Tuesday, April 21, 2015

A to Z Challenge 2015: R - Railsea

Happy Tuesday!

I'm really running out of things to say in this section, so let's just get right to it.

Today's 2015 April A to Z Blogging Challenge story for the letter R:

Railsea

An awesome, otherworldly re-imagination of Moby Dick, in a way, Railsea is mind-bendingly original, and still keeps me up at night as a storyteller years later.

Here is the summary, from Goodreads:

On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one’s death and the other’s glory. But no matter how spectacular it is, Sham can't shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling the endless rails of the railsea–even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-coloured mole she’s been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train, at first it's a welcome distraction. But what Sham finds in the derelict—a series of pictures hinting at something, somewhere, that should be impossible—leads to considerably more than he'd bargained for. Soon he's hunted on all sides, by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters and salvage-scrabblers. And it might not be just Sham's life that's about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea.

Author: China Mieville

That's it! Hope to see you tomorrow.

9 comments:

Dani said...

Wow! This sounds so amazing. And it is so original in a way. I WILL have to pick this up and read it for sure!! Thanks for sharing!

Jolie du Pre said...

Sounds interesting!

Precious Monsters

Tamara Narayan said...

Could the author's last name be for real? It's so close to Melville! In any case, it sounds fantastic.

A Tarkabarka Hölgy said...

Oh wow, this does sound very original, especially for a retelling! I love the idea. I'll have to check it out :)

@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

Nick Wilford said...

I love the idea of the moldywarpe, this does sound like something different. I did wonder if the name was an adapted version of Melville and it could be a relative?

Unknown said...

Oh wow, this sounds fab.

S. L. Hennessy said...

A re-imagined Moby Dick? Wow, I've really got to check this one out.

Good luck with the A to Z Challenge!
A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
http://pensuasion.blogspot.com/

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I've seen other books by that author but I haven't picked one up yet.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Interesting. I like seeing the classics retold.

--
Tim Brannan, The Other Side Blog
2015 A to Z of Vampires
http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/