Page 29 of Railsea


  Over the water the upsky is thinner. The sun makes rainbows through the spray. They bob in enormous damp space. Daybe scuds, & Sham staggers. His rail-legs are no help on this new deck. On this floaty upside-down water train. We have to give this thing a better name, Sham thinks.

  Caldera & Dero look up from where they’re working the sail. Sham remembers Bajjer techniques & shouts instructions. Canvas billows, a boom swings & their vessel rushes through the water. Going they know not where.

  Sham lifts the hatch in the deck to the little kitchen & the cabins below, rebuilt upside-down rooms. He pauses at the top of the ladder, watches Naphi.

  The captain, last member of the crew, stares over the side at a silver-skinned throng of fish. Stares past them thoughtfully. Stares intently, leaning over to stare deep into the water’s dark.

  Sham smiles.

  TO INDIGO

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  With hugest thanks to Mark Bould, Nadia Bouzidi, Mic Cheetham, Julie Crisp, Rupa DasGupta, Maria Dahvana Headley, Chloe Healy, Deanna Hoak, Ratna Kamath, Simon Kavanagh, Jemima Miéville, David Moensch, Bella Pagan, Anne Perry, Max Schaefer, Chris Schluep, Jared Shurin, Jane Soodalter, Jesse Soodalter, Mark Tavani, Evan Calder Williams & all at Macmillan & Del Rey.

  As always, I’m indebted to too many writers & artists to list, but particularly important to this book are Joan Aiken, John Antrobus, the Awdrys Sr. & Jr., Catherine Besterman, Lucy Lane Clifford, Daniel Defoe, F. Tennyson Jesse, Erich Kästner, Ursula le Guin, John Lester, Penelope Lively, Herman Melville, Spike Milligan, Charles Platt, Robert Louis Stevenson & the Strugatsky Brothers.

  ALSO BY CHINA MIÉVILLE

  King Rat

  Perdido Street Station

  The Scar

  Iron Council

  Looking for Jake: Stories

  Un Lun Dun

  The City & The City

  Kraken

  Embassytown

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHINA MIÉVILLE is the author of several books, including Un Lun Dun, Perdido Street Station, The City & The City, Kraken & Embassytown. His works have won the Hugo, the British Science Fiction Award (twice), the Arthur C. Clarke Award (three times) & the World Fantasy Award. He lives & works in London.

 


 

  China Miéville, Railsea

  (Series: # )

 

 


 

 
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net

Share this book with friends