Railsea
by China Mieville
Reviewed by M
Railsea
is a swashbuckling adventure about a boy who is an apprentice doctor on a
moletrain pummelling across the railsea in search of monster-sized,
human-eating moles. You’ll meet captains in search of philosophies, marauding
pirates in search of treasures, orphans in search of answers, monstrous
underground creatures, and a boy in search of something. Plus, the novel is a
playful metafiction. Railsea is a
cavorting frolic and I enjoyed it immensely.
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| Railsea by China Mieville |
From
page one (atually three), Mieville, or the narrator, or both, are playing with you, the reader.
He makes it clear that this is metafiction: a story about a story. Throughout
Railsea, the narrator pauses the story to talk to you. I love this but as the
novel progresses, it becomes infuriating.
All
along, I had the feeling that the narrator was smiling and chuckling – at me,
at himself and at his characters. He likes his main character, Sham ap Saroop.
He likes Captain Naphi with all her multiple flaws. Indeed, I think he likes
many of his characters and there are some interesting relationships between
Sham and a number of other characters: Daybe the daybat, Naphi and Caldera.
As with most fantasised
fiction, Mieville’s world building is taxing on readers (especially those of us
more accustomed to more realist fiction). Forget ships and water waves, here we
have trains on tracks traversing a sea of rails. The names of the characters
are a mouthful too. Sham ap Saroop is our lovely main character.
Of course, Mieville also
plays with language and style. Mieville uses plenty of made-up words in a made-up
world. He also throws in lots of not made-up words that were challenging enough
for me to have a dictionary close at hand. He uses ampersands (&) in sentences
instead of using ‘and’. You might ask
why the ampersands. I did. Of course, they’re not there just for fun. They
signify a concept. I think there’s usually a reason behind everything in
Railsea – even if it’s just to have a laugh - or even just ‘why not’?
I
loved the way Mieville personifies ideas. In Railsea, a major one for me was ‘chasing
your philosophy’. Anyone who’s ever been searching for ‘the one’ or who
devoutly follows a hobby, lifestyle or interest will recognise themselves in
these pages. Academics and fisherwo-men
especially. And if you’re neither of these, you’re sure to recognise someone
you know.
Thematically, the novel also carries
many underlying thoughts about nation-states and governance in a time of
capitalism, and possibly about the end of the world and the afterlife. In some ways, it is a bit of a steampunk dystopia. There is
no gender stereotyping in Railsea (and I’ve marked it as one for the ‘feminist’
fiction list). Animal cruelty is a strong thread in the novel. Storywise, if
you’ve read Moby Dick or Treasure Island (I haven’t read either), I've heard you may spot
overlaps.
A few years ago I tried to
read Kraken by China Mieville, one of his adult novels. I couldn’t get into it: it was a bit too
horrific in its detail for me. Likewise, this YA cover for Railsea and its plot are
everything that I avoid reading. Zero appeal. But, everything else about
Mieville that appeals to me is in there and the story took me way beyond its
cover and the surface of the plot.
Wonderful and highly
recommended for fun-loving and curious readers of any age.
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| China Mieville |
Publication details: April
2013, Pan Books, London, paperback (first published in hardback, May 2012)
This copy: YA paperback
edition received for review from the publisher
