Initially the obvious rip-off of Peter F. Hamilton (an interstellar rail network links planets via wormholes), Iain M. Banks (AI controlled vehicles), even William Gibson (Neuromancer-style web-diving) was off-putting but as the story progressed I got caught up in the characters, mysteries and plot twists that kept things unpredictable and exciting until the denouement. By the end I was eager for more.
Once upon a time in the 80’s I saw an anime movie on TV called Galaxy Express 999: Can You Love Like a Mother? It was episodes 51-52 of a 100+ episode series which I’d never seen. It was devoid of context and badly dubbed, but there was a boy on a train traveling through space and I was entranced. I never went looking for the whole series and had mostly forgotten about it until I started seeing reviews for Railhead pop up a couple of years ago. Sentient trains traveling through space? A young street thief caught in a galactic conflict beyond his comprehension? Intrigue and action and complex morality? Yes! cried my inner 80’s child. Sign. Me. Up.
Boy, am I glad I listened to her!
Railhead is absolutely full of interesting, flawed characters and has an intriguing, twisty plot, but it’s the freaking brilliant world building that really shines.
There were things that lived in the deep data: unregistered phishing nets, spam-sharks that would hack your mind and fill your dreams with adverts, half-mad military programmes left over from long-ago wars.
I can’t even articulate how much I love the future universe Reeve created, so I’m not going to try. The book does stand alone, but I’m super bummed there’s no sequel. [Edit: THERE ARE SEQUELS! I AM FULL OF JOY!] I want to ride the rails, making friends with the trains and listening to them sing while alien landscapes flash by.
I want to be a railhead.
Zen Starling is a petty thief. He thinks he has just been caught stealing but instead he has been chosen for a mission by a mysterious stranger named Raven. Zen has to infiltrate the Emperor's train and steal something Raven desperately wants. He has always wanted to traverse the Great Network - a vast place of a thousand gates leading to very different places, of Station Angels, drones, maintenance spiders and many different trains all with their own personalities. Zen Starling jumps at the chance to see the worlds and steal something big.
I'm not really into made up worlds and stuff like that but this book sounded interesting enough to give it a go. And I must say it was really good! There is a very helpful glossary at the back. I really enjoyed going into these weird new worlds and meeting different types of creatures and trains. I was fond of Uncle Bugs. He is a Hive Monk which is a million bugs clinging together to form a human-shaped skeleton by using old junk like a cloak and a face mask. Very creative!
Railhead is the story about a street urchin and thief named Zen Starling. One day he is approached by a mysterious stranger who hires him to infiltrate the Emperor's train and steal an heirloom. Zen is ultimately a "railhead" so he jumps at the chance to ride the rails and explore the Great Network, no matter what the cost.
What first attracted me to Railhead was the very cool train world that I got a glimpse of in the blurb. I never imagined though that it would be as complex and detailed as it was. The author went all out on this world and it just blew my mind. I loved the creativity that went into the characters, the trains and the different worlds at each station but it was hard for me to actually picture a lot of it in my head. I need pictures! I was so enamored by the world that I wanted to be able to visually see it. The book just didn't do it enough justice. I think it can only come to life so much on paper or in your head and this is a world that needs color and sound and imagery on a three-dimensional scale. What it really needs is a theater! It would make such a fantastic movie so I really hope to see it on the big screen one day!
*Just a note to any future readers so you don't do what I did- there is a very nice glossary at the back of the book! There wasn't a table of contents though so I read the entire thing without any clue there was a glossary until I got to the very last page. It would have been nice to have that while I was reading.
**I received this ARC from NetGalley & Capstone in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
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