The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is a unique historical fantasy that draws the reader into the struggle between the hubris of man and the unbridled resolve of nature, as the infamous The Trans-Siberian Express traverses a dangerous path across the strange and changing landscape of the Wastelands—yet there are secrets regarding the last crossing, when something went horribly wrong. Brimming with intrigue and sublime terror, this book is a twisty, breathtaking journey across a fantastical landscape perfect for fans of Annihilation. 

 

In an alternate Victorian-era world where a vast expanse of land in Asia has been abandoned and isolated from the rest of the world after strange Changes were noticed in the land, creatures, and other lifeforms, the only way to travel from Beijing to Moscow is on the Trans-Siberian Express: an almost mythical express train that boasts luxury and impenetrable power to its many customers. The Trans-Siberian Express has made countless crossings over the decades it has been operating, but something happened on the last journey... something went wrong to the point there are questions whether the train is truly safe. Aboard the following crossing are an odd cast of characters heading for Moscow: Marya, a grieving woman with a borrowed name and a mission to uncover secrets the Trans-Siberia Company wants buried; Weiwei, a child of the train desperate to ignore the fact that everything has changed since the last crossing; and Dr. Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist who is willing to risk it all to prove his fanatical theories about the Wastelands as a new Eden. 

 

As they each slowly begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding the last crossing and the Wastelands, it becomes clear that something fundamental has changed and that—as much as the Company ensures that the train cannot be breached by the dangers outside—they are not alone and the Wastelands may have already begun its work on them all. Despite the slow build of this book in the first half as it lays the groundwork for the status quo of the train and the character’s motivations, the narrative kicks into high momentum once

the main line breaks and the Trans-Siberian Express must traverse “ghost rails” long abandoned by the Company.

 

I have to be frank: I adored the writing style of this book. Brooks manages to create a world flooding with life and breath and sound and color in a way that inspires a similar sublime terror and awe at the Wastelands as the characters aboard the Trans-Siberian Express. Its unique environmental horror of a strange, changed landscape removed from the influence of man and with its own natural laws was deeply evocative and reminiscent of Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, which I also love. The various imagery of mimicry, mutual observation, and a hivemind landscape felt strangely haunting, like peeling back the layers of skin and sinew on an animal carcass only to find it still alive and thrashing against its constraints. 

 

Expertly blending fantasy, mystery, horror, and science fiction, The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is a thrilling debut novel that will take you on a mesmerizing adventure that you won’t want to disembark after reading.