The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands

DEBUT If a luxury train raced through Jeff VanderMeer’s Area X, filled with the cast of Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree, it would be something like the Trans-Siberian Express of this story. It’s a tense journey through a landscape so incomprehensible that even gazing at it through a window can incite madness. Braving the danger are a widow with a secret mission, a religious naturalist desperate to regain his renown, and an orphan tempted to betray her bond to the train. Each character’s schemes provide the reader with data about the Wastelands’ true nature as it tries to infiltrate their transport. Brooks skillfully doles out clues at a steady, satisfying pace—but always alongside new questions, ensuring that tension remains high. As the train approaches Moscow, readers will wonder if the travelers are going to reach their destination, and if they do, who they’ll be. Ultimately, this journey through the unknown provides ample opportunity for musings about the power of travel to change people, while examining humans’ relationships to the environment, to capitalism, and to each other.