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A review by skylarkblue1
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
adventurous
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Representations: https://trello.com/c/gG4OSVOw/111-the-cautious-travellers-guide-to-the-wastelands-by-sarah-brooks
Properly steampunk, wonderful worldbuilding and very intreguing characters!! This is exactly the kind of book I've been looking for, especially on the steampunk side. Could it have leaned more into the steampunk a little? Sure, but I'd rather have this than a "steampunk only" book where cogs are mentioned every single sentence lmao.
The characters where a right mix, some insufferable (intentionally) some mysterious but all of them felt whole with so much going on for each of them. They all had their own loyalties, their own goals and asperations, all had different childhoods and ways they where brought up. It was super interesting reading all their backstories and how they got to the train imo! The characters I hated where intentionally written like that so it was pretty fun to see where hubris and ego took them and the messaging that came with it.
While there was not really any romance, there was a very strong - supposedly - platonic friendship between Weiwei and another character. While it's only mentioned as being a friendship on-page, there was a LOT of pining and such like that. It felt like it was more written to be a sapphic romance first, but then got changed to be a friendship last second. And that's not just me saying you can't have 2 people be really strong friends, I'm all for more platonic relationships shown in books specifically, but this really did feel a bit more than just friends imo.
I'm not sure if to call this slow paced or medium paced, I think the book is largely slower than average though especially in the first half. In the first half, it's about the characters - their connections to the train and the wastelands, who they are, why they're there, and exploring the many mysteries. In the second half, shit hits the fan from a series of events and truths are unravelled. I really loved both halves, as the characters to me where more than interesting enough to keep me engaged, and the second half was a really satisying payoff and a really nice ending that made sense.
I loved the world *so* much as well, the sheer amount of details was impressive and it really easily painted the world in my mind. Hearing the author talk about how nature and the supernatural is one in the same in Asian mythology and how that played a role in this made a lot of sense - and executed very well imo. I really loved the world and how the wastelands was done, I love the mix of cultures and how the train works around all that with the colonising company and the workers themselves.
I think the only downsides I have with this book is the languages - which is something the author themselves said they wished they did better - and the history. Languages is insanely tricky to do in a book, especially one that's in english and you have multiple languages including a fictional one. How it's done here is everything is just translated into english, every language including Railhua (the fictional language of the train). This does take away from things a little but it sadly makes sense to keep it accessible. I'd have loved to have seen odd words and phrases though, it's easy to provide translations for small things like that if needed - I'd just have loved any example of how Railhua works.
The history as well was another sticking point, I don't really recall any explanation of how the wastelands came to be exactly. There is a lot about how the countries reacted to it coming around though and the history of the train itself, so there's not nothing about the history of the world at least.
I think overall I would recommend this for sure. For a debut it's incredibly strong, and a really unique story imo!
Properly steampunk, wonderful worldbuilding and very intreguing characters!! This is exactly the kind of book I've been looking for, especially on the steampunk side. Could it have leaned more into the steampunk a little? Sure, but I'd rather have this than a "steampunk only" book where cogs are mentioned every single sentence lmao.
The characters where a right mix, some insufferable (intentionally) some mysterious but all of them felt whole with so much going on for each of them. They all had their own loyalties, their own goals and asperations, all had different childhoods and ways they where brought up. It was super interesting reading all their backstories and how they got to the train imo! The characters I hated where intentionally written like that so it was pretty fun to see where hubris and ego took them and the messaging that came with it.
While there was not really any romance, there was a very strong - supposedly - platonic friendship between Weiwei and another character. While it's only mentioned as being a friendship on-page, there was a LOT of pining and such like that. It felt like it was more written to be a sapphic romance first, but then got changed to be a friendship last second. And that's not just me saying you can't have 2 people be really strong friends, I'm all for more platonic relationships shown in books specifically, but this really did feel a bit more than just friends imo.
I'm not sure if to call this slow paced or medium paced, I think the book is largely slower than average though especially in the first half. In the first half, it's about the characters - their connections to the train and the wastelands, who they are, why they're there, and exploring the many mysteries. In the second half, shit hits the fan from a series of events and truths are unravelled. I really loved both halves, as the characters to me where more than interesting enough to keep me engaged, and the second half was a really satisying payoff and a really nice ending that made sense.
I loved the world *so* much as well, the sheer amount of details was impressive and it really easily painted the world in my mind. Hearing the author talk about how nature and the supernatural is one in the same in Asian mythology and how that played a role in this made a lot of sense - and executed very well imo. I really loved the world and how the wastelands was done, I love the mix of cultures and how the train works around all that with the colonising company and the workers themselves.
I think the only downsides I have with this book is the languages - which is something the author themselves said they wished they did better - and the history. Languages is insanely tricky to do in a book, especially one that's in english and you have multiple languages including a fictional one. How it's done here is everything is just translated into english, every language including Railhua (the fictional language of the train). This does take away from things a little but it sadly makes sense to keep it accessible. I'd have loved to have seen odd words and phrases though, it's easy to provide translations for small things like that if needed - I'd just have loved any example of how Railhua works.
The history as well was another sticking point, I don't really recall any explanation of how the wastelands came to be exactly. There is a lot about how the countries reacted to it coming around though and the history of the train itself, so there's not nothing about the history of the world at least.
I think overall I would recommend this for sure. For a debut it's incredibly strong, and a really unique story imo!
Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Sexism
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Racism and Grief
Animals: No major animals are harmed.