Publication Date: 20/06/2024 ISBN: 9781399607537 Categories: Books, Signed Editions Tag: Reviewed by Mr B's

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to The Wastelands

Sarah Brooks

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Publication Date: 20/06/2024 ISBN: 9781399607537 Categories: Books, Signed Editions Tag: Reviewed by Mr B's

Hardback £16.99

Would you like a signed copy?

Clear

Purchase a Mr B’s Sticker with your order.

Become the envy of all book lovers with your own Mr B’s sticker to show off where you do your shopping.

Add 1 Mr B’s Logo sticker to my basket (+£1.50)

Gift wrap for £2.00?

Mr B's review

An adventure, a conspiracy and a love letter to wilderness. This story takes place on the Trans-Siberian Express’ latest journey across the ‘wastelands’, following a mysterious disaster that none of the previous journey’s travellers can remember.
Three key characters all have their own theories about what happened and are hiding secret agendas. Weiwei was born on the train and is more connected to the train and the crew than anyone alive. Henry is an ambitious naturalist who sees the wasteland as something to be categorised and claimed. Marya is hiding her true identity, hoping to clear her family’s name by discovering the truth about the last journey.
The alternative-Victorian and steampunk setting create a unique backdrop for the magical and surreal occurrences that are seeping in from the wastelands to impact the travellers and the train itself. Before long, the wasteland’s twisting magic begins to pull apart the façade and plans of all on board. – Katrina

Description

The breathtaking historical fantasy set onboard the Great Trans-Siberian Express

‘Imagine a crossover between Murder on the Orient Express, Game of Thrones and Paradise Lost . . . Brooks has serious talent’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘I was completely transported by this book . . . I urge everybody to pick up a copy’ STUART TURTON

‘Breathtaking . . . Abounding with mysteries and marvels’ SAMANTHA SHANNON

‘Exceptional. Strange, addictive, immersive, it’s a steampunk Piranesi meets His Dark Materials’ JENNIE GODFREY

‘Mysterious and clever and brilliant’ NATASHA PULLEY

It is said there is a price that every passenger must pay. A price beyond the cost of a ticket.

It is the end of the nineteenth century and the world is awash with marvels. But there is nothing so marvellous as the Wastelands: a terrain of terrible miracles that lies between Beijing and Moscow.

Nothing touches the Wastelands except the Great Trans-Siberian Express: an impenetrable train built to carry cargo across continents, but which now transports anyone who dares.

Onto the platform steps a curious cast of characters: Marya, a grieving woman with a borrowed name; Weiwei, a famous child born on the train; and Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist.

But there are whispers that the train isn’t safe. As secrets and stories begin to unravel, the passengers and crew must survive their journey together, even as something uncontrollable seems to be breaking in . . .

Publisher Review

A journey both unnerving and powerful, which thunders along at breathtaking speed, abounding with mysteries and marvels. Be warned – once you step into The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, you’ll never want to disembark — Samantha Shannon, author of THE BONE SEASON Asks us to reconsider our place within the natural world amid a backdrop of capitalism and empire. . . thrilling and transcendent — Rita Chang-Eppig, author of DEEP AS THE SKY, RED AS THE SEA