menacing and has an inventive imagination when it comes to threats.
I also loved the teasing, delaying tactics of the authorial voice, who left some characters in a rather tense situation and then refused to go back to them for a long time ("Is it time for the Shroakes again? No, not yet!" - and eventually - "Now it's Shroake O'Clock!").
Additionally, after all the build-up, what does turn out to be at the end of the world is well worth the wait!
Overall, I absolutely loved this book from start to finish - exciting, fun, and very, very clever.
I picked Railsea, which is apparently aimed at the 'young adult' market. I guess I could tell that by the age of the protagonist and the derring-do adventure plot - but he certainly didn't let up on the vocabulary or the weirdness. The book is both fantastic and sensual in the strictest sense of both words - gloriously bonkers, with wonderfully lyrical prose. He writes in a compelling and very effective mixture of very short and very long sentences that creates incredibly evocative pictures of what's going on.
At the LRB event, Mieville said he doesn't understand people who are put off by not knowing what's going on in a book right away, or by having to look up words they don't know - and he certainly tests both those characteristics in his readers with this one! I fell foul of the unexplained use of '&' instead of 'and' throughout - I annoyed me no end because there seemed to be no reason for it, but I should have had faith, as it is explained part way through and the explanation is wholly satisfying. It's also justifiable that its significance would not have been as apparent had the explanation taken place earlier in the book.
There are wonderful similes and metaphors throughout, all built around images to do with trains ("his heart clatternaming on inner rails" - clatternames are the different sounds the trains make on the rails at different speeds - "the secrets dried up in his mouth like unloved fuel tanks") - it's all so much fun and so involving. The world of the book is extremely well realised and seems very complete.
I particularly loved the way the pirate captain specifically did not have a coat full of polecats and weasels, or a beard tied with twists of smoking gunpowder. He's just a man in glasses and a boilersuit, who is nonetheless incredibly menacing and has an inventive imagination when it comes to threats.
I also loved the teasing, delaying tactics of the authorial voice, who left some characters in a rather tense situation and then refused to go back to them for a long time ("Is it time for the Shroakes again? No, not yet!" - and eventually - "Now it's Shroake O'Clock!").
Additionally, after all the build-up, what does turn out to be at the end of the world is well worth the wait!
Overall, I absolutely loved this book from start to finish - exciting, fun, and very, very clever.
