The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

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…

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The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is told from three perspectives.  Marya is a young woman travelling alone in first-class.  Dressed in mourning black, it quickly becomes clear that she has a hidden agenda as she seeks information about the train’s previous crossing – a journey that went horribly wrong and yet one that no one seems able to recall in any detail.  She’s a sympathetic character, and I loved her drive to get to the truth despite the obstacles in her way.  She rather subtly makes a nuisance of herself, unfortunately attracting the attention of “the crows” – two men aboard the train who look out for the Company’s interests.  They don’t want her digging, and so begins a game of cat and mouse, one which is all the more challenging for being aboard a train.

The second main protagonist is Weiwei, infamous for having been born and brought up on the train, the whole crew becoming surrogate parents to the orphaned child.  Weiwei is a fantastic character, and my favourite in the novel.  At 16, she’s young and mischievous, and while she has a work to do – there are no free passages, and she has to earn her keep despite her unusual status – she manages to have fun as well.  She knows all of the train’s nooks and crannies, and I loved her ability to find her own space, something that would be in short supply on such a journey. She rather unexpectedly she makes a new friend aboard the train and that sets in motion the events of the novel.

The final character is Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist.  He’s difficult to sympathise with as he looks to restore his reputation, willing to do so at any cost.  He’s very much a man of his time – one who, in his arrogance, sees the world as there for the taking and believing that he is owed a greatness that has so far been denied him, unwilling and unable to accept that his disgrace is through his own doing.  He believes himself to be above his fellow travellers, often patronising those around him and for me there was a question of if and how he’d get his comeuppance.

Their journey from Beijing starts well, and yet problems soon begin to arise, leading to more questions as to what happened on the previous journey.  It’s a slow-burn of a novel as details are gradually revealed, the reader being as in the dark as most of the passengers at first.  It’s a weird (in a good way!) and unusual novel, and one that’s not quite like anything else I’ve read.  The atmosphere evoked by Brooks is one of eerie inevitability – from the beginning, it seems clear that the journey won’t be straightforward, however much those aboard try to convince themselves otherwise, and the intrigue comes from wondering exactly what will go wrong, and the impact that it will have. 

I’ve long been fascinated by the Trans-Siberian Express, and I think that this novel brings the idea to life beautifully, albeit in a steampunk fantasy world that feels both similar and terrifyingly different to our own. I loved the contrast of the technological advancement that enables the train to travel between Moscow and Beijing and the vast swathes of untamed wilderness of the so-called Wastelands. Brooks brings this wilderness to life beautifully, creating a landscape that is both haunting and magical but also dangerous to the uninitiated. I love the idea that we can never entirely impose ourselves upon nature, however much the Company believes otherwise, and that nature has and always will fight back. 

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is quite an unusual novel, but I enjoyed the concept of the train and the strange and unexplored lands it travels through which provide a beautiful but brutal backdrop to the drama gradually unfolding onboard the train. It’s a novel that won’t suit everyone, but one that I enjoyed for its originality.