Railsea
- 419
- Pages
- about 8 h
- Reading time
- Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book
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About the book
Railsea is a young adult novel written and illustrated by English writer China Miéville, and published in May 2012. Miéville described the novel as "weird fiction", io9 labelled its mix of fantasy and steampunk elements as "salvagepunk" and the story has been seen as an "affectionate parody" of Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel Moby-Dick, also drawing on Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novels Treasure Island and Kidnapped.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 99 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 40% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.5 | 8 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 91 | 92% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“If this book was the first 100 pages worth of creativity, and the last 100 of awesomeness, it'd be a classic. Instead, it's merely good. An interesting world, some cool sequences, and a take that to capitalism”
“DNF at 43%. Yes, I know it's frowned upon, but I absolutely did not feel this book. At all and I just didn't feel patient enough to drag myself through it. Now you can call me lazy or horrible or “OMG, you can't have an…”
Frequently asked
How long is Railsea?
It has 419 pages — shorter than 70% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Fantasy — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
