Railhead

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Railhead

By: Philip Reeve

Narrated by: Malk Williams

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About this listen

The Great Network is a place of drones and androids, maintenance spiders and Station Angels. The place of the thousand gates, where sentient trains crisscross the galaxy in a heartbeat.

Zen Starling is a petty thief from Thunder City. So when mysterious stranger Raven sends Zen on a mission to infiltrate the emperor's train, he jumps at the chance to cross the galaxy in a heartbeat. But the Great Network is a dangerous place....

Fiction

Science Fiction

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

"Philip Reeve is a class act, a marvellously original creator of intelligent and entertaining fictions." ( The Guardian)

"You know you are in the hands of a master storyteller when a dangerous yet frivolous fantasy world is brought to life with such imagination that it not only entertains and amuses - it actually seems real." ( The Telegraph)

Most relevant

a well written book with an extremely good storyline well worth going onto the next book

I really interesting read

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Did what every good story should; it kept me wondering what would happen next, all the way through. I like to read 'hard' scifi, all that good physics and technical detail, this book is not that! It does a great job of painting the picture, without getting bogged down by reality, but still leaving a framework that we can suspend our beliefs from.

Thoroughly enjoyed. Well narrated.

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Honestly I'm glad to finally see a new story about trains. It reminds me of Bladerunner, Ready Player One and Thomas the Tank Engine. I appreciate the attention to detail when it comes to locomotives and railways much like how it was in the Railway Series which makes it seem real and we need more railway stories like that and the book itself expresses that real passion for the vast rails people have yo this day. The lore and world this book created has so much depth which almost matches the Island of Sodors lore. The characters were all very interesting and diverse with very real goals and interests and it didn't sugar coat anything. I do like a lot of the very real issues the book talks about such as division between rich and poor, lies and deceit that plague politics and media and the topic of prejudice and discrimination. The narrator too gave so much depth and got the characters just right. Overall I would highly recommend this to anyone interested particularly fellow railheads. Oh and I loved the 'Fat Controller' reference.

Railhead review

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A brilliant, innovative adventure story for kids (and the middle-aged like myself). Philip Reeve is a master of imagination and this is some of his best work to date.

This story is set in a universe where planets are linked by railways. Not the plodding, choking diesel things of the 20th century but majestic machines that are sentient and emotional. Imagine some of the American streamliners of the 1930s but on a grand scale and you won't go far wrong. These railways lead into K-gates; like Cluedo tunnels that allow the trains to travel between worlds in an instant, much faster than spacecraft.

Add to this feudal politics as rival families control corporations that compete for power over the rail network, Railforce polices the lines with brutal efficiency, and mysterious, ethereal beings, part gods, part computers manipulate everything to maintain the balance.

Into this mix strays a petty thief, a teenager with little prospect, who ends up as the most wanted boy in the universe and the unwitting agent of the secretive Raven.

This is a fantastic rollercoaster of a story that I can't recommend enough, especially now that Audible have fixed the fault where the last chapter was missing.

The sequel, Black Light Express, must be coming to a station near you soon. That's a big hint Audible!

Letting the train take the strain

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I loved this book, it starts with a young man stealing a necklace and trying to get away and that is only the beginning of his problems.

I was struggling to find a book I liked before this because I've been looking for new authors and I had two in a row that I just didn't enjoy or even finish. Then I saw a recommendation for this book in a review for someone else's book (Honor among Thieves by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre) saying this was better. I'm so glad I tried it, it's fast paced and the world building is amazing I like everything about the trains and the different worlds and the mystery of what's really going on behind the scenes. Who is telling the truth are they all lying?

Fantastic from start to finish and I need to get the second book now to find out what happens next.

Great narration by Malk Williams he has a slight Welsh? accent which is different. He reads it all perfectly and it is easy to understand who is talking and what's going on.

A fast ride on a fast train, brilliant.

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