Review: Railsea
Railsea by China Miéville
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
List of things that I remember from Railsea:
- Lesson learned: I should choose the ebook version for my next Mieville book so that the dictionary is just one or two click away.
- It was not until the fifth chapter that I could adapt to Mieville’s writing style. The out-of-my-range vocabulary is one of the reason but I’m not sure it’s the only reason.
- What kept me going is that somehow even with that limitation, the words translate into a beautiful 2D Japanese anime style in my mind. The world is portrayed in mostly brown colour (even if it doesn’t fit the actual description in the book because I misunderstand it or something :P). So I kept on following Sham’s mind & journey.
- & I’m glad I did. The sixth chapter is my favorite. I can understand why he had the urge to save the bird & then cause his train mates to chase him. The dull & lost feeling Sam had leads into this one scene where he just felt enough & submitted to his instinct. Grab the bird & run! Oh, it was beautiful.
- The word “philosophy” in this book makes me wonder. I never see the word used this way and I like it. The captains of the train usually have a philosophy and it most likely means a certain creature, an archenemy, that they will hunt earnestly.
- I very much enjoy the “rest” chapters, the one page chapters placed between longer ones. They are usually written slightly out of story but still related, like a little footnote but in form of a short chapter & they complete the story, you know, like why there is only ampersand (&) sign in the story.
- I didn’t expect the story at the end, the one isolated town at the end of the railsea, with their own myth. I’m not sure why after how long it is, years, centuries, epochs, the factory-town people do not venture outside. I don’t understand why they keep believing outside people will pay their debt. I imagine their area is quite small, nobody ever want to see what’s out there? Even if there’s angel guarding the bridge. Wait, did any of them even have the chance to see the bridge? Poor people.